DOCUMENTARY

FAIDIVERTISSIMO
 
26 mn
HD
DVCAM
Direction - Production de Véronique Mouysset
2005

'News items 2003' or 'News items' was presented on March 30rd, 2003, in the context of the 'Week-end PIERRE HENRY in four concerts', a Music Research Group's concert program (Ina-GRM) at the Maison de Radio-France in Paris for the 75th birthday of the composer.

'FAIDIVERTISSIMO' is a portait of Pierre Henry giving form to 'News items' at the rehearsal and at the concert.

NOTE ON MAKING THE DOCUMENTARY

'News items', insprired by 'Novels in Three Lines' by Félix Fénéon, has been composed through many stages by Pierre Henry and finally completed in 2005 with the documentary.

The composer plays with his musical writting, musical style. He uses extracts from his major works and his 'sound objects' from the 1950s in order to depict the atmosphere of the beginning of our century in 7 movements: Smoke, Drift, No man's land, disturbance, Guerilla, Elsewhere, Ambush.

Pierre Henry (1927-2017) wrote :
- In 1947 : 'Creating an inovative music is  to destroy music in order to give it life'.
- 'In 1948, I hoped one day to be able to compose a music of wild sounds resonating in a meaningful way. I had just red 'Novels in Three Lines' by Félix Fénéon'.
Excerpt of 'News items' from 'Journal de mes sons' by P. Henry, Actes Sud 2004.

In 2003, I met Pierre Henry and I convainced him to film the rehearsal and the concert of 'News items'. I like concrete music and my intention is to show the intimacy of the composer during the spatialisation, to show his sensitiveness, his concentration listening to the music, his work.
After the video recording of 'News items', Pierre Henry proposed me to film his concerts at the Cité de la Musique in Paris in 2003 for his personal archives, and later on, in 2009, at the Rencontres des cultures électroniques Nördick Impakt in Caen.

The subtitles of the documentary sont de Pierre Henry, from 'Journal de mes sons', Actes Sud 2004.

VÉRONIQUE MOUYSSET After graduating from the Ecole Supérieure d'Études Cinématographiques (ESEC) in 1990, I began artistic research into video art and electro-acoustic music. Since then, I have realised documentaries and video art. 2001-2002 : 'Constructions métalliques', a tryptich vidéo-concert around an old wrought-ironwork with Christian Zanési, a composer from the Music Research Group of Ina-GRM at the Maison de Radio-France in Paris. 2003-2005 : 'FAIDIVERTISSIMO', a documentary around 'News items', a portrait of Pierre Henry. 2009-2013 : 'Edifice', a video installation with original musics of Michèle Bokanowski, Christine Groult, Laurence Bouckaert, Jean-Philippe Renoult, Pierre Couprie, Robert Willim. 2013-2014 : 'Nahash', a documentary with Christine Groult and Beatriz Ferreyra around their improvisation work and their concert at PRÉSENCES électronique 2014 in Paris. Full filmography: http://mouyssetveronique.blogspot.fr/  TEXT OF "NEWS ITEMS' 'News items' is not a sentimental composition. Rather, it's a work consisting of plots, events and musical accidents broken up into short loosely associated sonic phrases, delibarately and outrageously discordant. A latent but wild fire smoulders in my 'News items'. Medleys and anecdotes, armed incidents from the 1950s. Acts of violence, episodes, adventures... a whole range of potential stories which should be listened to with a completely open mind. Thus, little stories of the present day are born. At the beginnings and ends of my old musical phrases, one comes accross the 'sound objects' (kept in storage since the crazy years of concrete music), curving in insolent unrestained responses. Here and there new aphorisms are created using analogies and subversive phrases. Rules have had to be broken in order to give an irrational fusion to these incidental phrases. In 1948, I hoped one day to be able to compose a music of wild sounds resonating in a meaningful way. I had just red 'Novels in Three Lines' by Félix Fénéon'. Pierre HENRY from 'Journal de mes sons'