Experiencing Interruptions?

Intensity

Silhouettes pass in front of a painting by Georges de La Tour.
The image opens and closes with their movements, revealing the painting in fragments.
As they cross the frame, fleeting tableaux appear — where spectators themselves become figures of the composition.

  • Christophe Schaeffer
    Director
  • Christophe Schaeffer
    Writer
  • Christophe Schaeffer
    Producer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Intensité
  • Project Type:
    Experimental
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 16 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 1, 2026
  • Country of Origin:
    France
  • Country of Filming:
    France
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 1920x1080
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Christophe Schaeffer

Christophe Schaeffer is a French multidisciplinary artist — writer, poet, philosopher (PhD), visual artist, and lighting designer. His work spans theatre, contemporary dance, visual arts, music, and cinema, exploring perception, time, and the fragile boundaries between image and presence.
Since 2022, he has developed a body of experimental films extending his research into moving images. His cinematic practice revolves around duration, slowness, and the vibration of reality, often using extreme slow motion, long focal lengths, and mobile phone cinematography.
His films have been presented in international festivals and artistic contexts, and pursue a form of poetic cinema of attention, where images remain inhabited by gesture, silence, and lived experience.

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Director Statement

Intensity was born from a simple experience: standing in front of a painting and feeling that something continues to act long after the image has been seen.
The film does not attempt to explain the painting by Georges de La Tour. Instead, it places the viewer in a situation of attention. Bodies pass in front of the image, partially hiding it, revealing it again. The painting never appears completely; it exists through interruptions, through fragments, through time.
This movement transforms the act of looking. The gaze is no longer immediate or possessive; it becomes patient. Seeing requires waiting, crossing the image, accepting what escapes.
The improvisation by Herb Elsky accompanies this circulation, opening a vibratory space where perception can deepen.
At the end, a small flame appears in color — a fragile point of intensity reminding us that light is not only what allows us to see, but something that exists in itself.