Paris, three young actors – Gérard Dépardieu, Hélène Viard, Francis Merle – and Agnès Varda’s cinécriture: the perfect ingredients for making a film. Considered too controversial even for auteur cinema of the mid-1960s, only a few screen tests remain of the film, which arepresented today in a restored version. The play on words of the title transforms its meaning of an English Christmas tale into Christmas Carole. In addition to being in line with Varda’s use of alienation techniques, it immediately shifts the perspective from Dickens’ didactic story to a contemporary moral fable in which the lights and shopping frenzy trigger the reflections of a young ‘situationist’ raisonneur,played by a formidable Dépardieu, on consumer society. On the cusp of 1968 and driven by ideals, young people born at the end of World War II reject the god of money, praise free love and women’s freedom. Shortly afterwards, the unstoppable Varda took off for the US, where she continued her investigation into contemporary conflicts combining documentary and fiction, with films such as Black Panthers, 1968, and Lions, Love… (and Lies), 1969.

Anna Masecchia