Mills of Time

On the wild banks of a river in the Cévennes, Philip and Tristan restore the irrigation system of a 17th-century water mill. Following the water’s path, they work together, pausing, resting, and sharing moments of calm.

The sound of a river’s running water under soft daylight, flowing past the remains of an old water mill nestled between the rocks; surrounded by the forest, two men are sitting in the recess of a stone hut housing a few tools. With their simplicity and carefully composed frames, the first shots of Mills of Time instil a dialectic between several fundamental elements of the film: water and stone, the ephemeral and the unchanging, man and nature. Holding the same rudimentary tools, the two figures repeat the same gestures in a silent choreography, digging channels, moving stones, as if to travel back in time. The static sequence shots, arranged like paintings, enchantingly record the slow transformation of places. In this peaceful ritual, each modification, however tiny, becomes a theatrical event, and subtle poetic outbursts awaken an absence, or perhaps a desire to repair what has been lost.
Capturing the beauty of the landscape and the movement, Pauline Rigal composes a visual and sound poem that is precise and clear, inviting contemplation and wonderment. The body at work, in harmony with the elements, opposes a silent resistance to the passage of time, while the duration of the shots and the care given to the simplicity of gestures and the world’s materiality reveal the sublime dimension of this interaction.

Nepheli Gambade