Directed by Mario Ruspoli • Documentary • With Dr. François Tosquelles • 1962 • 53 minutes
Ruspoli had a standing interest in isolated and marginal communities, very much on display in films he shot in Lozère, in France’s rugged, unforgiving south. In A LOOK AT MADNESS and CAPTIVE FEAST, it’s patients and doctors, including the hugely influential director, François Tosquelles, seen going about their daily rounds at the psychiatric hospital of St. Alban, formerly a monastery and prison. Though complementary and shot together, these are standalone works, with Captive Feast documenting the annual village festival that allows inmates a rare chance to mingle with the rest of the population.
Jean-Paul Sartre once said that A LOOK AT MADNESS “is not a documentary; it invites us with impressive images to experience mental illness for the first time; everything that it contains that is so close and so far away helps us understand at the same time that the men are not insane but that all the insane are men”.
Up Next in The Sixties
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Lonely Boy
Directed by Wolf Koening, Roman Kroiter • Documentary • 1962 • 26 minutes
The story of popular singer Paul Anka. He rose from obscurity to become the idol of millions of adolescent fans around the world. This film takes a candid look at both sides of the footlights as well as the promotion indus...
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Sierra Leone Greets the Queen
Directed by T. Cummins • Documentary • 1961 • 22 minutes
Record of the royal visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to Sierra Leone between 25th November and 1st December 1961. The Royal yacht Britannia arrives in Freetown. Formal greeting from dignitaries including the Prime Minister Sir...
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The Little Cafe
Directed by François Reichenbach • Documentary • 1963 • 12 minutes
A slice-of-life film shot in a provincial cafe and hotel in the city of Bethune in the department of Pas-de-Calais, in Northern France. Older men smoke, drink beer and read the paper, young lovers gaze into each other’s eyes, and...
