Summaries

Synopsis

Louis, the patriarch and gatekeeper of the Estate, is deep in taxonomic study. He is steeped in a tradition of measurement and naming - he guards it well. The eponymous chevaliere is portrayed collectively by Charlie, Lu and Andrea, young adults who are also under his watch. They feel themselves limited by his expectations, and are bound to the structure of the Estate. Louis continues working towards his dream of naming a new plant, and gaining recognition in the eyes of Royalty, whilst Charlie, Lu and Andrea slowly discover unknown parts of the building, and of themselves. As they begin to imagine how their lives could be different, they become unrecognizable. Both journeys are punctuated by poetry, by The Royal Taxonomical Society, and by visits to the Royal Palace of Potatoes.

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Long SynopsisThe film opens with Louis in his office, studying different specimens and noting measurements in his book. He disappears behind clouds of smoke, unblinkingly.

He whispers combinations of numbers and Latin species names of Australian native species under his breath.

He gets up from his cluttered table, and moves to his window, looking out with a telescope and surveying his gardens. The three young characters run inside, under his gaze.

Part 1: The house is building

The three principle characters, Charlie, Lu and Andrea, sit still and unflinching, framed by their architectures. They are centered, static, and portrayed clearly.

A series of scenes render the relationship between Louis and the protagonists as a relationship of power, control, structure, rules and limitations. Charlie, Lu and Andrea clean, memorize the Latin names of plants, rehearse their postures and it becomes apparent that they are compliant and subordinate to the law of the father and the house.

Louis constantly reminds them that 'without discipline, convention will spit on you', and, over a subdued dinner of urchins, he reminds them of of their rooted condition.

LOUIS:

hunters killed. killing is winning. plumbing makes the pipes ready forvictory. Swallowing is plumbing! I said swallow!...You know how these urchins survive?Do you?They survive because they attach themselves with their teeth to something architectural.

Part II: Follow the birds

A paper airplane punctuates their estate-bound life and flies in from off the screen. Lu reads a letter from an unknown person Marguerite that encourages them to 'follow the birds tonight'.That night, they quietly tiptoe through the estate, following birds to the basement below, where they are greeted by Marguerite (very loosely based on Marguerite Duras as a citation to the years she spent working as a censor for the Vichy Regime). Together, they read from books (citations that each actor has chosen: Virginia Woolf, Adrienne Rich and Leonora Miano). This 'basement' is a handmade studio set designed in Les Ateliers de la Ville de Marseille, full of books, smoke, candles, unusual forms and leaks.

These scenes are relatively absurd but are held in juxtaposition to the constricted nature of 'the home' and foster an environment of safety and soft, unrestricted education.

The visits have a loosening effect and perhaps instill in Charlie, Lu and Andrea, the glimmer of dreaming. We see the three characters painting faces, blowing bubbles and running outside to play (the first time we have seen them outside since their initial entrance).Throughout the film, three birds, a flamingo, a kestrel and a hoopoe, appear. They often run across the frame unseen by the main characters, or dreamed of by Charlie. Their lines and roles are multifaceted - some of what is said is taken from Aristophanes' play 'The birds', in which the birds choose to leave the realm of humanity, making their own city in the sky. The birds are also present as certain 'auspicious signs' or guides. (The term auspices, from Latin auspicium "divination by observing the flight of bird''), offering Charlie, Lu and Andrea a kind of absurd coordinate to orient themselves to an elsewhere, or disorient themselves to the estate.

Part III important guests.

The 'fugues' arrive. They are two characters dressed in red who, we learn, are members of the Royal Taxonomical Society. Over the course of a tour of the gardens and an awkward dinner of spider crabs and ink-squid spaghetti, we understand Louis' desire to earn the distinction of giving a plant species a 'new name'. We have seen him collecting plant samples, and it becomes evident that he believes one species to be a new variation of species.Charlie performs the clock, Andrea sings a song of the family's glory, and Lu performs a very rehearsed, floral and superficial history of their name.The evening ends in disaster however, with the fugues, at first tipsy and frivolous singing 'there is nothing new in the world', becoming more aggressive:

FUGUE 1:I'll put it simply: There aren't any new names, nor capacities toextend beyond a rooted condition. We thought you understood?

Louis is clearly devastated, and despite rousing perhaps, a moment of empathy from the viewer, quickly reasserts his power and rage on the Charlie Lu and Andrea the following morning:

LOUIS:You dared to leave the house disordered?Nothing was fixed, everything was spoilt...Robbed of my name byyour grasping fingers.And now, the scent of death... it lingers...An insipid toxicity is afoot, it leaks from the gaping holes of your crooked and unfit faces.like the sour blood long purged of this isle,your spirits so long'd rottened,I see like an ever-lit day the devil damming behind your lips 'n twisted sick tongues that spit the foul words loitering in your breath. NOW FIX IT AND GET OUT!!!!

PART IV: ONE IS TIED TO THEIR ARCHITECTURE

Andrea is picked up in a small anachronistic bus and taken to the Palace, where they are cleaned, prepared and decorated ready to see the king and queen of potatoes.The palace is introduced in all its excess. (Again, a hand made set constructed within my studio at Les Ateliers des Artistes de la Ville de Marseille. )The fugues are present, musicians playing a 'sleazy medieval motif', a jester performing a poem (written by the actor playing the jester) and a seductive flirtations ensues between the king and the page.Andrea eventually enters the palace and begins a back and forth with the king and queen about - judgment, crests and family banners, tradition and 'their own undoing', which the king and queen criticize, and Andrea celebrates.

The scene culminates with the queen banishing Andrea back to the estate

PART V: like an innumerable bird.

Something has shifted for Charlie, Lu and Andrea. We see them again portrayed in their rooms, but this time, the architecture and space of the estate has been lit in artificial and bright colors, as if seen for its artificiality. These portraits might recall the static portrayals early in the film, but this time, they are never centered, moving, often fragmented, and placed on the edge of the frame. Much of their bodies are outside the frame.They descend to Marguerite for a final time.

ANDREA :My face changes with a wakening will to leave this place.They leave Marguerite Duras, who has 'been waiting for another sort of departure'. Charlie, Lu and Andrea follow the light of a candle. We see them at dawn, paddling a canoe across a lake.

This scene is followed by a series of shots taken of the three characters moving across landscapes. (Camargue, Les Goudes, Frioul, ) void of other human life. They are not conquering it, they are astonished by it, they play in it, and they slowly listen to it.They are unmoored to any fixed ground and it is unclear where the voyage leads. It is not a teleological journey, there is no fixed destination.