Paris qui dort + Live musical accompaniment from Aurora Engine
René Clair’s Paris Qui Dort (1924), also known as The Crazy Ray, is a mischievous early science-fiction gem that turns the City of Light into a playground for surreal misadventure.
About Paris qui dort + Live musical accompaniment from Aurora Engine
| 6th December 2025 | |
| 6pm | |
|
Institut francais d Ecosse Institut français d'Ecosse West Parliament Square, Edinburgh Old Town EH1 1RF |
|
| £12 Full Price / £10 for French Institute members | |
| Visit the event website here | |
| Facebook information can be found here | |
| Follow ifecosse on Instagram |
Come early for our apéritif hour with a drinks bar and complementary nibbles before the film, a chance to mingle, relax and start the evening in true Salon style.
René Clair’s Paris Qui Dort (1924), also known as The Crazy Ray, is a mischievous early science-fiction gem that turns the City of Light into a playground for surreal misadventure. When a strange ray from the Eiffel Tower freezes the citizens of Paris mid-motion, a small band of unaffected oddballs: a night watchman, a scientist, and a few bemused tourists, roam the motionless metropolis like ghosts in a frozen dream.
Clair uses this bizarre premise not just for comic effect, but to quietly prod at deeper questions: What would we do with total freedom? What happens when society’s structure disappears, and you’re left only with desire and impulse? Visually inventive and anarchic in spirit, Paris Qui Dort is both a time capsule of silent-era experimentation and a cheeky philosophical fable, dreamlike, haunting, and oddly joyful.
The film screening is accompanied by live music from Edinburgh-based harpist / pianist composer, and sonic artist Aurora Engine (Deborah Shaw). Her work blends acoustic instruments, voice, and progressive electronica to create vivid, atmospheric soundscapes often embedding nature and industrial field recordings. She is also a songwriter and active media composer.
Before the film screening, enjoy a short introduction from the Edinburgh Film Guild, one of the oldest continuously running film societies in the world, setting the scene for the film’s enduring legacy.
Evening Schedule
6pm – Apéro hour in the Salon
7pm – Brief introduction from Edinburgh Film Guild
7:05pm - Film screening with live accompaniment
8:15pm – Conversations continue back in the Salon until 10pm
Please note: drinks can be purchased at our pop-up bar (cash or card), but are not included in the ticket price and are only allowed in the Salon space before and after the film. Complementary nibbles available on a first-come basis from 6pm.
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