Catching the Wind

The essay intends to investigate the role assumed by the wind within the work of Joris Ivens (1898-1989), a Dutch documentary director whose rich production crosses the twentieth-century panorama, with particular reference to two films: Pour le Mistral (1965) and Une histoire de vent (1988). Far from being defined as a mere atmospheric phenomenon, for the director from Nijmegen, the wind is an element full of meanings that is capable of giving rise to varied interpretative paths. From this perspective, the essay follows the evolution of a complex “visual research.”1 That covers the entire work of the Dutch director like a particular red thread and can reveal the infinite potential of cinema to film the invisible. The itinerary that was chosen to follow is thus divided into three interconnected sections: the first is dedicated to a brief introduction to the cinema of Ivens; the second is focused on specific theoretical and stylistic aspects of Pour le Mistral; the third starts from Une histoire de vent, the author’s poetic testament from which a reflection on the link between the wind and the vital breath is developed, finding, in this sense, suggestive interpretative stimuli in some sequences of the animation film The Wind Rises (Miyazaki, 2013).