27/10/2005

Melodias ( Les films de la dernière heure) is among ten documentaries in line for the 2005 European Film Award, which will be awarded on the 3rd December in Berlin. Twice winner at the Festival Visions du Réel, this film by François Bovy follows the fateful meeting of a taxi driver, a contract killer and a cop in the streets of Medellin, three lives confronted by the violence which reigns in the Columbian capital.

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In the review columns of the French Les cahiers du cinéma, Sylvain Coumoul saluted the talent of a young director: "'Melodias by François Bovy (selected) flattened out the circularity of his writing. A "South American" style (tight shots of faces, flat colours rich in depth), a comic ancient choir, numerous "replayed" scenes within a work whose particularity is to never make an error: a baby sleeps on mother’s shoulder, others would reframe on the baby’s face, but Bovy stays on the mother, and tough luck if at first we don’t see his face, we have to wait till the rocking brings him into view."

Having studied at the Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne, François Bovy has made shorts and documentaries since the beginning of the 1990s. He was also lighting cameraman for Jean-Stéphane Bron for Connu de nos services (Known to our services) and La bonne conduite (Good conduct) – the two early documentaries from the maker of Mais im Bundeshuus - Le Génie Hélvétique (Swiss genius) – and is now preparing a first work of feature fiction.

(Translated from French)