A waltz by Jean Wiener accompanies a montage sequence showing dust in suspension blanketing our planet. Dust is both unavoidable and harmful: men introduce natural dust into their manmade processes, dust turns against man. The film focuses on the most dangerous dust of all, silica, which, even in small doses, causes a dangerous lung disease known as silicosis. Sand, when created artificially from beach pebbles, is “useful for industry, but dangerous for man”: “It is used in industry, but it is harmful to humans”. In 1954, the only remedy advocated by the film’s sponsor, the Institut national de la sécurité, was the need to wear a safety mask, “meant to complement collective protective measures” as yet unspecified. In the porcelain industry, workers have no safety gear whatsoever. Their activity generates dust, “which ends up either in the ventilation system or in their pulmonary alveoli”. A man “may feel fine, but silicosis is there already, as X-rays will reveal”. Coalminers cover their faces with talcum powder for protection: eyes without a face. Modernisation fights what it has created and engenders dustscapes. An atomic bomb explodes; the commentary tells us how fallout spews particles in every direction. “Our future carries this cancer within itself” (Freddy Buache).

Bernard Eisenschitz