Producer: MARCO Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo

Coordinated at MARCO by: Patricia Verdial Garay

With the collaboration of: Filmoteca Vasca
Author of the book: Éric Le Roy

Yannick Bellon (Biarritz, 1924 – Paris, 2019)
Yannick Bellon was born to a family committed to progressive ideas and the arts, daughter of photographer Denise Bellon, niece of filmmaker Jacques Brunius and related to Jorge Semprún. She made a name for herself when, at 24 years old, her short film Goémons (1948) received the Venice Biennale award. She concluded her filmography, 70 years later, with her last film, D’où vient cet air lointain? (2018).

Both films were connected by a sequence of wonderful stories and reflections, planned from a committed standpoint and ready to take risks, and all of them part of a body of work steadfastly connected to the filmmaker’s time and her experience as a woman Quelque part quelqu’un (1972), made with a conviction brought by the coming of age, shows a female architect who helps an aspiring novelist to quit drinking. La femme de Jean (1974, awarded with a Silver Shell in the San Sebastián International Film Festival), a film that was key to feminist thinking, a woman vindicates her own space. Jamais plus toujours (1976) in which memory is explored through an actress’ personal belongings being sold off at auction. L’amour violé (1978) is about rape. L’amour nu (1981) where happiness is abruptly cut short by breast cancer. La triche (1984) deals with bisexuality Les enfants du désordre (1989) with drugs and prostitution. L’affût (1992) is a defence of nature against hunting. D’òu vient cet air lointaine? a sort of a self-portrait, which also captures an intense period of time, defined by the surrealist movement, the Spanish civil war, the Second World War and the parallel life of cinema.

Her works will be shown at various times throughout several months.

We are working towards completing the project by exhibiting a selection of her mother’s photographs. Denise Bellon was the photographer for the 1938, 1947, 1959 and 1965 International Surrealist Exhibitions.

Eric Le Roy

Director of the Access, Valorisation and Collection Enrichment Service at the French National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image’s (CNC-France) Heritage Management Department. He was President of the FIAF (International Federation of Film Archives) for six years, after working at the Cinémathèque Française.