Elisabeth, a young historian, travels to Lyon, where socialist and feminist Flora Tristan had been active in the 19th century. In her footsteps, Elisabeth roams the old town, trying to reconstruct with a little cassette- recorder the sounds which Flora must have perceived, thus revealing the layers of history in sounds and noises, in faces and facades. A professor of history tries to lead her back to the paths of academic study, but she remains determined to break free of all scientific rigidity, and, in search of lost time, she discovers her own present day reality and the reality of today's city of Lyon. The DVD includes the German and the French version of the restored film classicDie Reise nach Lyon by Claudia von Alemann as well as a trilingual booklet.
The film
Die Reise nach Lyon (Blind Spot) - Germany 1981 - Written, directed and produced by: Claudia von Alemann - Cinematography: Hille Sagel - Score: Frank Wolff - Sounddesign: Daniel Deshays - Cast: Rebecca Pauly, Denise Péron, Jean Badin, Sarah Stern, Maurice Garden - Premiere: February 15, 1981
About the film
In Die Reise nach Lyon (Blind Spot), a woman historian, fascinated by the diary kept by Flora Tristan during the last few months of her life, refuses the traditional way of "looking" at history and gets caught up in a complex, multi-layered pattern of reverberations. History and "her" story become a network of resonances. One life/voice imprints in another. The process of social change, instead of being read by academic detectives in stuffy archives, resound in a space between a sound and its similar echoes.A visually fascinating film which is nevertheless one of the few real sound films ever made.
Paul Willemen, Edinburgh Film Festival Catalogue, 1981
DVD features
- Die Reise nach Lyon 1981, 92'
- Le voyage à Lyon 1981, 92'
- 16 page trilingual booklet
Edited by: Deutsche Kinemathek Berlin
DVD authoring: Gunther Bittmann, Tobias Dressel
DVD supervision: Martin Koerber
First edition May 2021
