"Le film comme tombeau : composition, décomposition et reprises dans l'œuvre de Bill Morrison""

This essay discusses the notion of reprise within the field of contemporary experimental cinema, and more specifically, within the tradition of found footage film (Joseph Cornell, Bruce Conner, Ken Jacobs, etc.). It focuses on "Decasia" (2002), a film in which American filmmaker Bill Morrison re-edits fragments of decaying nitrate film stock to the sound of a detuned symphony composed by Michael Gordon. Throughout "Decasia", Morrison explores the various and subtle connections between the image and its material decomposition. This text aims to study three of these specific relationships: obliteration, disfiguration, and congruency.