Spiritismes (2014)
- Original title
- Seances
- Directed by
- Guy Maddin
- Genre
- drama film, silent film
- Country
- France, Canada
- Runtime
- 13 min
- Rating
- 6.7 of 10 from 6 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
This is a silent film from a larger interactive project that recreates lost films. The director and crew made short movies quickly, treating each shoot like a séance to channel old cinema.
experimentalnostalgicfragmenteddreamlikeplayfulsurrealintimatemelancholic
What happens
Seances is a 2016 interactive project by filmmaker and installation artist Guy Maddin, with co-creators Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, and the National Film Board of Canada, combining Maddin's recreations of lost films with an algorithmic film generator that allows for multiple storytelling permutations. Maddin began the project in 2012 in Paris, France, shooting footage for 18 films at the Centre Georges Pompidou (this installation was titled Spiritismes, the French word for "seances", leading to press confusion about the project title) and continued shooting footage for an additional 12 films at the Phi Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Paris and Montreal shoots each took three weeks, with Maddin completing one short film of approximately 15–20 minutes each day. The shoots were also presented as art installation projects, during which Maddin, along with the cast and crew, held a “séance” during which Maddin "invite[d] the spirit of a lost photoplay to possess them." On December 31st, 2025, the project became inactive on the National Film Board's website, as "the technology it relied on is no longer compatible with the updated standards of [its] platform." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
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Se battre (2014)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.