<\/strong><\/p>\nFran\u00e7ois Caillat, born 1951, spent his childhood in Lorraine.<\/p>\n
In Paris, during his school years, he was introduced to the theater (studying dramatic art with Fran\u00e7ois Florent; creating a high school troupe after May 68; participating in the collective experiments of Ariane Mnouchkine and the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Soleil in the early 1970s).
He studied philosophy at the Ecole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure (ENS St-Cloud) and became graduate of philosophy (agr\u00e9g\u00e9 de philosophie) in 1975.
He taught philosophy for a few years, then finally turned to cinema. He trained by shooting several short fiction films and musical films, before tackling feature films.<\/p>\n
For the past twenty years, Fran\u00e7ois Caillat has been making films on the border between documentary and essay. He is\u00a0interested in representations of the past, traces, absence and oblivion. He defends the concept of a \u201cdocumentary novel\u201d, which favors the staging and the personal narrative.<\/p>\n
Welcome to Bataville<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and Of Youth and Love <\/em><\/strong>are two theatrical films.
The Fourth Generation<\/em>,\u00a0 Val\u00e9rie\u2019s case<\/em>,\u00a0Three German Soldiers<\/em>,\u00a0M\u00e9decins de brousse<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0The Listener<\/em><\/strong> are feature films produced for the Arte channel (La Lucarne or Grand Format).<\/p>\nMost recently,\u00a0Hope, letters on Engagement<\/em><\/strong> (2017) is an epistolary film with two voices directed with Silvia Radelli.
Russian Triptych<\/em><\/strong> (2018) is a feature film.<\/p>\n…………..<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Fourth Generation<\/strong>: Set in the french region of Lorraine, Fran\u00e7ois Caillat\u2019s film explores multiple generations of timber workers and the strange territorial destinity surrounding Lorraine.<\/p>\nThree German Soldiers<\/strong>: Fran\u00e7ois Caillat\u2019s film begins with a macabre event-the exhumation of an unknown soldier\u2019s corpse on Caillat\u2019s family estate.<\/p>\nValerie\u2019s case<\/strong>: A film-maker travels through mountain villages and along the shores of Alpine lakes to investigate the disappearance of Val\u00e9rie 20 years earlier.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/strong>Welcome to Bataville<\/strong>: Tomas Bata, the man whose dream it was to shoe humanity, conducted a daring economic and social experiment in 1932 when he set up a model community around one of his shoe factories in the Lorraine region of France.<\/p>\nOf Youth and Love<\/strong>: Caillat\u2019s film is headlong, head-over-heels initiation into the swirl of love and life, following our Parisian narrator as he navigates an amorous coming-of-age in the 1970\u2019.<\/p>\nRussian Triptych<\/strong>: Fran\u00e7ois Caillat explores the tragic construction of the Belomorkanal, the first major project in the Soviet Union conducted using the forced labour of gulag immates.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
…………..<\/strong><\/p>\nFRAN\u00c7OIS CAILLAT, with a background in philosophy, comes from the reverse tradition -a literary and cinematic one. Like Alain Cavalier, Caillat is above all a storyteller- a ghost hunter interested in romance and memory. In his Sebald-like novelistic essays, he proves to be a virtuoso in the poetic evocation of the past through sounds, images, old documents and landscapes.<\/p>\n
His brilliant debut film La Quatri\u00e8me g\u00e9neration (The Fourth Generation<\/strong>) recalls the rise and fall of his own family dynasty of lumber barons in Lorraine, digging through a century of secrets and mysteries.
In Trois soldats allemands (Three German Soldiers<\/strong>), Caillat investigates the life of three soldiers who died in Lorraine under the German uniform, telling in the process the whole history of the French province which was annexed by Germany from 1870 to 1918 and returned to France, only to become German once again during the Second World War. Both films are mesmerizing tales of haunted places and their history.
In narrating his own love affairs from his teenage years into his early thirties in Une jeunesse amoureuse (Of Youth and Love<\/strong>), Fran\u00e7ois Caillat draws a kind of \u00ab\u00a0Carte du Tendre,\u00a0\u00bb an amorous geography of Paris shot in different picturesque neighbourhoods, portraying at the same time a generation coming of age in the 70s.
Caillat’s latest movie, Triptyque russe (Russian Triptych<\/strong>), revisits the epic and tragic history of the construction of the Belomorkanal, connecting Baltic and White Seas, during which 20,000 gulag prisoners and forced labourers perished under Stalin’s rule. The film features Russian historian Yury Dmitriev, an active member of the recently dissolved Memorial NGO, who relentlessly searched and dug up the mass graves in Karelia to reveal this hidden memory of Stalinism<\/p>\n…. …. …. <\/strong><\/p>\nFRAN\u00c7OIS CAILLAT, GHOST CHASER<\/p>\n
by Thierry Garrel
<\/strong>producer and program planer<\/em><\/p>\nIn what is now conventionally called the \u201cEcole Fran\u00e7aise du documentaire\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 (french manner of documentaries), Fran\u00e7ois Caillat has an at once special and secret place.<\/p>\n
As a storyteller and poet, ghost hunter and one who tells good adventure yarns, for twenty years he has been developing a most coherent oeuvre, elegantly\u2014and with the sleight of hand of a conjurer\u2014weaving enchanting tales, full of imagery, to help us share the fruit of his solitary expeditions into the depths of the past.<\/p>\n
If Fran\u00e7ois Caillat knows, like nobody else, how to use powers of evocation and suggestion, where images and sounds are concerned (impressions and super-impressions), grasp the spirit of places, and cast upon characters and landscapes alike, as well the documents and objects of reality, a very keen eye, it is always the novelistic elements which hold sway in his films: local or national imagination, novel of childhood or adolescence, family novel.<\/p>\n
This is why Fran\u00e7ois Caillat, in the very way in which he daringly and musically handles the language of images and the subtle tricks of narrative, is probably the most sebald-like of today\u2019s documentary makers.<\/p>\n
Thierry Garrel has headed the Arte TV documentary unit since it was created in 1992. Recognizing him as a pillar of television documentary policy, the Galerie du Jeu de Paume held a retrospective of his work as a producer in 2011. He is now producer and program planer. He is in charge of international documentary festival of Vancouver DOXA.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FRAN\u00c7OIS CAILLAT, DIRECTOR OF THE ABSENCE
<\/strong>
by Patricio Guzm\u00e1n
<\/strong>filmaker<\/em><\/p>\nOne could say that Fran\u00e7ois Caillat is a filmmaker of words, because without a doubt a significant part of his documentary work relies on the narrator\u2019s voice, the voice over. There is a way of telling, recounting or describing facts, which compose \u201cCaillat\u2019s style\u201d and are the base in which he builds his documentary structure. His work could not be understood without that voice that portrays the real development.<\/p>\n
However, where do these voices rest ? Over what images does Fran\u00e7ois Caillat talk ? Here\u2019s one of the surprises of this author\u2019s language. Caillat talks about death while we see a forest in the evening. He talk about money as we see a water tank. He talks about the world war while we see a bird in flight. He hardly ever talks about what we are seeing on screen. However, behind these images that have no apparent relation to the text, we begin to visualize the story that that\u2019s being told, in other words, we begin to see what is not visible\u2026<\/p>\n
We still haven\u2019t revealed Fran\u00e7ois Caillat\u2019s other secret. This singular director introduces us to the world of 8mm. Caillat use long fragment of 8mm footage filmed by him. These are fugitive, unexpected vision that reach us like gusts of wind : fallen tress, church towers, railroads, smoke stacks, silent rivers. These images often appear without the original sound, they come folded in subtle gust of wind, or with minimalist and mysterious barely audible music, that takes us to an alternate reality. The hazy texture of 8mm footage, its lake of definition, its waftyness and weightlessness open the door towards a documentary fantasy.<\/p>\n
The third secret is that he shoots, on some occasions, twice. He screens on his home walls the 8mm footage and shoots it over with a video camera, with multiplies the 8mm film texture. In other words he fabricates his own \u201cfile\u201d on his home walls. With the second time framing. Caillat turns the 8mm in a dreamy platform, of footage that seems to come from a different era. Thit without mentioning the editing, which he deepens in each film, seen in the magic of the association between nature and human beings he offers unsuspectedly.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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FRANCOIS CAILLAT, EL CAZADO DE FANTASMAS<\/strong>
por Thierry Garrel<\/strong><\/p>\nEn lo que se suele llamar la \u201cEscuela Francesa del\u00a0Documental\u201d, Fran\u00e7ois Caillat ocupa un sitio al\u00a0mismo tiempo singular y secreto. Narrador y poeta,\u00a0cazador de fantasmas y clarividente, desarrolla desde\u00a0hace veinte a\u00f1os una obra muy coherente y teje con\u00a0elegancia \u2013y con una ligereza de prestidigitador \u2013cuentos llenos de im\u00e1genes y de embrujos, para\u00a0hacernos compartir el fruto de sus expediciones solitarias\u00a0hacia las profundidades del pasado.<\/p>\n
As\u00ed, las cuatro pel\u00edculas aqu\u00ed reunidas son historias\u00a0de buena o de mala fortuna \u2013amorosas, din\u00e1sticas,\u00a0regionales\u2013, pero tambi\u00e9n leyendas verdaderas de\u00a0nuestro tiempo que se relacionan con nuestras experiencias\u00a0m\u00e1s \u00edntimas. Porque si Fran\u00e7ois Caillat sabe\u00a0como nadie usar el poder de evocaci\u00f3n y de sugerencia\u00a0de las im\u00e1genes y de los sonidos (impresiones y\u00a0sobreimpresiones), capturar el esp\u00edritu de los lugares\u00a0y tener una mirada muy aguda sobre las personas y\u00a0los paisajes, los documentos y los objetos de la realidad,\u00a0es siempre lo novelesco lo que sobresale en sus\u00a0pel\u00edculas: imaginario local o nacional, novela de\u00a0infancia o de adolescencia, novela familiar.<\/p>\n
Es por eso que Fran\u00e7ois Caillat, por la forma misma\u00a0en la que maneja, audaz y musicalmente, el idioma\u00a0de las im\u00e1genes y las astucias sutiles de la narraci\u00f3n,\u00a0probablemente sea el m\u00e1s sebaldiano de los\u00a0documentalistas contempor\u00e1neos.<\/p>\n
Thierry Garrel dirigi\u00f3 la Unidad Documentales del canal Arte desde\u00a0su creaci\u00f3n en 1992. Reconocido como un pilar en la pol\u00edtica documental\u00a0de la televisi\u00f3n, la Galerie du Jeu de Paume le dedic\u00f3 una retrospectiva de su trabajo como productor<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n***<\/strong><\/p>\n
FRANCOIS CAILLAT, EL REALIZADOR DE LA AUSENCIA
<\/strong>por Patricio Guzm\u00e1n<\/strong><\/p>\nFran\u00e7ois Caillat realiza desde hace una d\u00e9cada pel\u00edculas documentales sobre la ausencia, la memoria, las huellas de la memoria y m\u00e1s ampliamente sobre la inscripci\u00f3n del pasado en nuestro mundo cotidiano.<\/p>\n
\u00c9l ha realizado sobre este tema numerosos filmes de largometraje para la televisi\u00f3n francesa\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0La Cuarta Generaci\u00f3n\u00a0<\/strong>\u00bb (1997), una saga hist\u00f3rica sobre su propia familia\u00a0; \u00ab\u00a0Tres soldados alemanes\u00a0<\/strong>\u00bb (2001), una investigaci\u00f3n hist\u00f3rico-novelesca sobre un desaparecido de la segunda guerra mundial\u00a0; \u00ab\u00a0El caso Val\u00e9rie\u00a0<\/strong>\u00bb (2004), una encuesta sobre los recuerdos de una noticia publicada en la cr\u00f3nica roja. Mientras tanto ha realizado para el cine \u00ab\u00a0Bienvenido a Bataville\u00a0<\/strong>\u00bb, una f\u00e1bula sobre la felicidad obligatoria en el siglo XX (que sali\u00f3 en las salas en 2008).<\/p>\nSu formaci\u00f3n universitaria (profesor de filosof\u00eda) le lleva a abordar de vez en cuando temas m\u00e1s te\u00f3ricos\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0El hombre que escucha\u00a0<\/strong>\u00bb y \u00ab\u00a0Nacimiento de la palabra\u00a0<\/strong>\u00bb. Son dos pel\u00edculas que hacen referencia a las ciencias neuro-cognitives\u00a0<\/em>(ciencias que investigan de la forma en que el pensamiento humano se genera en el cerebro). Esta formaci\u00f3n tambi\u00e9n le ha permitido hacer retratos de intelectuales y escritores tales como\u00a0 \u00ab\u00a0Peter Sloterdijk, un fil\u00f3sofo alem\u00e1n\u00a0<\/strong>\u00bb, o \u00ab\u00a0Julia Kristeva, extra\u00f1a extranjera\u00a0<\/strong>\u00bb y\u00a0\u00ab\u00a0J.M.G. Le Cl\u00e9zio, entre los mundos\u00a0<\/strong>\u00bb.<\/p>\nSu \u00faltima pel\u00edcula para el cine, terminada al principio de 2011, es un ensayo autobiogr\u00e1fico que tiene por marco el Par\u00eds de los a\u00f1os 70\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Una juventud enamorada<\/strong>\u00a0\u00bb. Aparte de la realizaci\u00f3n de pel\u00edculas, Fran\u00e7ois Caillat hace diversos trabajos de escritura y publicaci\u00f3n relacionados con el cine documental.<\/p>\nEl estilo Caillat<\/strong><\/p>\nSe podr\u00eda decir que Fran\u00e7oit Caillat es un cineasta de la palabra. Porque sin duda una parte significativa de su obra documental se apoya en la voz del narrador, en la voz del comentario. Hay una manera de contar, de fabular o de comentar los hechos, que conforman \u201cun estilo Caillat\u201d y que soportan el edificio de la estructura de sus documentales. No se podr\u00edan entender sus obras sin aquella voz que dibuja el verdadero desarrollo de la historia.<\/p>\n
Sin embargo \u00bfd\u00f3nde se apoyan estas voces? \u00bfsobre qu\u00e9 im\u00e1genes Fran\u00e7ois Caillat empieza a hablar?… He aqu\u00ed otra de las sorpresas del lenguaje de este autor\u2026 Caillat habla de la muerte mientras vemos un bosque al atardecer. \u00c9l habla del dinero mientras vemos un estanque de agua. Habla de la guerra mundial mientras observamos el vuelo de un p\u00e1jaro. \u00c9l casi nunca habla de lo que estamos viendo en la pantalla. Sin embargo detr\u00e1s de esas im\u00e1genes que no tienen ninguna relaci\u00f3n aparente con el texto comenzamos a \u201cvisualizar\u201d la historia que \u00e9l nos est\u00e1 transmitiendo, es decir, empezamos a ver lo que no se ve\u2026<\/p>\n
Nos falta revelar sin embargo el segundo secreto de Fran\u00e7ois Caillat. Este genial director nos introduce en el mundo del 8 mil\u00edmetros. Caillat emplea largos fragmentos de pel\u00edcula de 8 mil\u00edmetros que \u00e9l filma con su propia c\u00e1mara en mano. Se trata de visiones fugitivas, imprevistas, que llegan hasta nosotros como r\u00e1fagas de viento: \u00e1rboles ca\u00eddos, torres de iglesias, v\u00edas de ferrocarril, chimeneas con humo, r\u00edos silenciosos\u2026 Im\u00e1genes que aparecen a menudo sin su sonido original, que nos llegan envueltas por una suave r\u00e1faga de aire, o bien con una m\u00fasica casi inaudible,\u00a0 minimalista, misteriosa, que nos transporta hacia a una realidad irreal\u2026 La textura difusa del 8 mil\u00edmetros, su falta de definici\u00f3n, su flotamiento, su ingravidez, nos abren la puerta hacia una fantas\u00eda documental.<\/p>\n
El tercer secreto es que \u00e9l filma, en algunas ocasiones, dos veces\u2026 En la pared de su casa \u00e9l proyecta sus im\u00e1genes en 8 mil\u00edmetros y las vuelve a grabar con una c\u00e1mara de video, lo que multiplica la textura del 8 mil\u00edmetros. En otras palabras \u00e9l fabrica su propio \u201carchivo\u201d en la pared de su casa. Encuadrando por segunda vez Caillat convierte el 8 mil\u00edmetros en un soporte on\u00edrico, en un material que parece venir de otra \u00e9poca. Todo esto sin hablar de la ciencia del montaje, que \u00e9l profundiza en cada pel\u00edcula, en la magia de las asociaciones entre la naturaleza y los seres humanos que \u00e9l nos ofrece de forma insospechada<\/p>\n
<\/em>Patricio Guzm\u00e1n<\/em>, FIDOCS, Santiago Del Chile, 2011. <\/em><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title=\u00a0\u00bbITALIANO\u00a0\u00bb _builder_version=\u00a0\u00bb4.27.4″ _module_preset=\u00a0\u00bbdefault\u00a0\u00bb global_colors_info=\u00a0\u00bb{}\u00a0\u00bb]<\/p>\n
Fran\u00e7ois Caillat \u00e8 un regista francese, autore di una decina di lungometraggi, usciti nelle sale cinematografiche o trasmessi in televisione (Arte)<\/span>, presentati e premiati in festival internazionali di documentari (IDFA, Toronto, FID, CPH:DOX, Cin\u00e9ma du R\u00e9el, Tokyo, Nyon, Doclisboa, ecc.).
Il regista lavora sulle tracce del passato, indaga nei suoi film su figure dimenticate, facendo rivivere mondi scomparsi. \u00c8 stato spesso descritto come un \u00ab\u00a0cineasta della memoria\u00a0\u00bb. Tra i suoi titoli figurano:\u00a0Una giovinezza innamorata<\/em>,\u00a0Tre soldati tedeschi<\/em>, Trittico russo<\/em>,\u00a0Benvenuti a Bataville<\/em>,\u00a0L’affare Val\u00e9rie<\/em>\u00a0e altri ancora.
Il suo ultimo film,\u00a0Tempi Nuovi (2025), <\/em>\u00e8 stato girato nella sua citt\u00e0 natale, in Lorena, una citt\u00e0 mineraria dove emigrarono nel XX secolo migliaia di lavoratori italiani.<\/p>\n….<\/p>\n
FILMOGRAFIA<\/strong> (estratto)<\/p>\nLa quarta generazione <\/strong><\/span>(Arte\/ Gloria Films\/ Ina \u2013 80 minuti, 1997)<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>L’uomo che ascolta <\/strong><\/span>(Arte\/ Gloria Films\/ Ina \u2013 90 minuti, 1998)<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>Tre soldati tedeschi<\/strong><\/span> (Arte\/ Gloria Films\/ Ina\/ Films de l\u2019Observatoire\/ RTBF \u2013 75 minuti, 2001)
<\/span>Storia narrata da Jean-Pierre Kalfon.<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>L\u2019affare Val\u00e9rie<\/strong><\/span> (Arte\/ Archipel 33\/ Ina \u2013 75 minuti, 2004)<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>Benvenuti a Bataville <\/strong><\/span>(Unlimited\/ Films Hatari\/ Ina \u2013 90 minuti, 2007, film uscito nelle sale nel 2008)
<\/span>Narrato da Michael Lonsdale<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>Una giovinezza innamorata <\/strong><\/span>(Films du Tamarin\/ Ere Productions\/ Ina \u2013 105 minuti, 2012, film uscito nelle sale nel 2013)<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>Speranza, lettere sull’impegno <\/strong><\/span>(Tempo Films\/ Ina \u2013 90 minuti, 2017)<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>Trittico russo <\/strong><\/span>(Tempo Films\/ Le Fresnoy\/ Pictanovo \u2013 78 minuti, 2018)<\/span><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_tab][\/et_pb_tabs][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
English \/ Espa\u00f1ol \/ ItalianoFran\u00e7ois Caillat is a French filmmaker and director of around twenty films and documentary essays, including: A Young Woman in Love, Welcome to Bataville, The Val\u00e9rie Affair, Russian Triptych, Three German Soldiers, and more. Latest film: New Times, a documentary opera (2025, unreleased) > Film teaser: click HERE Fran\u00e7ois Caillat is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-442","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francoiscaillat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francoiscaillat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francoiscaillat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francoiscaillat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francoiscaillat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/francoiscaillat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7049,"href":"https:\/\/francoiscaillat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/442\/revisions\/7049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francoiscaillat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}