René Allio was one of the most important French directors of historical film in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of Allio’s films focused on historical subjects by depicting historical events, people, or sites. The director is most remembered for his films Les Camisards and Moi, Pierre Rivière. Today, Allio is relatively unappreciated by film historians and fans, largely because of the unavailability or poor condition of copies of his films.

I participated in a conference on Les Histoires de René Allio in Paris last week (14-16 November 2013). The conference was organized by the Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and held at the Institut Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Art (INHA). The conference and a linked exhibition at the Muséum Nationale de l’Histoire Naturelle aim to renew interest in the figure of René Allio through interdisciplinary study of his cinematic and artistic work.

The conference included presentations by historians, film historians, art historians, legal historians, literary scholars, actors, and filmmakers focusing on various aspects of Allio’s historical films and artistic work.

I presented a paper on ” Les sources iconographiques dans Les Camisards de René Allio : religion et résistance en Languedoc.”

The press release for the conference is available online.