MEMORY OF THE WORLD REGISTER
THE ROSSELLINI 77 TRIPTYCH
(ROSSELINI AU TRAVAIL (Rossellini at work)
filmed by Jacques Grandclaude;
LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU (The Georges Pompidou Centre)
filmed by Roberto Rossellini;
LE COLLOQUE DE CANNES 1977 (The 1977 Cannes Colloquium)
filmed by Jacques Grandclaude)
Ref N° 2010-67
PART A – ESSENTIAL INFORMATION
1
SUMMARY
The year 1977 saw the birth of an internationally recognized cultural model about which one of the world’s
greatest film directors wrote his testimony, unique of its kind, into the history of Art, the history of Cinema
and quite simply into HISTORY. Always “at eye-level”, the camera continuously followed the visitors to the
Pompidou Centre as they moved around. There was no commentary other than the visitors’ own reactions,
recorded without their knowledge. Reactions so spontaneous that even today they still astound, so incredibly
shocked was this ordinary public on discovering contemporary art.
The “founder of Neorealism” was to make this exceptional and unexpected encounter his
CINEMATOGRAPHICAL LEGACY by agreeing to be filmed “like an insect” throughout the making of
what was to be his last film by the person who was to be his last producer. With my crew I filmed non-stop
“the master” and his crew filming Beaubourg. Trusting in us, he gradually revealed to us his creative process
and his very personal way of filming the unfolding of life’s course. Thirty-three years later these previously
unpublished images are now a unique testimony “in real time” to the craft and role of the cinema as Roberto
Rossellini saw it, but also a cinematographically and historically unique testimony to the first aesthetic rift in
Europe and the world.
I know of no equivalent to these rushes showing Rossellini filming the Georges Pompidou Centre. I have
never seen a film that studies so closely, so exactly and with so much understanding of the act of creation,
a director at work.
Writing these lines after discovering “ROSSELLINI AU TRAVAIL”, 33 years later, Alain Bergala put his
finger on what makes this film – or more accurately, these films – so unusual. Through these images of
“action” associated with images of “technique”, the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych” does indeed describe both
the work and the method but also shows them in a unique historical setting. Rossellini filming the greatest
post-war crisis of aesthetics. But not stopping there, Rossellini was to go on to Cannes to debate the cinema,
the role of the image and its place in society, but also his battles for change. However, exhausted by his
struggles of which Cannes was amongst the worst, Roberto Rossellini passed away a few weeks later.
Of those last five months in the life of this exceptional humanist, what remain are his last lesson, his last film
and his last words, and a testimony of exemplary honesty about making films without taking over what one
is filming, about thinking in film.
That is what the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych” tells us by revealing to us the creative process of one of the
greatest directors of our time, who is viewed as a “conscience of cinema”.
–2–
2
DETAILS OF THE NOMINATOR
2.1
Name (person or organisation)
1/
2/
3/
2.2
Jacques Grandclaude (France): Assignee
SARL Imotion (France): Rights management
Studio l’Equipe s.a. (Belgium): Principal depository
Relationship to the documentary heritage nominated
“ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”
1/
“ROSSELLINI AU TRAVAIL” (Rossellini At Work) by Jacques Grandclaude.
16 mm colour rushes.
2/
“LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU” (The Georges Pompidou Centre) Film by Roberto
Rossellini. 56 minutes, 35 mm, colour.
3/
“LE COLLOQUE DE CANNES 1977” (The 1977 Cannes Colloquium) by Jacques
Grandclaude. 16mm colour rushes.

Jacques Grandclaude (France): RIGHTS HOLDER to the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”. I
was Roberto Rossellini’s last producer and his last travelling companion. We worked
together from January to May 1977, and he passed away in Rome on 3 June 1977.
As producer he had chosen me and the now-defunct “Création 9 information”, which I headed, and
with the participation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs we produced what was to be his last film:
“LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU”.
In parallel, given the quality of our relationship, he agreed that I should film him making his own
film... from the start to the end of shooting. Satisfied with my work, he asked me to go with him and
to film the debates at the Cannes Colloquium which he had initiated as President of the Jury of the
1977 Cannes Festival. Together with Rossellini’s film these two documents make up the
“ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych” a unique testimony in film “by and about” Roberto Rossellini’s last
cinematographical journey, when his art was at a pinnacle that is still a reference-point on four
continents.
I am the initiator and producer of the Triptych and the director of the two documents associated with
Roberto Rossellini’s “LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU”: “ROSSELLINI AU TRAVAIL” and
“LE COLLOQUE DE CANNES 1977”.

Marie-France Delobel (SARL IMOTION): Production, Rights management and usage for
the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”

André and Philippe Bosman (STUDIO L’EQUIPE): Laboratories/Post Production, have
digitized all of the images of the Triptych and are the accredited depository for all
components of the 35 and 16 mm images and the sounds
From 1977 to 2010 those components changed name several times. Depending on the date, the
contract and the players, Roberto Rossellini’s film had two titles:
1/
“Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou”, and “LE CENTRE GEORGES
POMPIDOU”
–3–
2/
2.3
The generic title “ROSSELLINI 77” was used for the two 16 mm documents until 2007.
After that date the Rehabilitation Campaign applied it to the documents relating to the last
period covering the last five months of his life, from January to May 1977.
Contact person (s)
Jacques Grandclaude (principal contact). Assignee responsible for the registration process
Marie-France Delobel (Imotion-France). Rights management and usage
Philippe Bosman and Carole Godfroid (Studio l’Equipe, Belgium). Accredited depository
2.4
Contact details (include address, phone, fax, email)
Jacques Grandclaude (Assignee)
“Les Oliviers”, lieu dit de Crabol, 46700 MONTCABRIER, France
Landline: 00 33 5 65 36 06 36
FAX: 00 33 5 65 36 06 20
Mobile: 06 61 02 35 24
Email: jacques.grandclaude3@orange.fr
Marie-France Delobel (Joint Manager)
“Les Oliviers”, lieu dit de Crabol, 46700 MONTCABRIER, France
Landline: 00 33 5 65 36 06 36
FAX: 00 33 5 65 36 06 20
Mobile: 06 21 91 57 48
Email: marie-france.delobel@orange.fr
Philippe Bosman (Delegated Administrator)
Carole Godfroid (Commercial Manager) STUDIO L’EQUIPE:
Mobile: 00 32 477 62 74 98
Email: c.godfroid@studio-equipe.be
L. Mommaerts av.6-8, B1140 BRUSSELS, Belgium
Telephone: 00 32 2 745 48 00
Fax: 00 32 2 745 48 28
3
IDENTITY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE DOCUMENTARY HERITAGE
3.1
Name and identification details of the items being nominated
Titles and dates
Film components
“ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”:
Part 1: “ROSSELLINI AU TRAVAIL”, a Jacques Grandclaude production (1977), 16 mm colour
Part 2: “LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU”, a film by Roberto Rossellini (1977), 35 mm colour
Part 3: “LE COLLOQUE DE CANNES 1977”, a Jacques Grandclaude production (1977), 16 mm
colour
Photographic components:
“ROSSELLINI AU TRAVAIL” and “LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU”
–4–
•
1/
The Roberto Rossellini film has circulated under two titles: “Centre national d’art et de
culture Georges Pompidou” and “LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU”
2/
The generic title ROSSELLINI 77 covered the two 16 mm productions until 2007
3/
The generic title used since then is “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”, which includes the 35 mm
film and the two 16mm productions. This description better accords with what Roberto
Rossellini’s final period represents.
Names and addresses of the proprietors and depositories
→
Proprietor of the entire “ROSSELLIINI 77 Triptych”
Films, sound, photos, printed documents, manuscripts
Jacques Grandclaude (assignee)
“Les Oliviers”, Hameau de Crabol, 46700 MONTCABRIER, France
Landline: 00 33 5 65 36 06 36
FAX: 00 33 5 65 36 06 20
Mobile: 06 61 02 35 24
Email: jacques.grandclaude3@orange.fr
→
Rights Manager for the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”
Films, sound, photos, printed documents, manuscripts
Marie-France Delobel (Joint Manager)
“Les Oliviers”, Hameau de Crabol, 46700 MONTCABRIER, France
Landline: 00 33 5 65 36 06 36
FAX: 00 33 5 65 36 06 20
Mobile: 06 21 91 57 48
Email: marie-france.delobel@orange.fr
→
Principal depository of the entirety – films and sounds – of “Rossellini 77”
Original films and sounds: 16 mm and 35 mm silver, 16.35 mm and 6.25 magnetic tapes, digitized
image and sound masters
STUDIO L’EQUIPE (Brussels)
André and Philippe Bosman (Delegated Administrator)
Carole Godfroid (Commercial Manager)
Mobile: 00 32 477 62 74 98
Email: c.godfroid@studio-equipe.be
L. Mommaerts av.6-8, B1140 BRUSSELS, Belgium
Telephone: 00 32 2 745 48 00
Fax: 00 32 2 745 48 28
→
Secondary depository for 35 mm unused rushes from the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”
Part 2: “LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU”
Unused positive and negative rushes. Original films: 35 mm/ 16.35 magnetic tapes
LA CINEMATHEQUE DE TOULOUSE (Toulouse)
→
Christophe Gauthier (Chief Conservator)
–5–
Email : christophe.gauthier@lacinematequedetoulouse.com
Landline: 00 33 5 62 71 92 92
Mobile: 06 74 28 19 37
1, avenue Saint Martin de Boville, 31130 BALMA
→
Photographic heritage depository
STUDIO FRANCIS DIAZ SARL

Francis Diaz
Email : studio.francis.diaz@wanadoo.fr
Landline: 05 53 71 13 05
Mobile: 06 80 21 11 22
4, rue Nationale, 47500 MONSEMPRON-LIBOS
3.2
Description
DESCRIPTION AND INVENTORY
The documentary heritage of the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych” consists of a group of three film documents
(images and sound) plus archived shooting and production documents to each of which are annexed
associated written pieces, working documents, etc., (printed and handwritten) covering the entire filmmaking process: production, shooting, assembly, mixing, laboratories, etc..
A detailed general inventory per film is annexed and supporting documents are filed in the “Supporting
Documents” file
Film components
“ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”
Part 1: “ROSSELLINI AU TRAVAIL”. Directed by Jacques Grandclaude (1977)
–
–
–
–
–
11 hours of 16 mm colour rushes, negatives and positives
List of original negatives filed and classified by footage No.
List of original positive rushes digitized (11 hours) with detailed description of all shots and
sequences
47 boxes of 6.25 synchronous and off-screen sounds with sound reports
Production and working documents
Part 2: “LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU”. A film by Roberto Rossellini (1977)
All negative 35 mm images and master sounds relating to the mixing and production of the standard
copy.
All unused working negatives and positives
59 boxes of 6.25 synchronous and off-screen sounds with sound reports
– Production, shooting, assembly, mixing and laboratory documents
Descriptive list of camera movements for the works filmed
Detailed transcription of all visitor comments (hidden microphone)
All printed or handwritten documents representing all parts of the film-making process from the duty
list to the mixing plan, etc.
Digitized film master (56 minutes)
Part 3: “LE COLLOQUE DE CANNES 1977”. Directed by Jacques Grandclaude (1977)
–6–
Six hours of positive 16 mm colour rushes and boxes of 6.25 sounds, digitized
Descriptive list of all shots and spoken statements
Transcription of all texts of the Colloquium
Negative images and sounds for digitization
Photographic components
“ROSSELLINI AU TRAVAIL” and “LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU”
2,500 24/36 negatives, 75 contact sheets
•
Bibliography/Publications
No publication other than Festival catalogues and press reviews
A few extracts from newspaper articles from 1977/1978 when the film was being shot
A few extracts from daily and weekly publications during the 2007-2009 rehabilitation campaign: Bologna,
Milan, Lisbon, Brussels and Paris.
•
Summary of provenance
By contract dated 19 December 1980, the company Creation 9 Information, of which Jacques Grandclaude
was the Chairman and Chief Executive and which owned the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”, assigned to
Jacques Grandclaude, the entirety of the heritage for its protection and security. Deeds and conventions are
in the Supporting Documents file.
•
Analysis and evaluation of physical condition
The supporting documents drawn up by STUDIO L’EQUIPE and the CINEMATEQUE DE TOULOUSE are
in the Supporting Documents file at 5.1 and 5.2.
•
Audiovisual documentation:
ROSSELLINI AU TRAVAIL:
10 DVDs of the negative rushes (11 hours duration) digitized, accessible at STUDIO L’EQUIPE
1 presentation DVD (two hours duration): a selection of rushes assembled in chronological order, with shots
from Rossellini’s filming of the Pompidou Centre as inserts (the Rossellini method by which the work was
produced).
LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU
1 DVD of LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU with English sub-titles
The ROSSELLINI 77 TRIPTYCH
1 DVD of ROSSELLINI 77 with English sub-titles
•
The names of three experts
–
Patrick Imhaus
The initiator of the project to make a film about the Centre Pompidou
Senior Official at the Audiovisual Service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1977
French Ambassador and writer under the name of Marc Bressant
–7–
42, rue Saint-Bernard, 75011 PARIS
Tel: 00 33 1 44 93 39 98
Email: patrick.imhaus@wanadoo.fr
–
Alain Bergala
Former Editor-in-Chief of the CAHIERS DU CINEMA, cinema teacher at the Paris 3 University and
Fémis (French higher cinema college), joint author of “Roberto Rossellini” and editor of Roberto
Rossellini’s book “Le Cinéma Révélé” (The Cinema Revealed), Cahiers du Cinéma Publications
(1994),
4, rue des Cloys, 75018 Paris
Tel: 00 33 (0) 607 53 14 33
Email: alain.bergala@wanadoo.fr
–
Philippe Lemenuel
Sound engineer on the film “LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU”. Author of the “hidden
microphone” recordings. Member of the CREATION 9 INFORMATION Cinema Community.
4, Cité Eugène Chevreau, 93100 MONTREUIL.
Tel: 00 33 (0) 1 48 59 64 52
Email: philippe.lemenuel@laposte.net
4
JUSTIFICATION FOR INCLUSION/ ASSESSMENT AGAINST CRITERIA
4.1
Is authenticity established? (see 4.2.3)
The documentary heritage put forward for registration is totally authentic by virtue of its composition
(original image and sound documents, handwritten and printed documents, evidence of members of Roberto
Rossellini’s crew, the film of the film)
•
Material:
The image documents and photos on deposit are the original 16 or 35 mm negatives, depending on
the film.
The sound documents on deposit include the original 6.25 boxes with the sound engineer’s
handwritten notes on the back and inside the original smooth tapes and the handwritten sound
reports. Boxes by Pyral and Agfa.
The original printed and handwritten documents (contracts, rights, administration, production,
filming, assembly, mixing, press, deposit receipts, etc.)
Traceability can be authenticated via the chronology of the totality of the printed and handwritten
documents attached in the Supporting Documents file that accompanies the “general inventory”.
Authenticity can be proven jointly by the persons named below:
•
Participants in the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”
–
The initiators and operators of the LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU film project
–
Patrick Imhaus (Ex-Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Initiator of the film project
–
Yvette Mallet (Ex-Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Inspired my meeting with Roberto Rossellini
–
Camille Rohou (ex-Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
–8–
Manager of the Contract between the Ministry and the “CREATION 9
INFORMATION” Cinema Community
–
The producer of the Triptych
–
Jacques Grandclaude (Former Chairman and Chief Executive of CREATION 9
INFORMATION, known as the CINEMA COMMUNITY. Producer of the
“ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych” and Director of “ROSSELLINI AU TRAVAIL” and of
“LE COLLOQUE DE CANNES 1977”. ASSIGNEE
→
The written evidence of the surviving technicians in Rossellini’s crew is in the
Supporting Documents file and forms part of an INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY
that brings together around 100 TEXTS, TESTIMONIES AND ANALYSES as to
what the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych” represents for them 33 years later and why they
support this application for registration. These TEXTS come from the four corners of
the Earth. The ANTHOLOGY is available in print or on DVD from Imotion.
→
Roberto Rossellini’s crew
•
Emmanuel Machuel (Chief Cameraman)
•
Jean Chiabaut (Chief Cameraman)
•
Michel Brethez (Sound Recording Engineer)
•
Philippe Lemenuel (Sound Recording Engineer)
•
Dominique Hennequin (Sound Mixing Engineer)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Studio l’Equipe and Imotion plan to interview and film everyone who worked
on the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”.
–
The archive images of “ROSSELLINI AU TRAVAIL”
Eleven hours of 16 mm rushes show in as much detail as possible Rossellini filming Beaubourg. Thirty-three
years later these historical archives (unpublished film, sounds and photos) are irrefutable evidence.
Relatively speaking, their historical value is similar to that of George Stevens’s pictures of the liberation of
the concentration camps in April 1945.
4.2
Is world significance, uniqueness and irreplaceability established? (see 4.2.4)
UNIQUE AND IRREPLACEABLE
Several historically unique events coincide in the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”.
The birth of an internationally-recognized cultural model about which one of the world’s greatest film
directors wrote his testimony, unique of its kind, into the history of Art, the history of Cinema and quite
simply into HISTORY. Always “at eye-level”, the camera continuously followed the visitors to the
Pompidou Centre as they moved around. There was no commentary other than the visitors’ own reactions,
recorded without their knowledge. Reactions so spontaneous that even today they still astound, so incredibly
shocked was this ordinary public on discovering contemporary art.
The “founder of Neorealism” was to make this exceptional and unexpected encounter his
CINEMATOGRAPHICAL LEGACY by agreeing to being filmed “like an insect” throughout the making of
what was to be his last film by the person who was to be his last producer. With my crew I filmed non-stop
“the master and his crew filming Beaubourg... Trusting in us, he gradually revealed to us his creative process
–9–
and his very personal way of filming the unfolding of life’s course...” Thirty-three years later these
previously unpublished images are now a unique testimony “in real time” to the craft and role of the cinema
as Roberto Rossellini saw it, but also a cinematographically and historically unique testimony to the first
aesthetic rift in Europe and the world.
THE ARTISTIC AND SOCIETAL EVENT
1977: THE BIRTH of the CENTRE POMPIDOU, the focus of all polemics and of all gossip, and its opening
to the public.
On 30 January 1977, a day before the Centre Pompidou was opened by the French President, Valéry Giscard
d’Estaing, the great French journalist René Barjavel began his article in “Journal du Dimanche” with the
words:
“Le Centre Beaubourg, DIEU, QUE C’EST LAID!” (The Beaubourg Centre, God HOW UGLY!)
In “Paris Match”, Jean Cau went further:
“Je deviens fou, Beaubourg c’est l’asile.” (I’m going mad, and Beaubourg is the asylum).
And so, under all-round attack from the French and international press and from the entire intelligentsia,
there was every reason to think that no-one would turn up...
That is what Claude Mollard, one of the project managers, thought at the time (as he testifies in a major 30page TEXT, the centrepiece of our INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY and also added to the Supporting
Documents file.
But defying all forecasts, Beaubourg was to be a huge popular success... people who had never been to a
museum thronged in like at the big department store sales, freely expressing their views. But the most
spectacular and enlightening thing was those visitors’ first encounter with modern art – a shock that no
camera had filmed other than the TV news – and yet at the start of 1977 the first major post-war aesthetic
crisis had just occurred: the people had adopted Beaubourg... but rejected what they found on display
there.
The installation of a building with industrial architecture in the heart of the old city to house contemporary
culture and make it accessible to everyone. The clash between those two worlds was so great that 33 years
later researchers from all over the world – art historians, sociologists and anthropologists – are still working
on the “public’s reception of the Pompidou Centre” because it foreshadowed what contemporary art has
become in our societies: a huge speculative market from which the public is shut out...
What remains today? The Pompidou Centre is the world’s most visited cultural site. It has become a global
reference point, an exemplary cultural model that almost all countries copy.
But that success notwithstanding, the same questions remain: what art, what museum, for what public?
Thus the public, art and its exhibition centres are at the heart of all educational and cultural debates. Until
2006 everyone researching this famous public reception of museums on the basis of the Pompidou Centre
had to work with written documents, shots and photos.
For 33 years... hardly anyone knew that there was a major cinematographical document ... to
understand the polemic surrounding the birth of the Pompidou Centre and the presentation of
contemporary art to the public.
For Claude Mollard, (see the annexed file and anthology), the film LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU
(1977) is unique and irreplaceable evidence about a particular situation at a key point in our time: the 1970s
– 10 –
and the revolutions in architecture and museums. It is relevant to all researchers: students, art historians, the
world of education and the worlds of sociology and the cinema.
This film is the only document in film, the unavoidable historical linchpin, the unflinching observation that
lets us grasp and understand President Georges Pompidou’s project as it originally was and what it has
become 33 years later.
THE CINEMATOGRAPHICAL EVENT
Roberto Rossellini, one of the world’s greatest film directors, had filmed a historic encounter: the
ordinary people – for whom the Beaubourg Centre had been designed – discovering the Centre and
contemporary art at its opening.
At the same time, a second event was to be superimposed on the first: Rossellini was to be filmed throughout
the making of his film by another crew under my direction. This was the birth of a first in the history of
the cinema and of Art: THE WORK AND THE METHOD which was destined to be Roberto
Rossellini’s final cinematographic journey... He passed away in Rome on 3 June 1977.
THE WORK: LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU filmed by ROBERTO ROSSELLINI
This film is of major interest both because its subject was a unique historical event, the opening of the
Pompidou Centre, and because it was Roberto Rossellini’s last work, which he designed and made free from
all artistic or financial constraints. Although the film had been put forward by Patrick Imhaus and the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a counterweight to the virulent polemics and to show an objective document
about the Pompidou Centre abroad, Rossellini only accepted the proposal on condition that he was free to
choose his producer. After a meeting lasting more than two hours, organized by Yvette Mallet (Ministry of
Foreign Affairs), in which we spoke about the Renaissance and Michelangelo but not a word about the
cinema, Roberto Rossellini chose the Cinema Community and myself to produce what was to be his last film
– and as he didn’t want to make a 26 minute documentary in 16 mm, the Community stepped in financially
and enabled him to opt for a 56 minute film in 35 mm.
To film the opening of the Pompidou Centre live, Roberto Rossellini had the resources of a full-length film
and a prestigious crew including Nestor Almendros as Director of Photography (according to François
Truffaut one of the world’s greatest Directors of Photography), Emmanuel Machuel and Jean Chiabaut who
were just as prestigious.
So Roberto Rossellini’s final film was conceived and made in total artistic and financial freedom, which
cannot be said about all of his work.
Perhaps that explains its originality, the authenticity of its testimony and the documentary value of what he
shows with such honesty.
The first meeting between ordinary people and the Pompidou Centre and contemporary art, filmed at the
opening.
Unlike every other film-maker, Rossellini did not commandeer the Pompidou Centre to make his film about
it.
He restricted himself to filming and recording, at a certain distance, what he saw and heard, and with unusual
talent he was to intercept such pertinent comments by the visitors that even now they resonate with viewers
discovering the film today.
Like an anthropologist Rossellini filmed and recorded (hidden microphone) every reaction by the visitors as
they discovered the works exhibited.
– 11 –
Because of this the film has a unique and irreplaceable documentary quality, as do all the sound recordings
annexed. For were the whole set to disappear, this the sole and unique filmed (vision and sound) evidence as
to the 1977 public’s reactions on discovering contemporary art at the Pompidou Centre would be a
considerable loss to researchers around the entire world.
Beyond the strictly cinematographical level, having no actors to direct, Rossellini found himself face to face
with an event taking place before him.
Without any effects, using the simple succession of descriptive sequence shots, Rossellini shows us the
quintessence of his craft. His last film is reduced to the essentials and because of that, given all the current
excesses, many Southern film-makers see it as a reference-point for what the cinema’s role in society should
be... the authenticity and didacticism of the image replacing entertainment and special effects.
THE METHOD or the last lesson: ROSSELLINI AU TRAVAIL
The strength of our friendship and of my admiration: I film Roberto Rossellini filming Beaubourg.
In order to testify to history about Rossellini’s skills, with the help of our understanding and friendship I was
able to convince him that future generations must know how “the inventor of modern cinema” filmed, and
how he filmed the Pompidou Centre. Reassured as to my concept of the experiment – to use the most
educational approach to filming him, to reflect his reality as closely as possible – he accepted the challenge.
Two complete crews, “cameras at the ready”, two sound engineers and two photographers were to film
Rossellini at work throughout the making of what was to be his last film: “LE CENTRE GEORGES
POMPIDOU”. Day by day, step by step, shot by shot, spied on like “an insect”, 11 hours of film, 45 hours of
sound recordings and 2,500 photos decypher the film-maker’s technique in filming Beaubourg. With no
written scenario, guided by his sense of observation alone, improvising as his inspiration prompted,
Rossellini in fact unveils his creative process to the smallest detail. We are present in person at the birth of
the film.
As rehearsals, preparations and shots require, giving the technicians precise instructions, Rossellini reveals
the essence of his concept of the cinema: filming at eye-level, giving preference to the sequence shot over the
traditional cutting, avoiding the need for assembly, the work undisturbed by the need to direct actors.
Rossellini’s process is laid bare, stripped of all effects.
These hints captured in passing bring us face to face with a unique experience: “Rossellini by himself”.
These images therefore are unique and irreplaceable since they not only authenticate Rossellini’s technique,
but they also forestall any interpretation by Rossellini exponents. The “real Rossellini” is in these images,
which were to be the last. This is a first in the history of the cinema.
As Alain Bergala later wrote: “This is a major first involving an exceptional document filmed by Roberto
Rossellini’s last producer and last companion during the rehearsals and the shooting of what was to be his
last work. Jacques Grandclaude patiently and painstakingly filmed every phase of the work: preparation,
location scouting, filming, without value scales or hierarchy, as interested in showing Rossellini selecting his
lenses as the technicians setting up a tracking camera. The film is a precious document that shows very
clearly how a cinema crew functions, how a shot is thought through and then set up, how relationships are
organized among the various crew members, which is completely new in the history of this kind of document.
We see a Roberto Rossellini who is focused and meticulous, at the height of his technique, respected and
admired by his crew, far removed from the image of the aging, lazy director that was current at the time.
This complete “revelation” of the great film-maker’s creative process remains unique in the history of the
cinema ... the history of art in general.”
More than that, the method used to film the Pompidou Centre is deciphered down to the last detail: the
resources used, the use and purpose of the technical equipment, the way he filmed the works on display, and
above all, the “Rossellini mystery”, i.e. how he used his famous remote controlled zoom which he designed.
– 12 –
In these images of Rossellini filming Beaubourg, conventional wisdom notwithstanding, what we discover is
a man who made this film with a rare professional conscientiousness and exceptional technical mastery
whilst showing extreme courtesy in his human relations.
Defying all his interpreters, the man whom the whole world considered a master appears in his most
authentic self, as if he himself had decided to show the world “the real Rossellini”!!!
Third part of the triptych
The last battle: LE COLLOQUE DE CANNES 1977: Rossellini explains his thinking and defends what
had been his lifelong combat
The last words and last images filmed and recorded during the colloquium that Roberto Rossellini initiated
and chaired in Cannes in 1977, when he was President of the Jury, bear witness to his final thoughts.
Moreover, he had only accepted the function on condition that he was allowed to organize a colloquium
during the Festival on the theme of The cinema’s social and economic commitment.
Whilst ROSSELLINI AU TRAVAIL shows the master commenting on and clarifying what he wants to do,
how he wants to take his shots, in the COLLOQUIUM he debates with the profession what he has said but he
also tries to correct the interpretations others have put on his way of seeing and creating: Neorealism, the role
of the artist and of the image; what meaning should be given to the image, in a word, how to think about the
cinema.
Rossellini saw making films as a moral act...
And that is the Rossellini that the Triptych reveals to us. A Rossellini who all through his last shoot is
explaining how he makes films; who in this last debate is explaining his thoughts and words; and who in his
final film is explaining how he sees the crisis of aesthetics.
This Triptych is unusual: a kind of intimate confession in which Rossellini wanted to re-establish and place
on record what he thought he was: a freedom-loving humanist but also a man for whom the cinema’s sole
purpose was to transmit knowledge to the greatest number.
These last images “by and about” Rossellini, for the first time with his connivance, show us the truth about
him as he wanted it to be remembered, but also show us two particular moments at a unique and
irreplaceable point in history.
The last five months of Rossellini’s life brought together in an exemplary triptych: his last lesson, his last
film and his last battle... an irreplaceable moment so incredibly indiscreet and even intimate is what those
images reveal to us. Free of all self-consciousness, Rossellini revealed for us his technique, even going so far
as to explain it to his crew – how relaxed must he have been to expose himself in that way! But beyond that
technique, he wrote into cultural history a pivotal moment in the history of the Pompidou Centre the
importance of which was not fully understood.
Claude Mollard (see the FILE and the ANTHOLOGY) considers Rossellini’s film to be the sole and unique
testimony to the historic project as President Georges Pompidou had conceived of it. Through this
Rossellini’s last film is at the heart of all research: there was a “before” and an “after”, and so it is
unequalled. It is historically the milestone between a concept at its origin and its development over 33 years.
UNIVERSAL
THE INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY OF TESTIMONY AND ANALYSES
Thirty-three years later, in order to ascertain the current reach of the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”, we
organized screenings in most parts of the world or sent out the attached ROSSELLINI 77 DVD. The
response was considerable.
– 13 –
Taking all cultures, all professions and all generations together, we have collected over 100 TEXTS ranging
from 10 lines to 30 pages providing exemplary evidence of the universality of the “ROSSELLINI 77
Triptych”, proven by the emotion prompted by first viewings of this discovery, which could be described as
“archaeology” so varied is the material collected – from the original silver film negative to the metal boxes
containing it and including all the paper documents which make a film come about.
The strength contained in these last images, these last words, led viewers round the world to express their
feelings in TEXTS. They come from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, etc. For all these people – teachers,
journalists, critics, writers, film-makers, architects, painters, philosophers – closer to Roberto Rossellini than
others, these documents may be considered as Roberto Rossellini’s TESTAMENT. From these testimonies
the founder of Neorealism emerges as the CONSCIENCE OF THE CINEMA.
4.3
Is one or more of the criteria of (a) time (b) place (c) people (d) subject and theme (e) form and
style (f) social, spiritual and community significance satisfied? (see 4.2.5)
1st Criterion: The Period:
The Pompidou Centre opened to the public in 1977. At the time, modern art and contemporary art were
exhibited in single discipline museums located in old buildings.
The Pompidou Centre’s arrival in the heart of old Paris created a major aesthetic crisis in respect of its
architecture, its location and its purpose.
The architecture was avant-garde and resembled no other such monument in the world. It was closer to a
factory than to a place built to shelter art. In 1977, irrespective of social class, no-one was prepared for such
a cultural revolution. But the architecture of the Pompidou Centre was to be a pivotal phase in the
development of places of culture – and moreover, the Centre was pluri-disciplinary and so became a multifunctional place of culture. From that point on, more or less throughout the world, there would be a “before”
and an “after” the Pompidou Centre.
Roberto Rossellini’s last film was to be the indelible proof of that for future generations.
2nd Criterion: The Place:
By planting the Pompidou Centre in the heart of Paris, President Pompidou was deliberately marrying
extreme modernism with a thousand years of history.
That “provocation”, which has become an international model, is shown in exemplary fashion in “LE
CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU”.
Rossellini’s camera caresses the ancient roofs and facades whose charm is to be torn apart by a monument
that resembles nothing other than a “factory” making an infernal noise. This first aesthetic rift in the Parisian
landscape will be written into history by Rossellini.
3rd Criterion: The People:
No-one had remembered the crowd pressing into Beaubourg in wave after wave, filling every space in
endless meanderings and, turning into a bay, facing the extreme provocation of contemporary art. That
historic and unique encounter in which the ordinary people gave voice to every thought and feeling was to be
painstakingly filmed and recorded by Rossellini’s camera and hidden microphones. More than 60 boxes of
sound recordings bear witness to those spontaneous comments which have today become archives of major
interest to everyone working on the relationship between the public, art and museum, and architecture.
Even more than for other parts of the film, the loss of these major sequences could deprive the research
world of historically unique and irreplaceable documents, because no such encounter has ever been observed
or filmed in almost “scientific” continuity.
– 14 –
4th Criterion: The Subject:
1977, the opening of the Pompidou Centre, a quintessentially historic event, filmed by the founder of
Neorealism Roberto Rossellini, himself filmed by a second crew bearing witness to his skill, shows us in a
real situation what filming and “reporting” meant for Rossellini.
The sequence of the crowd pressing into Beaubourg, filmed live by Rossellini who was himself being filmed
by Grandclaude and his crews, shows us how truthful Rossellini’s cinema is and how very simply it bears
witness to important points in cultural life in a certain period which, thanks to him, will be written into
history because they are UNIQUE. It is chiefly to this that the TEXTS and the INTERNATIONAL
anthology bear witness: the considerable contribution that these images make for future generations.
5th Criterion: The Form and Style:
No other film-maker in the world could have made a film on “the opening of the Pompidou Centre” into a
statement that became a reference point for future generations.
Any other director would have commandeered the Pompidou Centre and made his own film about it. The
general idea when making a film about art is that the place, the object or the work filmed becomes the
“actor” in a film made by a director who turns it into his object, his work. The Pompidou Centre would have
ceased to exist as such, it would have been swallowed up by another work, that of the director. For Rossellini,
what counted was not his work but what the camera saw as close to reality as possible, without distortion,
and without taking it over.
In this way Rossellini’s film is unique and rare because it is the simple observation of a major event which
occurred in the first months of 1977: “the first time an ordinary public encountered contemporary Art”.
By filming in that very objective way the international event that the birth of the Pompidou Centre
represented, Rossellini was to some extent writing into history Act 1 of the deconsecration of the museum so
as to make the cultural heritage accessible to all.
4.4
Are there issues of rarity, integrity, threat and management that relate to this nomination? (see
4.2.6)
Rarity
The “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych” is extremely rare because
–
This is the first time that fate has brought together three film, sound and photographic documents,
and all the annexed documents (working documents etc.) bearing witness as in a bequest to a
director’s work, technique and last thoughts. And when that person is called Roberto Rossellini, the
founder of Neorealism, “the inventor of modern cinema”, as he was called by Jacques Rivette, the
inspirer of the New Wave, everything relating to this humanist, who saw himself not as a director but
as a mere link between knowledge and the public, for whom learning, understanding and
transmitting were the guiding principles of his life, everything changes:
–
The work, his last work, “LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU”, became the final incarnation of a
cinema now rehabilitated by the Southern countries, as witnessed by all the grateful TEXTS in the
INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY and is again astoundingly modern despite all the byways of the
digital age.
–
The technique becomes an exemplary lesson in cinema, a unique “master class” in that it shows for
the first time, as painstakingly as possible, in the slightest detail, the birth of a film all the way from
preparation to assembly. And when the subject of the lesson is Rossellini directly filming the
opening of the Pompidou Centre in 1977, we are on the high road to history.
– 15 –
–
The last thoughts: for a few days whilst presiding the Cannes Festival Jury a few weeks before he
died, Rossellini was to debate what had been the chief factors in his life – knowledge, science, the
artist and the cinema.
Thus brought together in the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych” are three rare documents, two of which are
previously unpublished, making an indissoluble whole covering Roberto Rossellini’s final period… which
happens to be the start of the first period of the Pompidou Centre.
But this is what places the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych” among the rarest of archives:
–
Rossellini does not confine himself to filming, to being filmed or to debating: throughout this
journey – which he may perhaps have felt would be his last – he was to reveal, for the first time,
directly, caught by the cameras, shot by shot his creative process, explaining to his technicians with
the greatest of tact how he worked, what he wanted to do and how it should be done, what role the
equipment and his remote-controlled zoom would play. Later he would explain to journalists the film
he had wanted to make, to the colloquium participants what he thought about his life, his profession,
how it should be practised, how the diktats of money or the system should be resisted…
In Rossellini 77 Roberto Rossellini is no longer a film-maker but a craftsman passing on and explaining his
technique. And to make sure that there should be no ambiguity with regard to him, to ensure that no-one
would interpret what he wanted to do or say, to make sure he was not betrayed by the interpreters, he was to
unveil “exclusively” in front of our cameras, day by day, what some people called “the Rossellini mystery”.
Because of that, “Rossellini by himself” is wholly contained in the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”.
It is also the perfect example of “made on silver film”.
–
Integrity
The documentary heritage offered is complete as regards film, sound, photo and paper media. All documents
are originals. It has suffered a very small amount of change because of its many changes of location.
–
The Threat
There is no threat to its physical survival in the STUDIO L’EQUIPE premises, but in intellectual terms the
documentary heritage is in great danger because for the 33 years since it came into existence in 1977 no-one
has taken an interest in it, including the people most concerned by it.
Since I am the assignee, my advancing age and the illness I suffer could expose it to moral danger when all
the persons who now protect it have passed on.
That is the major reason that moved me to apply for the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych” to be placed on the
Memory of the World Register so as to ensure its lasting conservation and to protect it from any commercial
or intellectual distortion.
–
The Management Plan:
To recover the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych” from those 33 years of silence and indifference I launched a
very large rehabilitation campaign that brought the existence of the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych” to the
notice of those who were or claimed to be unaware of it. Given the lack of interest from the people who
should have been most concerned, Marie-France Delobel (imotion, France), Philippe Bosman (Studio
l’Equipe, Belgium) and Francis Diaz (Studio Francis Diaz, France) decided to meet to restore, rehabilitate
and protect the cinematographical (images and sounds) and photographical heritage.
Studio l’Equipe in Belgium has invested considerable sums in digitizing the whole of the heritage and is the
authorized depository of it.
– 16 –
Since they have film and digital laboratories, post-production studios and archive stores, the “ROSSELLINI
77 Triptych” could find no better final home for Rossellini, especially as Philippe Bosman’s concept of
heritage is to increase the value of the archives by filming recordings of people who had played a part in the
heritage.
We thus have a filming programme involving all the surviving technicians, including the inventor of the
ZOOM, the optical engineer André Masson (90), who invented the variable focus lens in 1947 at the Société
Angénieux. He was himself Director-General of the company and designed the Apollo optical programme
for NASA.
5
LEGAL INFORMATION
5.1
Owner of the documentary heritage (name and contact details)
Proprietor of the whole “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”
Films, sounds, photos, printed documents, handwritten documents
Jacques Grandclaude (Assignee)
“Les Oliviers”, lieu dit Crabol, 46700 MONTCABRIER (France)
Landline: 00 33 5 65 36 06 36
FAX: 00 33 5 65 36 06 20
Mobile: 06 61 02 35 24
Email: jacques.grandclaude3@orange.fr
5.2
Custodian of the documentary heritage (name and contact details, if different to owner)
Manager of the usage rights for the “ROSSELLINI 77 Triptych”
Films, sounds, photos, printed documents, handwritten documents
Marie-France Delobel (joint manager)
“Les Oliviers”, lieu dit Crabol, 46700 MONTCABRIER (France)
Landline: 00 33 5 65 36 06 36
FAX: 00 33 5 65 36 06 20
Mobile: 06 21 91 57 48
Email: marie-france.delobel@orange.fr
Principal Depository of the full complement of films and sounds of “ROSSELLINI 77”
Original films and sounds: 16mm and 35 mm silver film/ 16.35 mm and 6.25 magnetic tapes and digitized
masters
STUDIO L’EQUIPE (Brussels)
Philippe Bosman (Delegated Administrator)
Mobile: 00 32 475 42 83 67
Email: bosman@studio-equipe.be
Carole Godfroid (Commercial Manager)
Mobile: 00 32 477 62 74 98
Email: c.godfroid@studio-equipe.be
L.Mommaerts av. 6-8, B1140 BRUSSELS, Belgium
Phone: 00 32 2 745 48 00
Fax: 00 32 2 745 48 28
– 17 –
5.3
Legal status:
(a)
Category of ownership
Property of Jacques Grandclaude (private individual)
(b)
Accessibility
Initially: provisional/access controlled by Studio l’Equipe in Brussels (on official written
request to IMOTION and Studio l’Equipe jointly)
Subsequently: free access at foundation premises
(c)
Copyright status
Jacques Grandclaude
With 15% reversion to Renzo Rossellini, Roberto Rossellini’s only legal heir
(d)
Responsible administration
IMOTION
(e)
Other factors
6
MANAGEMENT PLAN
6.1
Is there a management plan in existence for this documentary heritage?
Yes.
7
CONSULTATION
7.1
Provide details of consultation about this nomination with (a) the owner of the heritage (b) the
custodian (c) your national or regional Memory of the World committee
PART B – SUBSIDIARY INFORMATION
8
ASSESSMENT OF RISK
8.1
Detail the nature and scope of threats to this documentary heritage (see 5.5)
9
ASSESSMENT OF PRESERVATION
9.1
Detail the preservation context of the documentary heritage (see 3.3)