La vallée fantôme

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Paul, in his fifties, is a film-maker. He writes a screenplay as if it were his job and starts looking for an actress for the lead role. The fact that he can't find her must be due to something: perhaps there are too many stories, too many images, too many actresses and too little peace. Or maybe it's a necessity. Spontaneously, Paul throws away his script. Jean had just finished film school and was hired by Paul as his assistant. One day, he comes across an old photo of Dara, an Italian actress he once knew and admired, but who has long since disappeared from the screen. Paul asks Jean to find her. Both of them do everything they can to bring her back to the screen. To achieve this, they embark on a world of feelings, confrontations and dreams. "... a cinematic essay without didactic heaviness about self-doubt and how to live with that doubt, about danger and the refusal of failure. You can't help but admire the evocative way in which Alain Tanner uses cinema to criticise superfluous cinema. He risks his alter ego for artistic survival.