The Song of Styrene (Le chant du styrène)
Early Short Films of the French New Wave
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13m
Directed by Alain Resnais • Documentary • 1957 • 13 minutes
Recently restored and digitized in 2K!
THE SONG OF STYRENE is the perfect example of how to turn a commissioned industrial film into a lyrical, satirical film masterpiece. When the young Alain Resnais was asked by the Péchiney plastics giant to make a short documentary on polystyrene, “that noble, entirely man-made matter,” Resnais sensed a rapport between Alexandrine verse and CinemaScope. With text by Raymond Queneau and music by Pierre Barbaud, THE SONG OF STYRENE is a beautiful, surrealist film.
“If the short film did not exist, Alain Resnais surely would have invented it.” —Jean-Luc Godard
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