What is reality? A picture? A memory?
We see here, photographed on a silver emulsion, Pola Negri and a partner in a black and white movie of Polas Hollywood time. But this photo was shot in 2017, it shows Michalina Olszańska and Charles Jodoin-Keaton. The one is our Polish actress playing Pola, the other our script supervisor with a fake moustache and a fantasy uniform.
Since we could not find the copyrights for Polas Hollywood films we recreated the Hollywood mood. In a filmstudio, that was in reality a part of a former slate mine in the very north of Luxembourg. When we filmed there in late April, it was minus 8 degrees Celsius. White was the breath of our actors. But we filmed and Pola kissed the tight lipped kiss of the Hays code era. Frédéric Goupil made the photo. It created a memory. And an illusion.
Thats how film works. Like slate it builds layer upon layer of illusions and fake moustaches and acted feelings. And in the end you have, if you are lucky, something real.
