Glossolalie

At the beginning of "L'Homme à la caméra" (1929), Dziga Vertov shows the opening of a movie theater and the arrival of the audience. This work, which proceeds to deconstruct the filmic object, relies on the presence of a third party. Furthermore, on several occasions, the filmmaker shows the audience: the film is intended for the public, or even the masses – its dialectical force depends on the presence of the viewer. Today, the rarefaction of the audience is real. Since the viewer is absent, Erik Bullot chooses to speak directly to him or her by filmed letter. The point is to invent an address. Meeting that other person nonetheless presup-poses a common tongue, a system of signs. The question of the lingua franca is the leitmotif of the film. How does one address that other person? One may learn a foreign tongue, decipher codes or get to know secret languages (cryptography). One may decide to use a universal language (Esperanto) or rediscover a lost tongue (Hebrew). One may also use sign language, make up a poetic language (“zaoum”, from Russian futurists to Dada), talk a foreign tongue without ever having learned it (xenoglossia) or speak a made-up language (glossolalia). Erik Bullot hunts down imaginary languages. "Glossolalia" means speaking in tongues inspired by God, like the Pentecostalists. Does this practice still exist? "Glossolalie" received the support of the DICREAM/Ministry of Culture