The Song of Styrene

1958 [FRENCH]

Action / Animation / Documentary

10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 95%
IMDb Rating 7.0/10 10 1183 1.2K

short film behind the scenes short manufacturing chemical plant promotional film

Plot summary

Le chant du Styrène is a 1958 French documentary film directed by Alain Resnais. The film was an order by French industrial group Pechiney to highlight the merits of plastics.

Director

Alain Resnais Photo
Alain Resnais

Top cast

Pierre Dux Photo
Pierre Dux as Récitant / Narrator
Sacha Vierny Photo
Sacha Vierny as L'ouvrier
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
107.96 MB
1280*544
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles fr  
25 fps
12 hr 13 min
Seeds ...
211.28 MB
1920*816
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles fr  
25 fps
12 hr 13 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by chaos-rampant

Molding images

The narrative here, I imagine conceived as an educational short to be screened before a feature, is the backwards journey from a plastic bowl to the raw elements it originates from. It doesn't matter, the journey could be anything. What matters here is the plasticity of the image itself, how the forms can be moulded, bent, shaped into a fluid cinema. The various technological processes provide the opportunity; we swirl around machinery, track beneath structures or across platforms, follow busy assembly lines, and it's all joyful and upbeat. A celebration of French industry for who funded this, but for us and Resnais a celebration of the adventurous camera and cinematic texture.
Reviewed by Horst in Translation ([email protected]) 4 / 10

Neither poetic nor aesthetic really

"Le chant du Styrène" is a French documentary film from 1959, which means this one will have its 60th anniversary soon. The director is the famous Alain Resnais and the commentary was written by the not-so-famous Raymond Queneau. According to IMDb, it runs for 19 minutes, but all the versions I found only go for 13 minutes. That is actually really enough as all this film shows us are the work procedures at a large polystyrene factory. I have no idea why this was called poetic or aesthetic here on IMDb, because it is neither. I can't imagine people are really interested in this unless they work at such a factory themselves, which means this film is really only for a very small target group. In the film's favor, you have to say that color is nothing to be taken for granted for a film from the late 1950s and it definitely would have been an even more boring watch as a black-and-white film. The animation factor is negligible. As is the film as a whole, I do not recommend the watch. Thumbs down.
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