Dead World Order

The house in the film is Maison de l'Armateur, "the ship owner's house", one of the few houses in Le Havre, France that remained in tact after the city was completely destroyed in the allied bombings of D-Day, 1944. The work deals with the desire to preserve and organize objects, and by doing so, to tell a specific historical tale. It also deals with nostalgia to a world that no longer exists, and perhaps never did. The house is built like a spiral, where each floor has more and more rooms, full of treasures that all tell the story of Western colonialism, particularly objects belonging once to the French 19th Century bourgeoisie, with curiosity cabinets full of exotic oddities from faraway conquered lands. The woman seems to have a special relationship to the objects. Her love and care for the objects also express her love and sense of belonging to their culture. Throughout the film there are references to Hitchcock's films, particularly Vertigo and Psycho. The soundtrack is based on Bernard Herman's soundtrack of Hitchcock's Psycho.