Our Lucky Hours
6.3
45,000 patients died in French psychiatric hospitals between 1939 and 1945. A single site escaped this carnage: the asylum in Saint-Alban, an isolated village in Lozère. What happened there for it to be an exception? Retracing several decades in the history of this important site of psychiatry, using precious archival films and the accounts of those who worked there, Martine Deyres answers this question and, in doing so, shows how the political courage and poetic audacity that were practised there contributed to changing medicine and society’s perception on madness. Intersecting in the crucible of this movement called “institutional psychotherapy” were members of the Resistance, artists, doctors and philosophers—including Paul Eluard, Tristan Tzara and Georges Canguilhem.
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Martine Deyres Director · Anne Paschetta Screenplay Olivier Brisson Composer
First release April 9, 2019 · Produced in Belgium, France, Switzerland · Original title Les Heures heureuses
Production
Les Films du Tambour de soie
Production
Belgium · France · Switzerland
Produced in
Languages
Original title
Les Heures heureuses
Original language
French
Spoken on screen
French
Release dates
Switzerland · April 9, 2019
Premiere · Visions du Réel
France · April 20, 2022
Theatrical
No release date listed for United States.
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