This Is the End

During the pandemic, the European filmmaker travels to Los Angeles, which is no stranger to spectacle and disaster. Under the Hollywood sign, being constantly in motion is de rigueur: never stop, never look too closely, never develop a feeling of being here. Long tracking shots from the safety of the Ford Mustang take in the city, whose shimmering surfaces reflect back to the filmmaker his own perspective, shaped by cultural criticism. The voids diagnosed by Baudrillard and Bégout, the missing connections, the meaninglessness, the end of the world which has perhaps already occurred, look surprisingly exciting through the tired eyes of the Old World: a 40-year-old love story is rekindled, love’s movements fall out of the cool flow of time, coyotes conquer the gardens, snakes swim in the pools. A chorus of actors share doomsday poems by E. E. Cummings, Ocean Vuong, Claudia Rankine and more with each other; these voices from the New World interrupt the French commentary. And two 70+ bodies from two extinct worlds synchronize tenderly with the cinema of attractions. (Jan Künemund)

Production Stéphane Jourdain. Production company La Huit Production (Paris, France). Director Vincent Dieutre. Screenplay Vincent Dieutre. Cinematography Arnold Pasquier. Editing Matthias Bouffier. Sound design Jean-Marc Schick. Sound Romain Cadhilac. Sound mixing Nathalie Vidal. Assistant director Joanna Grudzinska. Texts Stéphane Bouquet, Bruce Bégout. Co-producer Rasha Salti. Co-production Fotogram, Arte France – La Lucarne. With Dino Koutsolioutsos, Vincent Dieutre, Eva Truffaut, Jean-Marc Barr, Nelson Bourrec Carter, Geoffrey Carey, Darrell Davis, Laurie Karp, Keja-Ho Kramer, Elina Lowensohn, Kate Moran.

Vincent Dieutre, born in Petit-Quevilly, France in 1960, he studied film. Vincent Dieutre is a director, film journalist, book editor and translator. Many of his films have been invited to the Berlinale Forum, most recently JAURÈS (2012).

Films: 1984: Une martyre (6 min.). 1985: Wiener Blut (11 min.). 1986: Arrière saison (29 min.). 1988: Lettres de Berlin (50 min.). 1995: Rome désolée (Berlinale Forum, 70 min.). 2000: Leçons de ténèbres / Tenebrae Lessons / Lektionen der Finsternis (Berlinale Forum, 77 min.). 2001: Entering Difference / Lettre de Chicago (18 min.), Bonne Nouvelle (60 min.). 2003: Mon voyage d’hiver / My Winter Journey / Meine Winterreise (Berlinale Forum, 104 min.), Bologna Centrale (61 min.). 2004: Les accords d’Alba (25 min.). 2006: Fragments sur la grâce (101 min.). 2007: Después de la Revolución / After the Revolution (55 min.). 2008: Ea2: 2ème exercice d’admiration: Jean Eustache (21 min.). 2010: Toutes les étoiles tombent (10 min.), Ea3 (45 min.). 2012: Jaurès (Berlinale Forum, 83 min.). 2013: Déchirés/Graves (82 min.), Orlando Ferito – Roland Blessé / Roland Wounded (104 min.). 2015: Viaggio nella dopo-storia / Journey into Post-History (80 min.). 2016: Trilogie de nos vies défaites / Trilogy of Our Lives Undone (81 min.). 2019: Berlin Based (91 min.). 2021: Temps morts (84 min.). 2023: This Is the End.

Bonus Material