Journal De France

Directed by Claudine Nougaret
and Raymond Depardon

4 Stars

Journal De France revisits the 40 years' working life of Raymond Depardon, one of the major contemporary photographer-filmmakers.

His long-time collaborator Claudine Nougaret has assembled old footage left in Depardon's basement which capture memorable moments from the 1960s through to the present.

They range from the "Prague Spring" to deaths on the streets of Venezuela, from the French presidential campaign of Valery Giscard d'Estaing - who tried to have the footage banned - to moving reportage on psychiatric care in Italy.

And there is riveting combat footage of mercenaries during the 1960s Nigerian civil war who were funded by the oil companies in Biafra.

Luminaries such as Alain Delon, Nelson Mandela and Jean-Luc Godard also feature.

Journal De France makes for an impressive journey as it captures the beauty and ugliness of reality with matching verve.

Depardon is an extraordinary and provocative poet of the image and his is an original and uncompromising view of contemporary society.

Rita Di Santo