International trailer
Based on the 1998 novel of the same name by French psychoanalyst Françoise Davoine.
Genre: Theoretical Fiction | 120mins | Colour | Multi-lingual with English subtitles
If your mentally ill patient dies, are you to blame? For Dr Françoise Davoine, Parisian psychoanalyst, this question becomes disturbingly real as one of her patients, Ariste, dies. Davoine is abducted and put on trial by mediaeval fools and through the course of one hellish night - across several centuries and countries – must argue her case for exoneration.
As the journey forces Dr Davoine to question her own life, via a mix of fiction, documentary and theory, Mère Folle takes the viewer on a one-of-a-kind journey into the minds of the 'mad' and those designated to cure them.
Films
Mère Folle (2010) was launched with specific audiences in mind. A Long History of Madness (2011) is the international film of this project, released for the general public.
Screenings & Events
Across Europe and America we are involved in conferences, film festivals and art museums, to discuss the theoretical and practical themes of our project.
Installations
Spatialising the content of the film offers us the possibility to screen the work in museum and art gallery contexts, in order to create different experiences of the images.
Book
This is an on-going long-term project, to present a number of articles, interviews, set photographs and behind the scenes making-of photographs.
Latest update, 21.07.2011
After struggling with major computer problems the DVD is now finally in production! We will soon announce the release of the DVD. This will have subtitles in six languages. It comes in a box of two discs, one with the film and one with 140 minutes of special features: scenes that didn't make it into the film, and informational clips, including a hilarious "Making Of" film, conversations between Françoise and Thomas (Herlat, Artaud, Antonin) about playing three forms of madness, and between Marjo (Sissi's analyst) and Marja (Sissi) about what could have helped Sissi deal with her trauma.
Meanwhile, the film is still touring a bit. After Johannesburg, we screened it Brussels and Françoise showed and discussed it in Ceresy-la-Salle, France.
After a productive meeting in Turku, we are now working on the preparation for the exhibition "Landscapes of Madness" (curated by Mia Hannula, alias Aurora) in the Ars Nova Museum in Turku. We have made eighteen installation pieces, two of two screens facing one another, the remaining 16 single-channel pieces that will be shown in different sizes on monitors or projections through the seven galleries. The show opens on October 20th, and we hope many of you can attend. It will be a reunion of sorts, with many of the actors and other participants present.
Another big piece of news on a personal note: Michelle and Elan are expecting a baby mid-December! All is going well.