Film Review "Silence Radio" - Stories, music and memories, beautifully transmitted.

Visions du Réel, the documentary film festival in Nyon has officially started and this year, as in previous years, Living in Nyon has a team of writers covering the festival and reviewing films. The festival takes places in various venues around the town, full details of ticket prices, maps, timing of screenings etc are all in English on the Visions du Réel site.  Click here.  Tickets can be bought online or at the box office in the main central reception area near the Salle Communale  Note: best to allow plenty of time to purchase tickets at the box office as queues can be long. Here is the first film review of Visions du Réel 2013 "Silence Radio" -  by director Valéry Rosier -   Thursday 25 April at 22:00 at the Capitole 1 cinema and 26 April at Capitole 2 cinema at 12:00  (52 mins) You won't  hear any shock jocks on Radio Puisaleine, it's unlikely you will hear rap or reggae played on the station either. What you will hear is music that brings back  memories to its listeners, music from the 40's through to the 60's, songs about love, romance,  life and death.  Radio Puisaleine,  based in Picardy in Northern France, is run by a dedicated team of presenters of all ages and has been broadcasting music, memories and nostalgia for 29 years.  Although the main focus of this film is on the radio station, it is also fundamentally about its listeners.

The opening scene takes us to a small  room in the building where Bernadette, a station volunteer is answering the phone taking in listener's requests. We hear a caller, an old gentleman, ask for a song by "whats-his-name, the one who sang Connemara?" Despite not been given the name of the singer, Bernadette knows who he is referring to and tells him that the station doesn't have that particular song in its archive. In a later scene, Charles, a young presenter apologises to the listeners that the station has been off air for a while due to a faulty transmitter. He then goes on say "thank you for your patience and your loyalty, I'm pleased to announce that say we are  now back in your homes".

Still above: One of the Radio Puisaleine's listeners.  Photo courtesy Visions du Réel The  listeners, their lives and their homes are portrayed here with a tenderness and subtlety and director Valéry Rosier, carefully captures the minutiae of their day to day existence, all to the back drop of the radio. A radio that many rely on to provide comfort in lonely times.  In one scene,  listeners, washing up in various kitchens across the area are seen listening to "Les Rose Blanches" by Berthe Sylva.  A poignant song that holds particularly sad memories for one listener; her (now deceased) son used to buy her a single rose once a week on the way to church. In another scene, we watch an elderly listener call his daughter. He finishes the call by saying "it would be nice if I could see you soon". A touching moment.

Comedic moments pepper the film

Yet, not all of the film is melancholic and sad. There's a rather jovial couple recording a rock and roll and country programme for the station, there's also a rather strident relationship coach giving forth her opinion on a call-in show. Miraculously she is able to produce an answer to the caller's problems just by establishing their birth date and name. Comedic moments pepper the film, from one volunteer showing another (more mature) presenter how to work the decks and equipment, to a young policeman, himself a station fan singing away to a romantic song in his police car.  These moments are sensitively placed, they carefully fall short of mocking the community that listens to Radio Puiselaine, the film reflects their lives with sensitivity. There's a frisson of excitement when a famous singer is invited to the station to have a chat with presenter Martial  (himself a bit of a look-a-like to the late Claude Nobbs). Listeners are invited to come and watch the interview being recorded, so female fans, spruced, made up and in their finery do just that and sit and listen to the interview whilst admiring their idol from the wings. The singer, Bernard Bourgeois explains that the songs on his latest album "make us dream and make us cry" . He goes on to say "the stories in these songs are universal". The stories that are told in Silence Radio are also universal, and although in this case they come from Radio Puiselaine in a small corner of France, they could come from anywhere.  Stories that are beautifully transmitted here on this film on a clear, resounding wavelength.