Fiction short films

AT THE WATER’S EDGE

Henri THÉRON
1964
Version : International
Duration : 12'
Format : 35mm., Béta SP, Digital file 8 bit 4.2.2
Black & white
Producer : ARMOR FILMS - Fred ORAIN
Country France
With Andrée EYROLLE
Music Serge BAUDO et le Quatuor MARGAND
Picture Edmond RICHARD
Stage set Pond in springtime
Archive footage - Naked girl in a pond among reeds and water lilies,
- School of small silver fish,
- Frog on a water lily leaf,
- Pond at daybreak.

Original title : À fleur d’eau

“… Come closer to nature. Try to say, as if you were the first man, what you see… your faith in a beauty…” Rainer Maria RILKE’s poetry is first and foremost about nature, whose obvious beauty he loves: a flower, a spring evening, a pond… The pond, a receptacle of life, serves as a place of exchange between heaven and nature. To express the particular nature of ponds, he will evoke mirrors. RILKE assigns a pre-eminent role to the young girl who has her place at the centre of nature. After a musical overture, we take the girl’s side, restored to her original purity, transported to the time of Genesis. The world identifies itself with her, everything that strikes the senses melts into her, and allows us to understand the profound harmony of the Cosmos created by music. (Henri THÉRON)