Diptych
France 1967

France 1967, “Diptyque” (original title),  8 min, colour & b&w, French dir Walerian Borowczyk sc Walerian Borowczyk cam Guy Durban ed Marie-Louise Barberot mus Bizet’s ‘Les pêcheurs de perles’ prod Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin pc Pantaléon Films sales Fiends’s of Walerian Borowczyk: Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin aw Mannheim IFF 1967: Interfilm Award

In hindsight, Diptych stands as in many ways the cornerstone of Borowczyk’s inimitable approach to cinema. Here, Borowczyk presents two, seemingly distinct ‘volets’. In the first, we see an old farmer, accompanied by his knackered dog, riding a clapped out jalopy back home. Shot hand held, with direct sound in grainy black and white, it makes a stark contrast to the second volet, which features a succession of tableaux vivant in startling colour featuring house plants and kittens playing against an aria from Bizet’s Carmen. While total opposites both in terms of form and style, the two volets nevertheless constitute a unified whole.