Unas fotos en la ciudad de Sylvia

Some Photos in the City of Sylvia could, with a little imagination, be regarded as a preliminary ‘documentary’ study for In the City of Sylvia. This black & white composition, ingenious in all respects, is the diary of an unknown narrator who addresses the viewer in searching sentences. Not in voice-overs, because the film is without sound (!), but through measured titles that slowly but surely reveal the framework of the quest portrayed in the film.
It is the report of a film maker who returns to Strasbourg in order to look for the woman he happened to meet there 22 years ago. He tries to localise her present whereabouts using the logic of simple deduction. The possible renewed encounter becomes a philosophical and visual excuse to remodel her in his thoughts by studying other women. The director draws parallels with literary masters such as Dante, Goethe and Petrarca, who honoured ideal women in their work. Guerín returns to be basis of film language, and looks, sketches and edits sequences filled with references to film pioneers and great masters such as Hitchcock, Bresson and Godard. The moving image is reduced to its origins: a sequence of still pictures. The quest for the missing woman opens the eyes of the protagonist again.

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