In Cine Doré Larrea once again reflects on art’s aura and the ways in which we all end up mythifying both the artist and her productions, turning some pieces into true icons that with time generate effects of their own. In this video, the artist presents a “remake” of one of the most famous scenes of Jean Luc Godard’s “Breathless” (A bout de souffle), a film that has become a cult film in our culture.

Through various strategies such as maintaining the black & white aesthetic of the image, wearing the clothes and look of the female protagonist, Jean Seaberg, and using the original film’s sound track, Larrea emphasises the intellectual tone that the film she is paying tribute to, has acquired. She goes so far as to using subtitles in her own piece.

The scene is reproduced in the Paseo de Recoletos in Madrid. The main character sells newspapers, yelling “New York Herald Tribune” while she chats with Jean Paul Belmondo, who is played by an actor.

With an interest in the interaction with the passers-by and in the development of projects in the public space, Larrea bases the power of the created situation on introducing this “remake” within a live background, within the flow of the passers-by in the Madrid street, thus confronting the passers-by themselves with a cult scene, of which some of them will have some references or memories, as it is a well-known icon of European culture.

The piece pays tribute to auteur cinema, to the inspiration that these original films award us. Ironically, a citation chain is created, starting with those of Godard himself, referencing film noir, and ending with Larrea’s version of Godard’s scene within Madrid’s multitude.

The title of this piece is the name of the cinema housing the Filmoteca Española (Spanish Filmotheque), Cine Doré,  which has been for many generations the meeting point of countless film lovers.

At the same time, the piece manages to “reconciliate film and video”, because of the format of the art video, as is being produced since the end of the 20th Century, which brings both media into a fruitful dialogue. Larrea’s work, which follows the thread of artists such as Douglas Gordon, revisits the film referents that have constructed our aesthetics, and “detourns” them. It is also quite significant that she has chosen Godard, one of the artists who has most involved himself in both media, and a precursor in the use of video art.