Le chant du Styrène
1958 · 13m · France
Directed by Alain Resnais
Genres: documentary, experimental
Tones: contemplative, humorous, whimsical
A commissioned industrial film transformed into a lyrical documentary poem: Alain Resnais traces the manufacture of polystyrene in reverse, from finished plastic products back to their petrochemical origins, narrated by Pierre Dux reading Raymond Queneau's witty verse in alexandrines.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Industrial commission turned into an alexandrine-verse documentary poem about polystyrene running backwards — only Resnais and Queneau could pull this off. The Vimeo link's dead, of course.
Resnais and Queneau reverse-engineer polystyrene into a Lucretian alexandrine poem, transforming an industrial commission into one of the great essay-film provocations. The Vimeo link is sadly down.
Industrial commission turned poetic documentary — Queneau wrote the narration in alexandrine verse, tracing polystyrene back to oil in reverse chronology. Vimeo pulled the copy but Resnais's whole essay-film method is here in embryo.
Reviews
Never, I believe, since those of Eisenstein, has a film been so scientifically meditated as Le Chant du Styrène.
Resnais and Vierny's spectacular images have an arch sensibility, a slight remove, a hint of theatricality from which the director would continue to benefit.