The Flaneur
Discovering what the city has to offer at various paces.
Dilahan Cavusoglu’s The Flaneur is a fun romp through the iconic places of France and the particular life-force they take on when friends come together and energize those places with laughter and excitement. The film is something of a fantasy-piece given the film’s play on real time/real space. During production, we discussed how the film might hint at The Wizard of Oz (Fleming, 1939) as an influence. See what you think. Leilani Unama served as cinematographer and brought to life Dilahan’s Parisian adventures and fantasies.
From the Filmmaker
I had the idea for my short film The Flaneur before coming to the program. I knew I wanted to do a project where I’d be trying something new while exploring Paris. The thought of hidden transitions had been scratching at the back of my head for a while. I’d never done anything like that before and I wanted to challenge myself.
Simply put, my film follows someone going around Paris with fun transitions connecting each shot. I knew there’d have to be more to it than just that and, after the program started, the rest of the story became clear. On day two I realized that, although exploring Paris is exciting, I was having the most fun exploring with the people I met at the program.
It all came together: A traveler zips through Paris by herself. Slowly, friends join her to wander and enjoy the streets of Paris as flaneurs together.
The travel sequence is bookended by an elevator shot because the story is meant to be a visualization of their plan for the day. I made a conscious choice to switch from using a camera to a phone after Notre Dame because I felt it emphasized the aspect of having fun as a group rather than something professionally captured. My goal for this project, which I know I achieved, was to explore as much of Paris as possible while having fun as a crew.
Stills
