Trois Contes de Borges, Trois Contes de Borges

The Other, The Disk and The Book of Sand, three stories by Borges written in the 1970s, lend their titles to the three chapters of the film. We know that supposed autobiography is combined with the fantastic in the Argentine writer’s work, thus guaranteeing authenticity while adorning it with fantasy. This is what Maxime Martinot plays on, subtly employing Hector Spivak (the writer) successively and simultaneously in the role of storyteller and protagonist in the stories he distils. Especially given that, in addition to this fictitious source, there are dialogues borrowed from conferences and interviews and from authors appreciated by the scholar. It is therefore a case of listening to this invitation to a journey filmed both inside the studio and outside in a France which in no way is intended to imitate Argentina or any place mentioned in the original stories, nor a specific era. Ultimately, it is a film which rests on precise framing and the softness of the lighting of the 16 mm image, like an immersion in suspended time, in which images and languages resonate and take form. (NF)