Le Révélateur

Perhaps Garrel's most significant Zanzibar film, this is a startling silent b/w work about 'coming of age' and its implications for family and society. A deeply austere piece, lit only by a single pocket lamp, it follows the apocalyptic wanderings of a man, woman and child through a derelict insterstitial landscape. Four-year-old Stanislas Robiolles plays le révélateur (meaning the 'developer', in photographic terms), a child with a Christ-like mission. Rigorous and intense. (For an introduction to Zanzibar films and the 'Dandies of '68' see the review of Deux Fois.