By Cornelis Hähnel. A postcard is not only a vacation greeting but always also a symbol for an idealized utopia. Beaches, mountain tops and sights are being displayed in absolute perfection in order to ignite a desire or to aestheticize memories. In that respect a postcard is not so far removed from the medium of cinema, although the latter won't rely on a just single image. In his short film LA CARTE French director Stefan Le Lay teaches the postcards how to move. A beautiful swimming cove, but the souvenir shop is selling out. Two racks of postcards. Suddenly a young man on one of the pictures comes to life, his attention is focussed on the young lady carrying an umbrella, who is being pictured in contemplative black and white at the opposite rack. In order to reach the object of his desire he goes to take on every hurdle in his way.

The idea to let the “inhabitants“ of a picture come to life is nothing new, but Le Lay has done a charming and at the same time sophisticated job of it. Because the images of our desires develop an urge to not only transcend space but also time. It’s a game of attribution and expectations, a nostalgic homage to both some long-gone traditions of cinema and to the power of love. By way of its sheer simplicity the story paradoxically reaches a universal philosophy of longing and escapism. The human-ascribed triumvirate of travel, love and cinema is being reflected with a technically adept wit, which elaborately clarifies the desire for distraction and improvement. The postcard as an autonomously acting screen, which sifts through the questions of reality and illusion, the self-reflectiveness of cinema, and all the heady theories of cinematic studies with great ease. It's a pleasure trip with some serious footnotes.

PS: Greeting to Deleuze!

Links

• THE POSTCARD (F 2009. Stefan Le Lay)
• A Revisitation of the “Primitive Cinema” – An interview with Stefan Le Lay
• Cinema’s Birthplace – Werner Busch about the French film market