THE GOLDEN AGE
L’Âge d’or (The Golden Age) by Bérenger Thouin, at the crossroads of image media
A work that is truly one of a kind for its genre is unveiled today in Cannes Classics. After 10 years of writing and editing, Bérenger Thouin succeeded in creating L’Âge d’or (The Golden Age), his first feature film, a sweeping saga that spans the 20th century, starring Souheila Yacoub.
A butcher’s daughter who dreams of becoming a countess. On her journey, Jeanne Lavaur defies destiny across decades through unsuspected twists and turns. Two wars, a major flood in Paris, a voyage to Brazil, Jeanne’s story spans 60 years, accompanied by Guillaume de Barante and the fearless Céleste.
For L’Âge d’or (The Golden Age), Bérenger Thouin delved deep into all kinds of archives — those of his family as well as those of French Newsreels — produced in the last century by Gaumont-Pathé.
“Archives make it possible to work with reality and time, to play with narrative codes, and, in my opinion, to stir up emotion.”
After writing and editing the archives, Bérenger Thouin created a storyboard to prepare the scenes to be filmed as live-action shots, featuring Souheila Yacoub, Vassili Schneider, Yile Yara Vianello and Pierre-Antoine Billon.
The director, credited with six short films, refuses to settle for a dialogue between archive and fiction. He weaves them together to create a story in its own right, in a unique form, without trying to hide the seams between its various image sources. The result is a film that flows easily from color to black and white, and plays with textures, as if to blur the line between truth and fiction, while crafting its own harmony.
