Les Heures Chaudes de Montparnasse

HD version of the iconic series, which covers the most important developments in the arts when Montparnasse was the place where it all happened.

Between 1900 and the Second World War, the Montparnasse quarter in Paris attracted a unique + widely influential community of creative talent – artists, writers, composers and actors. In the early 1960s Jean-Marie Drot recorded more than one hundred and seventy interviews with people who had contributed to or witnessed the hay day of Montparnasse.

One episode of the thirteen part series he produced is dedicated to the composers of the Group of Six. In a painter's studio in rue Huygens young musicians met and played their music to each other talking about life and death. The six were Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc – who died within weeks of the filmed encounter – and Germaine Tailleferre. It was mostly friendship that united them, as Poulenc explained. Other contributors include Virgil Thompson and Jean Wiener.

The historic footage has been newly integrated with documentary film in colour and, having originally been shot on film, upgraded by INA to HD. Poorhouse is very pleased to represent this unique material.

Director Jean-Marie Drot
Duration 13 x 52'
Recording date 1960s