Bertrand Mandico

[Mr Sausage]

Discovery seems more like a Purgatory concept, since Purgatory's where things have to be worked out. With heaven, maybe it's more like completion?

You've seen the full trilogy, so you're in a better position to work these things out than me. There's a lot in these movies, and I appreciate the handholds you're providing here.

[therewillbeblus]

I like that, especially if Discovery is applied to After Blue, which is probably the most challenging of the films for me to grasp, but makes sense if one sees 'discovery' as both wonderful, terrifying, and everything in between - in terms of not only the process of 'initiating', but the consequences inherent in the risk, whether you use your agency or not. There's also a clearer ambiguity in that film about whether or not tapping into one's darker sides can be beneficial.. perhaps that one is Mandico's perverse idea of living a life closer to the needle of 'moderatation'!

[Matt]

Outside of this trilogy and the short film collection from AI, has he done anything else worth seeking?

He’s done a handful of music videos, mostly for M83, which are on YouTube. I have not seen any of the newer (post After Blue) shorts.

The three 2023 shorts — The Last Cartoon - Nonsense, Optimistic, Pessimistic / Rainer, a Vicious Dog in a Skull Valley / Nous les Barbares — are on the Altered Innocence Blu-ray of She is Conann. I think they are mostly, if not entirely, made from unused footage from the feature. These were all aired as part of a TV special, "L'émission a déjà commencé," on the France 2 network, along with a very amusing prologue with dancing and puppets.

I think his continuing collaboration with Elina Löwensohn is really something special. She has worked steadily since the '90s (over 120 acting credits on IMDb), and she was such an indie It Girl in the middle of that decade but kind of disappeared into bit parts and shorts. She's been working with Mandico since 2011 and is seemingly game for anything with him. I imagine her getting a call from him saying, "You're going to be in nearly every scene of my new feature but you'll be wearing a dog mask the whole time," and her just replying, "What time should I be there?"

[kubelkind]

The three 2023 shorts — The Last Cartoon - Nonsense, Optimistic, Pessimistic / Rainer, a Vicious Dog in a Skull Valley / Nous les Barbares — are on the Altered Innocence Blu-ray of She is Conann. I think they are mostly, if not entirely, made from unused footage from the feature. These were all aired as part of a TV special, "L'émission a déjà commencé," on the France 2 network, along with a very amusing prologue with dancing and puppets.

A Christmas special too, no less!
I don't think these are Conaan outtakes, more like adjuncts to the feature using the same characters. Mandico is a big favourite with me too. His series of short films with Löwensohn are wonderful, a fertile longform collaboration. There are also two films directed by Löwensohn with Mandico as co-writer and producer (Rien ne sera plus comme avant (2022) and Odile dans la vallée (2017)) that I've not seen. Would love to though.

[Matt]

Altered Innocence has announced that Apocalypse After, their disc of Mandico’s short films, is going out of print. Jump on it now if you don’t have it.

[swo17]

These were all aired as part of a TV special, "L'émission a déjà commencé," on the France 2 network, along with a very amusing prologue with dancing and puppets.

This is included on the Altered Innocence Blu-ray and it's incredible! Godard meets Gondry?

[PfR73]

New film Dragon Dilatation is playing at Fantastic Fest.