05 Awake, You‘re Younger! - France

Entering Institute: Ecole Régionale des Beaux Arts de Nantes, Nantes
Contact / Supervising teacher: Marc Guerini
Author/s: Juliette Elie
Length: 3 min.

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‘Awake, you’re younger !’ emphasises the active role that old people can play in Europe, despite the fact that they are usually considered unable to cope with the diversity of languages. It also stresses the importance of the cultural heritage embedded in European literature.

An elderly couple are sitting in bed. The lady is reading a French book, while French words and pictures from France appear on the wall behind them. But the old man is not paying attention and falls asleep. The same happens with another two books in Greek and English. Unable to appreciate the poetry of the reading, the man falls asleep again.

To keep her husband’s attention the lady decides to use several books at a time. As she mixes the languages, strange things appear on the wall. Intrigued, the man is keen to read with his wife now.

We finally find them lying on a blue floor, as if they were two children playing, with many other books in the colours of European countries. As they touch each book, animated fireworks make the stars of the European flag appear. Music accompanies the progression from individual languages to the combination of all of them as the lady reads each book one after the other we hear a tune played each time by a single instrument. When she decides to mix them, the instruments play together.