Philippe Boesmans (1935-2022): Pinocchio

In order to view exclusive films with NO ADVERTS and HELP Altea Media restore in UHD resolution new productions, please join and subscribe :
   / @alteamedia  

View our subscription program introduction film:
   • Altea Media subscription  introduction  

Philippe Boesmans (1935-2022): Pinocchio
opera with a libretto by Joël Pommerat after Carlo Collodi
commissioned by the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence
world premiere

Director: Joël Pommerat
Sets and lighting: Éric Soger
Costumes, makeup, wigs: Isabelle Defiin
Video: Renaud Rubiano

The troupe director / first crook / second murderer / the circus director: Stéphane Degout
The father / third murderer / the schoolmaster: Vincent Le Texier
The puppet: Chloé Briot
Second crook / the cabaret director / the judge / first murderer / the donkey dealer: Yann Beuron
The cabaret singer / the bad student: Julie Boulianne
The fairy: Marie-Eve Munger
Extras: Jilan Al Hassan, Charlène Girin, Camille Lucas, Garance Rivoal, Claudine Sarzier
Troop musicians: Fabrizio Cassol, saxophone / improvisation coordinator
Philippe Thuriot: accordion
Tcha Limberger: gypsy violin

Klangforum Wien
Musical direction: Emilio Pomarico

Synopsis

The director of a traveling theater welcomes the spectators. Surrounded by his entire company. he has given himself the goal of always seeking the truth.
as in the story he is going to tell us...

It is the story of an old man, poor and lonely, who used to talk with a tree. A storm fells this tree: the man decides to sculpt a human statue to keep himself company.

As the man works. the wood seems to come to life. The puppet asks him for a mouth to speak and then something to eat. Disgusted by his father's poverty, the puppet agrees to go to school to learn how to earn money.

Under the puppet's pressure, the old man had to exchange his coat for a new school book. On the way to school, the puppet meets two crooks in front of the entrance to a cabaret. He trades his book for an entry to the cabaret where he causes a scandal by going on stage to kiss the singer.

The director of the cabaret, who cannot bear the sight of other people's misfortune, gives the puppet a large sum of money to get rid of him.

The crooks offer the puppet to make his money grow by burying it in the field of miracles... Dazzled by the proposal, the puppet accepts. When he realizes that he has been deceived and robbed, the puppet asks the court for justice and, without understanding the logic, finds himself sentenced to prison. "You can't explain everything in life," admits the director of the troupe.

Determined to return to his father when he gets out of prison. Pinocchio sets off at nightfall. in the countryside where he meets murderers. Despite the appearance of an elegant woman who tries to protect him. the puppet refuses to admit to the murderers that he has no money. He is believed to be dead. hung from a tree.

When he regains consciousness. he is at the fairy's (the elegant woman's) house. She promises to make him a real little boy if he goes to school. After resistance. the puppet accepts. And the fairy confronts him with his lies. The director of the troupe wonders if one can really change in life. ..

At school. the puppet has become an excellent student. The schoolmaster congratulates him but a bad student sows chaos in the class. To reward the puppet. the fairy organizes a
party to celebrate his second birth, the one that will make him become a real little boy. The puppet wants to invite the bad student, but he convinces him to leave with him for the land of eternal fun.

After weeks of fun. the two boys wake up with donkey ears. They realize that they have been exploited by a cynical trader. who sells children on the markets. after they have become donkeys. Sold to the director of a circus, the donkey Pinocchio is not easily trained, and is mistreated in return.

Injured in one leg, he is finally sold to a drum maker who seeks to recover his skin. The man throws him into the sea to kill him without damaging his "pretty coat".

In the water, having become a puppet again as if by miracle, he is swallowed up by a sea monster in whose entrails he finds his father.

Thanks to a new lie and endless chatter, Pinocchio manages to get himself expelled by the beast and save his father. We don't know how it happened, concludes the director of the troupe, but a few months later, Pinocchio becomes a real little boy...