FREDERICK WISEMAN RETROSPECTIVE

Over more than six decades, Frederick Wiseman (1930–2026) meticulously and patiently filmed the inner workings of the institutions that organize collective life in Western democracies: hospitals, schools, prisons, public offices, department stores, dance companies, and municipal governments.

Eschewing any explanatory or didactic intent, Wiseman developed a method rooted in direct observation, editing, and duration. His films feature no interviews, no voice-overs, and no pre-imposed hierarchies. Instead, it is the images themselves—through their accumulation and rhythm—that allow the viewer to reconstruct the meaning of what they see. In doing so, his cinema occupies a unique space between documentary, the film essay, and a form of "thinking in images."

The selection proposed in this cycle traverses various stages of his filmography, from Titicut Follies (1967)—his controversial debut feature that revealed the stark conditions within a psychiatric hospital with unprecedented rawness—to Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (2023), where his gaze captures the almost choreographic precision of a world-class restaurant. Between these two milestones, films such as High School, Welfare, Ballet and City Hall compose a vast portrait of contemporary society.