Voies d’effondrement : expériences minérales du décentrement dans le cinéma français contemporain

In contemporary French cinema, one may observe a veritable call from the mountains, leading filmmakers to move away from usual filming locations to the heights, a marginal space from which they rebuild new possibilities in times of crisis. By consideirng a selection of films made between 2009 and 2023 from the realms of fiction (Patricia Mazuy, Thomas Salvador), documentary (Camille Llobet), animation (Vergine Keaton) and experimental filmmaking (Jacques Perconte), this article considers characters and filmmakers who distance themselves from human concerns by taking to the heights, where they realise that the world is collapsing and will continue to do so. The resulting films thus find resources in aridity and frugality, and the mineral world proves to be a vector for rebirth and new ways of living. As a result, in these films, geographical decentring opens onto an ontological one.