In "Soleil" ("The Sun"), the final short film written and directed by actor Pierre Clémenti, the artist reflects, through poetry, long
passages and plenty of psychedelic images, the time he spent in a Rome prison for a period of 17 months, back in late 1972 to 1973 due to drug
possession. He also a wrote a book about that experience, and he might have used of some excerpts in this piece.
Clémenti re-enacts a few moments
from prison as he describes about the freedom which he had on the outside and the ones that suffocates within a cell; and amidst many crazed
moments there's the presence of his wife Margareth within some surrealistic bits, and his son Balthzar, who for a could figure out plays his
own father during his younger days.
It's a little hard to categorize everything that appears and that is shared through his words, his feelings and descriptions, but one does
not walk away unimpressed with everything he does. Clémenti was a key figure in the French underground film movement, collaborating a great
deal with many filmmakers from the 1960's and 1970's, artistic figures who expressed themselves with a great sense of freedom and creativity,
breaking rules and conventions; and he also worked with the likes of Visconti, Buñuel, Pasolini, Bertolucci, Glauber, and Garrel in the countless
great films they did.
With that whole junction of people and elements, one can't say he was being pretentious or without something to say. There were plenty of things to be reflected upon, as he exhamined himself and a tumultous period of his life decades later after the facts (which
could have ended his career), remembering the importance his wife and kid had in his life despite the distance, and it goes beyond just the
prison. At the time of filming Clémenti already had a couple of features and shorts written and directed, this one becoming the very last he ever did,
but stayed with acting until the late 1990's when he passed away. This is one of those films that cannot be effectively described or to have its
emotions greatly translated as written thoughts; it has to be seen and experienced. To Pierre's fans and admirers, it's a great way to get a little
close to the man, beyond the on screen rebel/bad boy persona he developed in many films. 8/10.
