About

Les lieux d'une fugue (The Places of a Fugue) 1978

41 minutes | Ages 12+

En Remontant la Rue Vilin (Going Up Vilin Street) 1992

In 1969, Georges Perec set out to document twelve locations in Paris over a twelve-year period. His meticulous descriptions formed a dossier to remember the places that had shaped his life. One of these locations was Rue Vilin – the street in in Ménilmontant on which he grew until the age of six, when his family was torn apart by the Second World War and the Holocaust. The day after Perec's untimely death in 1982, Rue Vilin was demolished to make way for a park.

Using over 500 photographs of the street taken across decades, Perec’s friend Robert Bober set about completing and extending the project — reconstructing Perec’s childhood home like a puzzle, piece by piece. This elegiac feat of research provides a poetic and affectionate insight into Perec’s methods and the origins of his fascination with memory.

48 minutes | Ages 12+