Nationality: France

J’ai tant rêvé de toi / I Have Dreamed of You So Much by Robert Desnos

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An animation of Desnos’ poem produced for French television by Emma Vakarelova.

Inside and Out by Anna-May Laugher

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A new film by Helen Dewbery using a text by the French-British poet Anna-May Laugher, with music by Kevin MacLeod. According to the credits, it was “created as part of a elephantsfootprint workshop led by Helen Dewbery and Chaucer Cameron with thanks to Hilda Sheehan for inviting us to be part of Poetry Swindon”. For more on Elephant’s Footprint, see their website and Vimeo page.

À une passante / To a Passer-By by Charles Baudelaire

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An illustrative, atmospheric take on Baudelaire’s poem by the Sicilian London-based independent filmmaker Luana Di Pasquale, with William Aggeler’s English translation in subtitles. The Vimeo description reads:

This short depicts in 1 min. and 30 sec. Charles Baudelaire’s Poem – ‘A Passer-By’ from ‘The Flowers of Evil’ collection – an European Classic which was first published in 1857. This French poem describes the moment when the Poet meets the eyes of a Mourning Woman in Paris’s Flea Market. In our adaptation – the poem is set in London’s Soho where the Poet meets the fugitive eyes of a Sex-Worker, played by actress Lidja Zovkic.
This adaptated version of Charles’s Baudlaire’s poem was inspired by Bunuel’s film ‘Belle de Jour’ and its music by the avant-garde composer Edgard Varèse with a few film noir’s notes Produced/Directed by Luana Di Pasquale. Edited/VFX by Massi Guelfi.Original music by Matthias Kispert.

Tu t’es toujours trompé (You’ve always been wrong) by René Daumal

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Being aware is not a still state,
it’s an act.
If you think about that
when you’re part of a crowd,
you’ll see yourself surrounded by sleepwalkers.

René Daumal was a “French spiritual para-surrealist writer and poet” (Wikipedia), here adapted to video by Katia Viscogliosi and Francis M., A.K.A. Derviches Associés, in a piece that was included in the 6th ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival (October 2012, Berlin) and the “Cinéma fragile” installation at Lyon International Contemporary Art Biennial, Résonance (November 2011).

Ne pas oublier (Don’t forget) by Katia Viscogliosi

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An understated “poetic essay” that gathers unexpected emotional force toward the end. It’s the work of the videoartist collaborators Derviches Associés—Katia Viscogliosi and Francis M.—and has been screened at Festival Miden in Athens, Visible Verse in Vancouver, and the 2008 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin.

Between « do not forget to pay the electricity bill » and « do not forget in 1967 I was a princess and
the world was magic », there are some links, memories, hopes, cries. Life, somehow.

Be Drunk (Enivrez-vous) / Bądźcie Pijani by Charles Baudelaire

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A Polish-language videopoem with English subtitles (sorry, French people) by Gaba Sibilska, who says in the Vimeo description:

It’s an attempt to re-interprate Charles Baudelaire’s poem in a way that fits in our world – world of young people. It’s the inevitable future that frightens the youth. In the juvenile joy of life and affirmation of fun, one can find denial, lies, fear, despair, a desperate attempt to escape from the reality. Eventually, though, every young person must realize that however change of perception may ease the fear, it has no affect on time. And no matter how distant it seems, the end of carefree youth will come one day…

Here’s the French original.

Le Chat / The Cat by Charles Baudelaire

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A trilingual filmpoem (subtitles in English and German; voiceover in French) by German filmmaker Patrick Müller.

Back to you by Karen Mary Berr

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Filmmaker-poet Karen Mary Berr writes,

Back to you is a poem I wrote in 2011 and revisited in 2013, to express what I could feel in terms of longing.
Not a longing for any kind of after life, or any other state of being, but especially for a very embodied and carnal experience, that seems to have no limit in itself but is limited by death. I decided to express this through sensuality and sexuality for I consider both experiences devastatingly founding, timeless and unforgettable. This is the expression of a kind of reversed-longing, when all is gone, for our incarnation.

Here’s the link to the poem :
karen-mary.tumblr.com/post/50007702364/back-to-you
Here’s the first version (2011):
karen-mary.tumblr.com/post/27274973556/back-to-you-song-version

L’éternité / Eternity by Arthur Rimbaud

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A silent filmpoem with trilingual titling by the German filmmaker Patrick Müller. The film was shot in Dinard, Brittany, according to the credits. The description at Vimeo says: “Salutary breaks and changes are the topic of Arthur Rimbaud’s (1854–1891) autobiographical nature poem which is confronted with equally emotionally charged images.” A page at lomography.de goes into a bit more technical detail: “Shot on a Lomokino camera on 35mm film stock and scanned frame by frame with a Nikon Coolscan scanner. Edited with Final Cut Pro X.”

Surprisingly, this is the very first Rimbaud piece at Moving Poems.

Avant que je devienne une île / Before I became an island by Emma Vakarelova

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Moving Poems returns from its extended summer holiday with this beautiful animated short by the Bulgarian-born artist Emma Vakarelova, who is currently based in Valence, France. There are no English subtitles, but a translation of the brief text is provided in the description on Vimeo:

Before I became an island, I was called Kalina… Before Marcos saw me, he was a postman…

Vakarelova adds that this is her first film. Here’s hoping for many more.