Trois révélations et leur Triptyque – La boite à l’étiquette bleue

The Box known as ‘étiquette bleue’

Inside the box known as ‘étiquette bleue’ there were three plates of glass which in the past would have been exhibited. These long forgotten pictures concealed from everyone’s sight have been restored  in this film.

The first panel of the triptyque begins with a trip back in time. The film opens with the mysterious creaking of a door. The negatives on these plates of glass, and laying there  for almost a century have at last been brought to light; the pictures appear slowly…..a snow-clad landscape dissolves into overlaying blue, grey and white.

The second panel reveals a stranger. Who is she? No way of knowing. The only thing that is certain is that she hasn’t been around for a long time.

We catch sight of her for a split second, framed by the shutters of the house and the Virginia creeper climbing the wall.

She seems to be surprised at being photographed .  The last thing she could have imagined was that she would come to life again a hundred years later.

As for the music it changes into an intangible but palpable sound.

Another snow covered landscape and the film comes to an end. No, not completely. It is seen once more as a triptyque. The three panels are put together, The musics come together to form a whole.

The photographic technique with gelatino- silver bromide was invented in 1871 by a Britisher Richard Maddox (1816-1902). This invention radically changed photograghy as  a much shorter light exposure time   was  now needed .

As he didn’t patent this process, it was the Lumières, father and son who would put this process on the market and who set up  the the Firm A Lumière and Son specializing in Plates and photographic paper in 1789.

The  Lumière family  would make their fortune from the boxes of gelatino-silver bromide plates ,known as ‘étiquette bleue’ and their factory at Monplaisir would work at full capacity.

Three revelations and the Triptyque

A film by Frank César Lovisolo

Traduction du texte: Susan Millar.