Synopsis

Digging once again into the deep archives of 20th century audiovisual history, Sergei Loznitsa crafts this elegant, ironic mini-portrait of the galas of Paris's Palais Garnier in the 1950s and 60s. With his typically masterful use of montage, and a minutely reconstructed soundtrack, Loznitsa revisits a socio-political microcosm that features adoring crowds and glimpses of Bardot, Cocteau, and Queen Elizabeth II amid the pomp and ceremony of Parisian high society.

Digging once again into the deep archives of 20th century audiovisual history, Sergei Loznitsa crafts this elegant, ironic mini-portrait of the galas of Paris's Palais Garnier in the 1950s and 60s. With his typically masterful use of montage, and a minutely reconstructed soundtrack, Loznitsa revisits a socio-political microcosm that features adoring crowds and glimpses of Bardot, Cocteau, and Queen Elizabeth II amid the pomp and ceremony of Parisian high society.