Camera Lucida

Go inside the building that has been the source of some of the greatest moments in music, ballet and opera.

A documentary on American marching bands with a background of the 2008 presidential election.

Accompanied by a child, the mathematician Galileo observes the firmament with a telescope. Ten years ago, the philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned in Rome for having supported the idea of an infinite and centerless universe, based on the work of Copernicus. By dint of observations and calculations, Galileo seeks proofs for his hypothesis of a cosmic system where the Earth is "an ordinary celestial body, one among thousands". From Padua to Venice, the mathematician shakes certainties by confronting the power of a Church which wishes to maintain its absolute power in the "crystal spheres" where Ptolemy has hitherto locked up the world.

Opera in three acts by Christoph Willibald Gluck, Hector Berlioz's version (1859)

Two young adults, Clara and Hidalgo, meet in the Verdon canyon. Everything opposes them: interests, skin color, openness to others. Hidalgo decides to relive, a hundred years later, the adventure of Édouard-Alfred Martel, the first explorer of the Verdon canyon, when Clara comes to hike in the region. This meeting, at a turning point in their lives, will allow them each to live a strong experience that will mark them for a long time...

Making full use of Drottningholm Theatre's unique 18th-century baroque theatre machinery, as well as his deep creative understanding of the profound drama of the work, stage director Pierre Audi creates a production of ZOROASTRE that completely accords with the spirit of Rameau. True to the form of the tragedie lyrique, choreographer Amir Hosseinpour's dances perfectly match the weight and meaning of both plot and music. The ensemble, Les Talens Lyriques, reinforced with musicians from the Drottningholm Court Theatre Orchestra and Chorus, is expertly and passionately led into the musical stratosphere by musical director Christophe Rousset. This intensely dramatic production is captured live in vibrant High Definition video and true surround sound.

Is a spectacular journey across 4 billion years of evolution exploring how the Moon has been essential in setting up the pace to create life on Earth and how it has been a source of inspiration and fascination for men ever since

Atomic Park is a place in the White Sands desert (New Mexico), not far away from Trinity Site, where the first atom bomb exploded in 1945. This national park provides an ambivalent landscape, as well suited for a picnic as for ballistic tests. A white desert, like a natural exhibition hall every movement can provoke diverse interpretations. Like a faint echo we hear Marilyn Monroe's desperate monologue and accusation about man's violence from The Misfits (1961). - Torino Film Festival

In 1965 Ingmar Bergman filmed “Persona”, the cult film that brought together all of the Swedish filmmaker’s obsessions and became a turning point in his career.

10-year-old Ellie is fascinated by nature and birds, she spends her time reading about them. One day, a few miles from school, she goes onto a little island on the Loire River to take a bird book back to the library. It's an island full of birds.

A young woman, Antonia, returns to her island of birth, Corsica, after one of her relatives has disappeared at sea. She is torn back and forth between her old love Ettore and the dumb Alexander. The quest for Antonia's place in the masculine environment of armed nationalism is an excuse for all kinds of peregrinations in the spectacular landscape of Cap Corse - a landscape that itself becomes a leading character.

Every night, a father tells his son a bedtime story. As if by challenge, the child always chooses the same book, with scores, orchestra photos and images of animals. It’s about Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Carnival of the Animals”. Under the impetus of the gentle complicity of father and son, this somewhat austere book is transformed, comes to life and makes music: the carnival animals come to life...

The prodigious genesis of a monument of world literature, too often reduced to its popular success, also recounts the tormented conversion of its author, Victor Hugo, to the ideal of social progress.

In the kingdom of music, different families of instruments live apart. One day, the string family heard about the saxophone family and they invited them over for a visit. The two families then decide to embark on a search of other instrument families. During their journey, other families start joining them and toghether they form a large orchestra.

At the end of 2013, the year that marked the 50th anniversary of Francis Poulenc’s death, his gripping and moving operatic masterpiece, Dialogues des Carmélites was staged in Paris by director Olivier Py with a cast featuring some of France’s finest female singers – Patricia Petitbon, Véronique Gens, Sandrine Piau and Sophie Koch – under the baton of Jérémie Rohrer. Le Figaro described the production as “a thing of wonder,” while Le Monde called it: “A masterpiece ... the most exciting and consummately achieved show to have been seen on a Parisian stage in a long time … This was great work, magisterial and unforgettable.” “The memorable Dialogues des Carmélites at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées marked the climax of commemorative activities for the 50th anniversary of Poulenc’s death,” wrote Opera magazine of the production of Poulenc’s gripping and moving opera that was staged by the French director Olivier Py in Paris in December 2013.