"FOR THE RECORD" "This film is dedicated in memory of Father Jean-Daniel Pollet" "One morning a morning where nothing begins." "Simply, where one enters a cycle." "A cycle for which we can't comprehend the necessity." "For now," "The morning is about preparing the molds," "Every man structuring these packed sand molds." "Molds spread on the floor" "Drawing strange territories." "A bit as if all of this obeyed a few hidden masters, A few secret wishes." "So there is no center." "Every man is alone" "Repeating the same actions." "No point demanding attention." "It seems to you now that you have time." "That you can observe as they deserve" "These marks left by men on the sand" "Rousseau, Roland" "Born in 1922" "Occupation:" "Moulder." "31 years of foundry." "A lot of time has passed." "Suddenly you're sure." "This here is the beginning of our world." "Calmly, accurately, they shape the hollow object." "They tear the deformed world." "This is not true I tell you." "I remember there is a before," "a before where work was different" "Small tools are hidden under the bench" "We won't see them again, the small tools, until Monday" "Before" "We did not confuse speed with skill." "The work was hard, too, but I could spare the time to rest." "I was master of my rhythm." "My knowledge was sensory and a knowledge of materials." "Now everything is easier, artificial" "but do you think I've earned a living?" "I'll tell you, that monster bypassed professional skill, degraded learning." "All I have left is quantity." "In a sense there's much less attention to Work and more production and more fatigue." "Less attention to work more fatigue," "More Production" "All that's left is quantity." "But then?" "It is not at all what we thought." "Something must be underway." "Maybe this morning only served this purpose." "Very slowly, very quietly." "Men gather now." "Solidarity all of a sudden." "As drawn by the center." "You'll see something here directs each movement." "You'll see the oven lit suddenly reveals the meaning of this preparation." "The furnace makes the rules." "Key moment, perhaps," "Between the work of yesterday and the excess of today." "Between this morning and what will be the future." "Hooked on one side to things we thought had disappeared." "Made of friendship, of respect for men, of responsibility for the creation." "Hooked on the other side by the spectrum of excesses." "Key moment perhaps stationary still taking a moment before jumping." "Everyone has pride for the work he does." "Everyone sees a model sometimes showing up a good job, a beautiful model," "for my personal account and then I even think for the co-workers we would like to built the parts." "This is handiwork" "They can't say that we're arrogant but still we have our little..." "A little something, that is..." "To say:" ""it is I who have done the first part."" "On the first model the remainder we make one, we make ten, we make twenty after it becomes routine." "I'll tell you:" "to be a good moulder, foremost you should know how the cast behaves when it invades a mold." "This is it we felt it actually" "we cannot avoid it." "Wait!" "No!" "I told you." "You see, everything's changed." "Now they know it's serious." "We do not play with fire." "Or with all sorts of precautions, of rituals," "as a liturgy." "And the cast is alive, you see." "When the oven opens its mouth everything has to be ready." "All is revealed." "We are Gods." "Fire, the ally/alloy gives this power." "With it we can do anything." "But do not forget, it remains independent, unexpected." "It is its own master." "Any discrepancy is fatal." "If the fire is asleep or dies, disaster is its whim." "So be ready." "Just be content to surround it, discreetly." "Especially do not try to annoy it." "It'll lose you" "So we talk with iron." "We dialogue." "Before, we were not big enough to have a conversation with it." "Too hard too inflexible, that iron." "To melt, is also to surrender, you know." "The foundry asks only one thing, it's to be spread." "The work of giants." "Tons and tons of molten metal." "For twenty men" "There must be secrets, mysterious formulas that multiply forces." "But they remain silent." "A little weary too." "After all that has happened." "We were able to incite infinite metamorphosis, we were able to change the shape of things," "but not the minds of men." "[Hesiod "Works and Days"] For now truly is a race of iron." "and men never rest from labour and sorrow by day and from perishing by night;" "and the gods shall lay sore trouble upon them" "But, notwithstanding, even these shall have some good mingled with their evils." "But the time will come when Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men." "So, it is to the evil doer, to the immoderate man who will go their respect" "At this time they shall be born grey haired." "No, oh no, no serious illnesses, we can't say..." "well eh, even, look at me..." "I'm not going to hide it," "I went twice twice for my blood." "For the lungs," "I have a little... silicosis." "Well..." "This is nothing." "Moreover, the professor there said." "There are not so many fixes." "In the state that you're in, it's okay." "Well duh, everyone does." "Besides anyone breathing dust, it's..." "Because I..." "Not really, we can't say that I really" "Or so yes if... for example, if you go to the larger plants." "Those who work at the... dusting and all that." "Then yes!" "While where I work, bah." "When we're tired, it's of a little dust." "But one get used to anything." "While for diseases, no no" "There's no..." "You know, here we remember" "Yes, we still know that everything depends on the trust for the other." "Can you imagine." "It's a co-worker who's on the switch, so..." "Just the move that you expect." "Precisely." "While with the machine..." "In fact, you'll say poetry, you'll say aesthetics." "In fact, you'll say these men work there for a salary, for a boss, because they have no choice." "This too is true." "True, but not enough." "You cannot reduce them to the mere misery of wage-earner." "You cannot forget that they are not only pawns being moved." "Because this work is unique." "Because it only takes place here." "And your tough position would only impoverish them further." "Among the people, we claim today for good reasons" "Who will save us from the workers' fathers" "This is because the number of workers' fathers increases due to poverty." "We dare almost reverse the sentence and say that "poverty increases due to the increase of the number of Fathers."" "February 1844" "Terrible repetition of movements." "Workload that destroys your life." "So what?" "Progress?" "To ease the task?" "Maybe." "Perhaps too, hypocrite." "You understand." "Normally huh..." "we know our equipment" " The more it's mechanized." " We know what to do" " The more it's automated," " the more it's dangerous." " Especially when a mold flips..." "You no longer have the right to lose your focus." " Never." " We know that we shouldn't get in front due to the equipment we use" " On a machine..." " We stay behind..." " A fraction of a second..." " And we let it do its thing... and this is it." "You're stuck ... sometimes a mold" "While here that cracks... or..." "We call it a shitter" "Some days, you see," "I wonder if they make mistakes sometimes." "As if it was part of their work to improve the shape, to lead to perfection" "ready to endure anything when the time comes, when the monster will open its mouth." "Some days I wonder." "when the cast is gone, when it has taken the shape of the form nothing will be left." "Carbonized sand waste." "For the producer to make a living, said Proudhon his salary must allow him to buy back his product." "Lucien Doyen." "Born in 1918" "Occupation:" "Moulder." "Twenty years of foundry." "Lucien Doyen." "Born in 1918" "Occupation:" "Moulder." "Twenty years of foundry." "Surely, in the sole pursuit of profit," "Surely, we find to avoid gestures to save on learning." "But what else remain of an activity?" "When one has emptied it of all meaning, of any individual content." "Small tools are hidden under the bench, not seen again, small tools, until..." "To be there a long time," "To work in this climate of old engravings." "Do we not end up transformed?" "By seeing things differently?" "In terms of color, casting, yes." "Especially when it is sunny," "You have two casts" "When the sun shines above it it turns into a cherry color this is what allows us sometimes" "to roughly measure the temperature of the cast." "That allows us to pour" "The other day one of them told me, while the oven was roaring" ""Look!"" ""Now it looks like gold."" "Or it depends on which casts we're pouring." "Sometimes it feels like July 14." "It's fireworks." "This is what our work's like..." "You can't explain it..." "Each..." "Has its..." "An effect on himself." "I know that I like it." "From pouring, even sweating." "I know I've done my job well." "That's all" "Did you know that the sound of iron casts away evil spirits" "Oh that..." "And then there were the old folks." "You couldn't ask them for advice." "This is why now I see a lot more camaraderie than back then, because..." "When there is someone who's stuck bah say..." "You only need to do it like that." "Even us, even the moulders." "Just earlier, someone came to tell me" ""When you did these parts there, how did you pour them?"" "And yet, he is older than me in the foundry." "Species of giants." "Themselves modeled after this work." "Self-confident." "Precise in their actions." "Seeming to defy modestly, the huge forces around them." "By their knowledge, by their experience." "But then?" "Why this kind of curse?" "Which seems to hover." "Duchamp, René." "Occupation:" "Moulder." "Born in 1931." "33 years of foundry." "[Aeschylus Prometheus Bound] Listen to me," "New gods now rule on Mount Olympus and, like a tyrant" "Zeus is governing with new-fangled laws overpowering those gods who were so strong before." "Why?" "Unless..." "Perhaps they know too much." "I came in at the Brault factory" "Tuesday morning, June 24 1948" "I had always worked outside, always fresh air, sunlight" "the first morning I came in everything was dark in there" "I had only one thought to look at the clock." "It was an interminable day." "And then it went well anyway." "It's been 31 years now." "That's it." "These men know too much." "Too many old memories accumulated." "Memory of things forgotten." "Of things to forget." "Which they probably kept." "Tidy." "Each experience." "Each model." "In some dusty warehouse." "Anachronistic." "The trace still there." "Not utility." "Not the one you expect." "Do you know they often ignore what the parts they pour are for?" "It does not interest them." "They say it doesn't bring them anything." "Intimate memory then." "For me, the best souvenir" "It's not the best, it's the worst." "This is when we learned that our boss was sick" "Here." "And then we no longer understand." "It falls right down to paternalism." "Except, unless too eager to categorize" "we misunderstood." "Listen." "Let me borrow an example from my own profession." "To build a wheel, you must go neither too fast nor too slow." "Too slow, it will be weak" "Too fast, the radius will not fit." "One needs coordination of mind and hand." "Words can not express this." "It is something mysterious." "I cannot teach it to my son, he cannot learn it from me." "So at the age of 70" "Here I am still doing wheels." "Gold or silver, Silver that will be within." "Gold that will be outside." "There was no violent shock some crunches, some news and hope diminished." "It has become increasingly..." "Increasingly serious." "That's all." "Now." "All this doesn't exist anymore." "Actually this foundry succumbed to progress," "oh long ago." "In reality, now it's just a dream." "This yellowish clarity, these precise movements, these machines of another age" "all this bears witness, testimony of our folly." "And do not tell me that some old oaks still stand" "I know." "Stems of giants tracing a forgotten axis." "But for which driver?" "But for how long?" "We are in the ship's hold." "The crew is in pain" "Silting." "We can pull up the anchor, hoping for high tide" "We can't get out of it" "And then." "the boat is so old." "No." "Needless to play." "This is just a very old foundry" "So you begin to see?" "That's all that's left" "This progressive tightening of the world." "This darkened iron." "So them that part finished" "the metal part I mean." "They do not hate it," "No, they mock it." "Anyway, it escapes them." "It will leave this place." "On the market." "Who knows what it does?" "And then it returns." "As scrap." "More dead than at the beginning." "It lives only during the time of casting." "The rest they don't care." "The closure of the plant, I don't, I don't think so." "You don't think, but here," "The tiredness." "And then the cycle is broken." "We can feel it." "So open your eyes," "The dream's ending." "Nothing is unique." "The unitary part, is an idea so outdated," "That I wonder why you're still attached to it." "How could you believe that you'd get out of it." "You thought you were going to stay there?" "Together?" "Well protected?" "Crazy dream." "You are discovered as all others, enrolled." "Look closely." "First, there will be a great flash of light, then in a terrifying noise, you will partake in the destruction of your own past." "Even reluctantly." "Of course you will be told:" ""to rebuild it, more beautiful than before"" "Look" "Even this image is already old." "There, you see?" "On the left, out of frame." "You know what's hidden?" "The mechanical shovel." "And there, on the right." "The wall's shot." "The derricks are still standing?" "Yes, I know." "But I told you, some old oaks still hold." "For how long?" "It's funny how quickly the present moves away." "how it becomes an object we look at calmly, dispassionately." "Suddenly we can describe it, speak about it without anger." "Yes, it is a small foundry dating from 1876." "It was there, at the end of the village." "We have to hope" "There's only hope" "Everything freezes." "Paintings, images," "Of course a little nostalgic but what do you want?" "And then" "We're not exactly the same" "If the tool adapted itself to our hand." "It's by contrast us that have to adapt to the machine." "Here I am telling you, you still need to look at that corner." "Keep 2-3 cranes and then then the rest, bah it's expansion." "You'd need molding machines, and everything else." "All this took place so quietly, almost without resistance," "as if nobody understood it, as if nobody was attacked." "Me, my mother had repeatedly predicted how Israel would later come to be" "without recourse to force or violence." "it was to the ruse that the victor would owe their empire." "I made..." "I don't know" "Perhaps for a year, oh yes a whole year," "The same parts." "Then one day I got fed up." "I found the boss." "I said, "I'd like to change job, I'm sick of it."" "I was making blades for plows." "His only answer," ""If you didn't do them so well, you wouldn't do them anymore."" "The cast after that, all my blades were... black like that." "The boss came by" ""What you did to there, you?"" ""You've made me negroes"" "Oh, well, it's okay." "After they put me up in a corner." "Then I made..." "it took me 5 times... the chassis..." "to get to have a cast." "The boss told me "hey bah you see," "You can't do those like the plow blades"." "What do you think?" "This is not a cemetery for tools." "Not yet." "I would still like to say something." "It took much carelessness to ally oneself with fire, to get it from the womb." "And surely, this dangerous game was necessary to acquire the power" "but there, this power became so great." "that we forget our ally." "Immodest giants." "Immodest giants." "Isn't an immodest giant beyond the reach of a dwarf?" "Milette, Emile." "Retired." "31 years of foundry." "Born in 1927." "Foundries like these, you don't see them anymore." "It's finished." "So we said "so, we'll only be suited to be displayed in a museum."" "But so," "It was about living." "So what to do?" "Yes." "What to do?" "We start over." "Yes, we start over." "Tuesday, September 19 1978." "Nothing starts with the day." "We start over carefully." "As if nothing happened." "Still," "We can't see so well, right?" "No." "It becomes very dark."