Shadows and light (lumière)!
 

PostED ON 17.10.2025

When cinema and life are intrinsically intertwined, the result is a political, poetic, poignant and funny documentary with an eloquent and counterintuitive title: Dis pas de bêtise (‘Don't Talk Nonsense’).

© DR
Dis pas de bêtises (2025)

THE SUBJECT: A conversation between a father - filmmaker and cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn -  and his son Vincent, about life, work, relationships with others through cinema, society, motorcycles, and fighting...

THE METHOD: A documentary, narrated in the first person, combining archival footage, Making-of footage, photographs, film clips, testimonials (including one from Bertrand Tavernier) and scenes shot exclusively for the film, in nursing homes and elsewhere. 
          

BONUS ‘My father spoke very badly about people he didn't respect...’ Vincent Glenn says softly. This candour, applicable to its subject, Pierre-William Glenn, a figure equally energetic and controversial, gives this documentary its value. The author later refers to a “ baring of the soul”, and it is well worth it; we learn a great deal about what constitutes a life in this doc about a son who wants to ‘make a film with him’. The latter, long unknown, yet famous, is an adventurer of cinematography with a passion for motorcycles, cigarettes and wine. The documentary restates the necessity of culture, such as crime fiction, to explain death. It also brings up the strength required to be of mixed-race in our societies and the importance of being anticapitalistic. Quite a fine programme!

Virginie Apiou

Dis pas de bêtises by Vincent Glenn (2025, 1h20, VFSTA)

Institut Lumière (Villa) Fri. 17 at 11.30 am