This documentary shot between Paris Detroit Los Angeles and Nuremberg tells how Henry Ford and Fordism were in Germany the essential launching pad of a mass anti-Semitism and allowed the anchoring of the Nazis in the camp of modernity and capitalism in the «social virtues» which promised a radiant consumerist future to the German masses to whom the Nazis promised the “people’s car”. The philo-Nazi leanings of the most famous industrialist of the first twentieth century were known, but few voices echoed the decisive role he played in Nazi totalitarianism. The film slips dizzily into these nauseous meanders thanks to the help of Diego Rivera and his Detroit frescoes, and Chaplin who crossed Ford’s destiny in many places: He gave birth to Charlot on the day of Ford’s announcement of the doubling of the worker’s salary, and was the portrait painter of the latter in “Modern Times”, and of his German «creature» with “The dictator”.
Director Biography – Sébastien Juy
An academic historian, Sébastien Juy studied cinema as a PhD student at the Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle after the Agrégation d’histoire, and as a film historian at the magazine Mouvement. He became an independent documentary director, after being critical and especially accompanying the adventure of the series “Filmmaker/Cinema of our time” for which he directed for two opus. His career is that of a cinema of «no letting go» to use the words of André S. Labarthe. He’s also known for his work with Marc’O as the director of L’archipel du cas ‘O or Que je naisse se fasse.
Director Statement
This documentary shot between Paris Detroit Los Angeles and Nuremberg tells how Henry Ford and Fordism were in Germany the essential launching pad of a mass anti-Semitism and allowed the anchoring of the Nazis in the camp of modernity and capitalism in the «social virtues» which promised a radiant consumerist future to the German masses to whom the Nazis promised the “people’s car”. The philo-Nazi leanings of the most famous industrialist of the first twentieth century were known, but few voices echoed the decisive role he played in Nazi totalitarianism. The film slips dizzily into these nauseous meanders thanks to the help of Diego Rivera and his Detroit frescoes, and Chaplin who crossed Ford’s destiny in many places: He gave birth to Charlot on the day of Ford’s announcement of the doubling of the worker’s salary, and was the portrait painter of the latter in “Modern Times”, and of his German «creature» with “The dictator”.
| sébastien juy Director sébastien juy Writer sébastien juy Producer sébastien juy Key Cast |
