Astrologie, le miroir de la vie

The text and the video excerpt below document Philippe Langlois’s book, Les cloches d’Atlantis, Musique électroacoustique et cinéma, Archéologie et histoire d’un art sonore, éditions mf, Paris, 2012.

Composed by Pierre Henry in close collaboration with the director, the music of Astrologie constitutes the culmination of Jean Grémillon’s formal musical research, in a desire to fuse noises and music. This profoundly musical cinematic approach, already noticed by Pierre Schaeffer in 1946, favoured Jean Grémillon’s coming to the studios on the rue de l’Université. Until recently, an analysis of the audiovisual relations at work in Astrologie was not conceivable, given the state of conservation of the film, which made viewing it impossible. Its restoration, on the occasion of the film series Les films du Service de la Recherche de l’ORTF, which we programmed at the MAC/VAL in January 2006, has made it possible to put the film back into circulation in a new print.