7h15 – Merle noir

Jean lives as a hermit in a forest. From his cabin, he listens to and records the sounds of the animals that inhabit the surrounding area. One night, he hears the cry of an unknown animal. Along with Mana, a young girl who sings with the birds, he goes in search of the mysterious creature.

Deep in the forests, the natural world offers itself up in equal proportions to the curiosity of scientists and the passions of poets. We are reminded of such by this splendid film from Judith Auffray, who rightly cites the valuable research of Simeon Pease Cheney – who, in the mid-19th century, was the first person to transcribe birdsong into musical notation. Faithful to his lesson but armed with a Nagra, the hero in 7h15 – Merle noir archives night and day, as a patient hermit, the thousand manifestations of the song of nature: “08h07, coal tit; 18h23, common parsley frog; 02h05, Eurasian pygmy owl”… On the spectrogram that helps him in his work, the sound spectrum of his booty itself resembles a flock of birds. He is not totally alone: accompanying him is a young girl for whom the forest seems to hold no secrets. One day, however, a new sound strikes their ears, a presence that neither of them are able to name. So it is that the ardour of science meets the ardour of dream for real: a quest begins that, one stormy night, draws the naturalist and the young fairy into the forest’s black belly, an abandoned silver mine where, for more than a century, the mystery of nature and the history of men have slumbered together.

Jérôme Momcilovic