Pauline Curnier Jardin — Films

Pauline Curnier Jardin based Grotta Profunda, The Moody Chasm (2011) on the life of Bernadette Soubirous. She was the girl who claimed to have witnessed eighteen apparitions of the Virgin Mary in a cave near Lourdes in 1858. In this psychedelic film, the leading role is played by a man in women’s clothing. During the visions, Bernadette is transformed into a walking eye. In the cave, the character meets fantastical figures such as the Venus of Willendorf and a disco couple called Vanilla and Chocolate. The cave where everything happens is far more than a backdrop. It is reminiscent of a body or a womb. It is also a space in which ecstasy, ritual and performance merge: a natural theatre. Imagine the caves of Lascaux or Chauvet where prehistoric people painted murals and may have created shadow theatre in places with unusual acoustics and light effects. 

“The cave is a sort of inverted Pandora’s Box,” Curnier Jardin explains. “A new origin of the world, the reinvention of bodies and relationships.”

Credits:
With: Simon Fravega d'Amore, Mickaël Phelippeau, Maeva Cunci, Viviana Moin, Aude Lachaise, Walkind Rodriguez et Tobias Haberkorn
Direction: Pauline Curnier Jardin
Image: Alexis Kavyrchine
Art direction: Rachel Garcia
Editing: Damien Oliveres
Music: Claire Vailler,Vincent Denieul, Déficits Des Années Antérieures, JADA, Olivier Lapert et J. Strauss.
Co-production: Le Printemps de Septembre, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Caza d'oro, La Galerie de Noisy-le-Sec Executive production : Dirty Business of Dreams
Courtesy of the artist and ChertLüdde, Berlin and Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam.