Die Metamorphosen der Landschaft (TV Movie 1964)
36KDie Metamorphosen der Landschaft: Directed by Éric Rohmer. With Antoine Vitez. A documentary account of landscape change in and around Paris in the early 1960s.
“Educational documentaries are not exactly my cup of tea – so I approached this Rohmer short (from the series u0026quot;The Industrial Erau0026quot;), running 22 minutes, with reasonable trepidation. Despite affording landscape the same consideration he usually bestowed upon his human characters, it all proved somewhat less than entertaining, even a little dull. Nevertheless, I cannot deny the filmu0026#39;s basic instructiveness: delineating the way the once picturesque French countryside (which had inspired many a celebrated Impressionist painter) has been gradually u0026#39;devouredu0026#39; in the name of progress by noisy machinery deployed in the erection of imposing steel structures. Incidentally, while the deliberately gray quality of the cinematography suggests that something of the vitality so representative of Paris has definitely been lost in the process, one can still detect a certain elegance in these abstract forms which, either by coincidence or design, can often be seen to evoke past monuments.”
