Jul 18: Flâneurie 2.0

Flânerie 2.0 [ENG SUBS] from Chloé Galibert-Laîné on Vimeo.

At the turn of the 20th century, the 'flâneurs' started disappearing from the Parisian landscape ; Walter Benjamin became, in his posthumous book 'Das Passagen-Werk', the witness of their extinction. What if one century later, against all odds, the art of flânerie was reappearing in Paris? This poetic video essay is an audiovisual wandering that documents and reflects upon different urban practices where spatial circulation and digital navigation meet.

This video essay borrow sounds and images from the movie 'Paris n'existe pas', made by Robert Benayoun in 1969. It was produced with respect to French copyright laws, that allow audiovisual quotation for criticism and creative purposes.

I was due to be in Paris this week but my journey was a casualty of the heatwave.

Films I watched today:

Conan the Barbarian (1982) dir. John Milius

A classic sword and sorcery film with some excellent action sequences, no CGI, plenty of blood and some quotable lines from Arnie. I first watched it in 1982 in Huddersfield at the cinema opposite the Poly where I was doing my degree.

I was interested to read about the filming in Spain.

Some scenes were filmed in the salt marshes of Almerimar. "Stonehenge-like ruins" were erected and sand piled into mounds that reached 9 m. The changes to the landscape attracted protests from environmentalists and the producers promised to restore the site after filming was completed.

There is a whole book on the making of the film. Here's the trailer: