Jeune cinéma

Between 1965 and 1983, the Côte d'Azur gem Hyères hosted the Festival International du jeune cinéma. A timely event: the 60s saw an international explosion of productions labeled 'young', which needed its own sphere of dissemination and distribution, as only some of it made it into the middle ground of general releases and major festival presentation. The festival was documented thoroughly, from its first to last edition, enabling Yves-Marie Mahé to tell its story of lost illusions solely through archival materials. And what a fresco of splendours and miseries unfolds. They're all there, the famous and the soon forgotten, the rowdy audience, the cynical bastards from the press, and the befuddled innocent bystanders wondering about all that hullabaloo.

Marvel at the shows of genuine friendship among masters, as well as the insults people hurl at each other! Relish the glimpses of genius and dreck one gets offered! And be aware, this is not the story of one festival, but a whole culture, of which IFFR is very much a part. Two years after the festival's demise, Hyères showed that it had understood the signs of the times once again by inaugurating the Salon européen des jeunes stylistes, nowadays Festival international de mode et de photographie – 'young' had moved on.

– Olaf Möller