Fragments d’ici (2002) dir. Nicolas Humbert & Werner Penzel

When we finished filming MIDDLE OF THE MOMENT in the winter of 1993, the time of “Cirque O” also came to an end. The troupe, a sensation around the world for over two years with their innovative circus spectacle, disbanded, and Johann le Guillerm, the tightrope walker who had become one of the main characters in MIDDLE OF THE MOMENT, decided to found new circus and called it “Cirque Ici.” In the fall of 1997, we visited him on the first European tour of his solo circus performance and shot with him for three days and nights. The result is this filmic document, which we have called FRAGMENTS D'ICI, and is composed of fragments of the spectacle and the music of Fred Frith and Chris Cutler. What one experiences in the circus tent with Johann Le Guillerm is the staging of the magical moment. His evocation of gravity, his stubborn objects and eternal attempts, make him a modern Sisyphus who keeps us spectator in breathless suspense.