Isabelle Olivier – Harpist, composer, educator, and artistic director at Metamorphose
« What if Méliès were a woman ? »
« Yes, a woman ! As a matter of fact, such a woman did exist. Her name was Alice Guy. She created around one thousand movies, but some were lost forever. And then, she herself completely disappeared. The Lumière brothers, Murnau, Griffith : do film libraries neglect them ? How could such a significant work be forgotten ? Partial archives, uncredited or wrongly attributed films, historians of cinema’s misogynist laziness… Though Einstein and Hitchcock complimented her, she is now off the radar. »
Extract translated from Le Monde 08/12/2019.
A tribute to forgotten women
After researching and watching Alice Guy’s filmography, Isabelle Olivier decided to create a cine-concert paying tribute to the pioneers of cinema. Throughout her artistic career, Isabelle Olivier has had the opportunity to work several times with Agnès Varda – a pioneer of contemporary cinema. Hence, she was deeply motivated by this project, which entailed coming back to her roots. As a tribute to these unfairly forgotten pioneers of cinema, Isabelle Olivier composed an eclectic program, accessible to all, revolving around an elaborated acoustic and electronic sound research.
Creating an original and new visual dialogue
Jean Yves Cousseau took care of the spatial installation of these representations. He wants to put forward the relationship between the screen and the musicians. There are two different possibilities : either a duo, with Isabelle Olivier and Thomas Olivier Beuf - pianist and accordeonist ; or a trio, with David Paycha - drums.