Cine-concert: Paris qui dort

Director: René Clair
Country: France
Year: 1925
Duration: 60 minutes

Paris qui dort (dir. René Clair) is René Clair’s debut film and one of the earliest attempts at fantastic cinema in film history, built on a simple yet inventive idea: Paris is suddenly frozen in place by a mad scientist, and only a handful of people escape this mysterious phenomenon. From this premise, the film creates a visual universe in which the city becomes both setting and character, transformed into a suspended, almost dreamlike space. The film stands out for its visual inventiveness and the way it treats Paris as a playground of imagination, foreshadowing the style of a director who would become canonical.

For this screening, the soundtrack is performed live by Stéphane Scharlé, drummer and founder of the OZMA project, known for his interdisciplinary work at the intersection of music and image, with over 500 shows worldwide. Starting from a drum kit, he developed his own instrument that allows him to create rhythmic structures and sound layers in real time, resulting in surprising electronic effects.

The TIFF.25 cine-concerts are supported by MOL Romania