La nuit du phoque (1974)

In recent years Jean-Jacques Birgé has been acclaimed for his work as a film maker, notably for his contribution to Sarajevo, a street under siege, which won him a British Academy Award for Film and TV Arts, but the story of his career as a director starts back in 1974 with a wild 16mm short film called La Nuit du Phoque that he made as a student at film school with Bernard Mollerat. It is this priceless document of early 70s avant-garderie that Zaharia has had lovingly restored and released on the DVD. Birgé was a classic product of 1968, though he was only 15 at the time – flyposting revolutionary tracts (hence perhaps the opening scene of the film), growing pot on his balcony, namechecking We're Only In It For The Money, the Grateful Dead, Buñuel and Easy Rider. As a student at IDHEC, the French National Film School, he met the absurdly creative and openly homosexual Mollerat, who later committed suicide aged just 24; in La Nuit du Phoque ("The Night of the Seal") they "decided to try everything imaginable"; the 41 minutes are packed to the brim with wild and utterly incomprehensible visual and textual shifts, including special effects, graphic but sensual love scenes, a hilarious Busby Berkeley-style "revolutionary ballet", a superb avant-garde gay cabaret number sung by Philippe Danton – imagine a cross between Rocky Horror and the Trout Mask era Magic Band – and any number of absurd cameos (I particularly like the surprise appearance of Sir Isaac Newton, who scares the shit out of some kids playing in a local park). As a period piece La Nuit du Phoque is unbeatable, and it alone would make an impressive bonus.