“In 1962, as a young artist, I came to live and work in Paris. That period until 1969, when I left the city, was not only one of the most formative for me, it was also an era of intellectual, political, and social upheaval in modern history. The film Paris Calligrammes combines my personal memories of the 1960s with a portrait of the city and a social cartography of the age. Like Guillaume Appolinaire’s poetry collection ‘Calligrammes: Poems of Peace and War’, I have given it the form of a filmic “picture-poem” (calligram) in which the words and images, complemented by language, sound, and music, form a mosaic that emerges from the vivacity of those exciting years while speaking to the fragility of all cultural and political achievements.” ––Ulrike Ottinger
“The film is a blend of the personal and the political. It’s a picture about Ottinger’s love of art, being introduced to artistry, and slowly getting the requisite experience to try to act on her desire to be an artist. It’s also a window into Paris at the time, albeit occasionally narrated with the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia. There is never a dull moment as she gives a feeling of the politics of the time, and also of her personal journey, with the archive clips crisscrossed with present-day images. It is the work of a consummate artist who understands the importance of the form matching the story.” ––Kaleem Aftab, Cineuropa
Supported by the Goethe-Institut London
