PORTUGAL • 27′ a movie by JEAN LOïC PORTRON In Portugal, the Alentejo is, like Andalusia or Sicily, classically a land of large landowners. For six months of the year, vegetation, animals and the parched land await the rains. When summer comes to its end, pouring storms drench the landscape. The rivers which have been dry[…]
FRANCE • 26′ a movie by JEAN LOïC PORTRON Awhite city, surprisingly modern. A flat, linear landscape where the only relief is found in silos, cranes and crossbeams… Lorient is a port. In 1666, a royal charter gave “the Compagnie des Indes” a few acres of land to create a harbor destined for trade with[…]
SWITZERLAND • 26′ a movie by JEAN LOïC PORTRON For a long time, mountains have been looked upon as flaws of the creation. They must wait for the end of the XVIIIth century to be considered with more amenity. The life of the mountain people is a constant struggle against the cold, the snow and[…]
GREECE • 28′ a movie by JEAN LOïC PORTRON The beauty of the islands of the Aegean Sea conceals their economically precarious situation. Each of these islands has had to live off its own resources, off its land, orchards and flocks, and if this was not possible the island was forced to open up to[…]
TURKEY • 28′ a movie by JEAN LOïC PORTRON Enclosed by the sea and situated where Europe and Asia meet, Istanbul has always naturally drawn man, his products and ideas to its arms, the obligatory point of passage between the East and West. Until the discovery of the Americas, the empire, wether Byzantine or Ottoman,[…]
ENGLAND • 26′ a movie by JEAN LOïC PORTRON On the crests and high plains which form the Pennine hills can only be seen a few isolated farms, some grazing sheep. In the valleys which cut through the moors however, men have crowded together and the traces of industrial activity abound. This landscape tells the adventure[…]
FRANCE • 26′ a movie by JEAN LOïC PORTRON Fos-sur-Mer, a small village hidden away near the mouth of the Rhône River, became in 1965 the centre of one of the largest building sites in the world. The film depicts the confrontation between the traditional landscape of the Camargue and a gigantic industrial development project, now[…]
FRANCE • 26′ a movie by JEAN LOïC PORTRON In the middle of the 19th century, when the idea of holiday resorts was developing, Etretat, a simple fishing village, became a fashionable beach. Sunbathers invaded the coast; fishermen became swimming teachers, gardeners or servants. Even today, the proprietors of the villas and townhouses, descendants of those[…]
SPAIN • 28′ a movie by JEAN LOïC PORTRON Less than 25 years ago, Carchuna was deserted. Over a few years, the landscape has changed dramatically: plastic greenhouses cover the plain, men come down in groves from the surrounding mountains, villages are built. The desert has become a kind of Eldorado. But the gold here is[…]
ITALY • 26′ a movie by JEAN LOïC PORTRON A fortified village, perched high on a hill. The land is apparently fertile: the fields display diversity, as do the crops they bear, with trees playing an essential part. This harmony is the result of tireless struggle. If man allows his attention to wander or fails to[…]