"two exceptional films"
La magazine Littéraire

"two cult films."
Terre Sauvage

- Available on 16th May 2008 -
(Can be reserved from 2nd April 2008)

1 Pack 2 DVD Aptly médias.
Original French soundtrack.
English, German, Spanish Subtitles.

DVD 1
Arthur Rimbaud Free Freedom
A biography
The texts are read by Denis Lavant.
90 min.

DVD 2
Athar, in the footsteps of Rimbaud
The texts are read by Lambert Wilson.
54min.

Paul Verlaine in London.
Film "Arthur Rimbaud Free Freedom"

Mountains landscape in Ethiopia.
Film "Athar sur les traces de Rimbaud."

Harar, in Ethiopia.
Film "Arthur Rimbaud Free Freedom"

For the first time on DVD, the two reference documentaries on Arthur Rimbaud.

In less than a decade, the two films of Perrot have become "classics".
From 1996 to 1999, the writer-director fully devoted three years of his life to the production and realization of these two films.

The press has called them "exceptional", "moving", "beautiful", "magnificent" ('Le Monde', 'The Guardian', 'Le Nouvel Observateur', 'RFI', etc.), highlighting the originality and high quality of the direction. Both films have been broadcast in more than thirty countries.

"Rimbaud LIBERTE LIBRE" ("Arthur Rimbaud Free Freedom") offers the biography of Rimbaud as a "grand-voyage" from the Ardennes to Ethiopia, a "picaresque" adventure, tragic and mind-opening. A new look at the course of the "real life" of Rimbaud, apart from the myths and reverence.

"ATHAR, in the footsteps of Rimbaud" is an extraordinary journey in the Horn of the contemporary Africa.

Two works to discover the life out of the ordinary and a little-known literary and universal genius.

Its existence is a mirror and a question for everyone about the meaning of life itself.

Both documentaries "Arthur Rimbaud Liberté libre - A biography from Ardennes to Ethiopia" (90 min. 1999) and "Athar, in the footsteps of Rimbaud - Ethiopia-Djibouti-Yemen" (52 min. 1998) generated from their first television broadcasts ('la Cinq', 'France 3') a real excitement and enthusiasm from both the public and art critics.

In a little more than a decade, they have continued to be regularly scheduled on many television channels both in France and abroad (to date in more than thirty countries).

They have gradually become "classics" on Rimbaud as confirmed also by the many public screenings to which the director still continues to be invited in numerous countries (universities, associations, colleges, embassies, etc.).

For the 'Magazine Littéraire', they are "two exceptional films"; for the magazine ' Terre Sauvage' "two cult films."

Both works have real cultural value and heritage. Both films are now real reference works.

DVD 1"Arthur Rimbaud Free Freedom" (90 min.)

The texts are read in french by the comedians Denis Lavant and Etienne Chicot.

This biography is "a grand voyage" from the Ardennes to Ethiopia, an adventure, tragic and mind-opening. It poses a new look at the course of the "real life" of Rimbaud, "a perfection of logic and unity" as Verlaine wrote.

A life out of the ordinary and unknown of the poet meteor and the adventurer: a childhood in Charleville under the watchful eye of a strict "mother", the emotion of being first in the class, the escape into the Ardennes , to Paris, and Brussels, a poet brilliant and revolutionary at the time of the Commune of 1871, the story of forbidden love with Verlaine that disturbed the poets of "le tout Paris", the flight to London and the drama in Brussels ...

Then the years travelling around Europe on foot, his work as a foreman at Aden, the trips in Abyssinia in the region of Harar the caravan of arms he organised in Djibouti and in Ethiopia, his meeting with the Menelik Negus, the Company Export-Import which he founded, his tragic return to France where his leg was amputated, and his death in Marseille at 37 years old.

For the English newspaper "The Guardian": "The film contains images of incredible beauty", "this experimental documentary possesses a real innovative style that makes it exceptional."

DVD 2: "Athar, in the footsteps of Rimbaud "(54min)

The movie "Athar, traces of Rimbaud" (54min) offers an extraordinary journey in the Horn of the contemporary Africa in the footsteps of Rimbaud.

The texts are read by comedian Lambert Wilson.

Aden, Djibouti, Obock, Tadjourah, Lake Assal, Ankober, Entotto, Addis Ababa, Awash, Dire Dawa, Harrar, these are the main stages of a rare and remote journey, off the beaten track, on the trail of Arthur Rimbaud. To follow the main journeys of "the man with soles of wind," we discover with fascination the contemporary reality of these regions, and lift the veil on the unknown part of the existence of Rimbaud. From 1880 to 1891, the poet turned his attention to trade and exploration. It is one of the first Europeans to travel around this region, often in difficult conditions. Between the age of 25 and 37 years old he spent the last third of his life in Abyssinia, on the Somali coast and South Yemen.

For the news paper "Le Nouvel Observateur", it is an "emotional and beautiful" film; for the magazine "Les Inrockuptibles " Perrot films a breathtaking and beautiful Africa", for "La Vie", "a commentary of rare literary quality, that deserves to be published ","Africa Magazine " a superb documentary", and so on.

Thanks to Richard Hall Wilton (Translation)