Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel (1974) Jean-Christophe Averty

“ Who would have thought that so much was happening on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower? Newlyweds have a wedding, the couple’s offspring arrive from the future and a hunter chases an ostrich. A delirious ballet and a bit psychedelic, where surrealism and biting humor mingle with delight to castigate bourgeois morals. ..“ Exactly a century ago, on June 18, 1921, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées hosted the creation of an iconoclastic show entitled “Les Mariés de la tour Eiffel”. On a wacky text by Jean Cocteau, and original music by the almost complete Group of Six (with Poulenc, Honegger, Milhaud, Tailleferre, Durey and Auric), the dancers of Rolf de Maré’s Swedish Ballets evolved in sets by Irène Lagut, costumes by Jean Hugo and choreography by Jean Börlin. In 1973 Jean-Christophe Averty, a brilliant pioneer of video, made an animated film with visionary images.