Mémoires de pierre

A Stone quarry near Paris. This strange and hidden place where stone is extracted has many invisible connexions with the world we live in. The film goes travelling in and out the quarry to show these connections. Monumental galleries and walls are inhabited by various strata of time, from Lutetian era lo last century industrialisation, including as well World War II and recent mechanisation. The quarry also keeps mysterious links with some great Parisian monuments built with its stone, ancient town halls, churches or schools where we still live and perform rites.
But this stone, that's been cut in blocks for centuries, is now crushed into sand and used in the banking up of highways. Men and work are changing, craft being replaced by industry and mechanisation. Old quarriers tell us about this past time they regret. But their melancholy mood sometimes gets bitter. The golden age of freestone and craftsmen was not as happy as its legend. The subject of the film then turns to be the sentimental stuff memory is made of. Has something been really lost between last century town halls and modern highways.