“Personne” uses the method of appropriating clips from classic, or anonymous films, to create a meditation on the individual quest for self. Typical of Girardet and Müller’s work, the collage of images and dialogue in between acquires new meaning. In the writers own words: “personne is someone, no-one, anyone. It is ourselves over the course of time. Persistently, in vain”. The directors used French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant to express this idea. Somewhere in the film he becomes Gregory Peck, then another actor, and another in succession, losing his identity. It is also why shots of the actors with their back to the camera have been chosen: the negation of the face is a negation of the person themselves. This is suggested in one of the film’s central images – a well-known painting “La reproduction interdite” by Magritte (whose presence pervades the narrative). It depicts a man who sees his back reflected in a mirror. Gregory Peck with back to camera observes his own shadow; and we see many images of doors that open, without our knowing where they are going to lead. Christoph Girardet and Matthias Müller are perhaps the most represented authors over the years in Curtas Vila do Conde. The Festival has exhibited nearly all their works, individually or jointly, some of them winners like “Play” (2004), “Manual” (in 2003) or “Alpsee”, which was directed by Müller, who won the main prize of the International Competition in 1995. The collaboration between the two began in 1999 with “Phoenix Tapes”, a commission from the Oxford Museum of Modern Art. Then in 2002 Curtas commissioned the film “Beacon” from both authors by way of its tenth anniversary. In 2005 they opened the Solar - Cinematic Art Gallery, with “Revisitations” (2005), their first joint exhibition in Portugal. They also participated in collective exhibitions programmed by Curtas: “Under Hitchcock”, at Solar (2007), “No Cinema”, at the Centro de Memória de Vila do Conde (2008-2009), and “Aventura Antonioni”, again at Solar (2014). The 24th Curtas Vila do Conde features two other works by Girardet: “Synthesis”, in the experimental competition and “Second Chance,” commissioned for the concert film “The Waiting Room” by Tindersticks (Stereo). (MD)