Ninety year old Ivens goes to China to realize a dream: filming the wind. His wait in the mountains sets fascination, images and dreams free.Then, by magic, the wind breaks out giving shape to the thoughts and utopias of a whole life in a film-testament, a masterpiece of autobiographic cinematography. The old man's face reappears with the same intensity and innocence as on his debut at thirteen. His whole story comes back, the wind being an allegor y of a strict poetics, of a clear political perspective, of a manifestation of nature , of many utopian ideals that take him, once more after Pour le Mistral, to film the invisible, to change culture and society. The paradox is that the film succeeds in conveying all this. Even if we are not able to see the invisible yet, that is to act consciously in the society, we know that the work of this extraordinary author is still there to remind us that everything can be seen, that ideas keep an eter nal infancy, an eternal possibility of being realized. The Wind and I was presented at the 1988 Venice Festival on occasion of the Gold Lion award to his career and work.
