Patrick Cazals’ film, La Dixième Muse, brings Musidora to life for the second time. The first occasion was the publication of his earlier book on the same subject with Henri Veyrier in 1978. The latter remains an essential work of reference because its author was the first person since Francis Lacassin to have surveyed Musidora’s career as a pioneering filmmaker and total artist. It includes previously undiscovered documents that are no longer accessible in their original form. This film too contains many previously unknown images found and selected by Patrick Cazals. Above all, it offers the animated image of a beauty in a close-fitting black suit, and her voice that speaks directly to us, alongside the voices of all those the director has brought together to establish a subtle bond with Musidora and bring her into our own age. As a great documentary filmmaker, Patrick Cazals does not seek, he finds. He is a visual troubadour: the knight and his adventures are here at one with his lady. Horses, wild bulls, bleeding hearts, stories within stories, the music of his notes, the words, the pace of his editing, conjure up Musidora the Blessed before our eyes, a shining star in the firmament of magical images.

Marie-Claude Cherqui