Un Chant d'amour
Jean Genet's cult film and classic of underground cinema
music:
quasi una fantasia
(Charlie Barber)
Jean Genet wrote and directed his only film,
Un Chant d'amour, in 1950. Set in a French prison, this silent, poetic, and intensely physical vision of homosexual desire reveals the recurrent themes that unite Genet's work and the cinematic techniques - of collage, flashback and close-up - which he adopted to his
novels, plays and poetry
Shot on 35mm by an established cameraman and professional crew, the cast was chosen by Genet from his circle of Montmartre
associates and lovers
The subject of ceaseless controversy and international censorship, Un Chant d'amour was unseen for many years yet has influenced a generation of film-makers, becoming a cause
célèbre of gay rights and freedom of expression, as well as being recognised as a masterpiece of underground cinema in its own right
