Chronique d'un été • Guy Cassiers

A film as inspiration, a rigorous approach, an artistic risk. A film as inspiration, a rigorous approach, an artistic risk. Guy Cassiers engages with a new generation, putting his experience to the test. In 1961 ethnologist Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin made a film in Paris that became emblematic of ’cinéma vérité’. Their approach was as simple as it was radical: to ask passers-by, students and workers a direct question, Are you happy? From the ensuing exchanges, there emerged a portrait of society. Sixty-three years later, Guy Cassiers continues the dialogue with present-day performers. On stage, two eras exist side by side: extracts from the film being screened and the new performers being filmed live, confronted with the same questions while their answers enter into dialogue with the original images. A deliberately rigorous process: over three weeks of work, the performers auditioned by Cassiers created a piece that takes shape through direct engagement with the film. Returning to the past thus becomes a way of understanding our present and of once again asking the essential question: how do we live today? Première Création Studio Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles