This filmed letter commissioned by Michel Boujut and broadcasted in October 1983 in his TV programme Cinéma cinema takes the viewer right to the heart of Vecchiali’s system. A craft that is nothing but modest, with the ambition to do nothing less than reverse the relationship between art and business. The director films himself happily balancing the books of his company (“As if my mind was engaging in a dichotomy: it simultaneously combines figures and letters while slyly quivering in the realm of the imagination.”). What else is there to see in this Ordinary day (the subtitle of the letter)? Melancholic tracking shots around le Kremlin-Bicêtre, the tableware of the shooting canteen, plays on words and languages, casting calls for a TV film… Daydreaming while producing. Or the other way around. From the audition to the screen test, from the actor to the character, from the director to the film, there is hardly a splice. The film half-opens a door on the resourcefulness of Diagonale, Vecchiali’s production company, and its loyal family of technicians, actors and directors. Vecchiali adds up talents, pools resources, maximises schedules. In this rotation system, economies of scale benefit everyone. It is a perfect implementation of François Truffaut’s friendly advice in 1970: “Vecchiali the producer shouldn’t go bankrupt because of Vecchiali the director!”
DB
