Tour Eiffel

How the tower was built and the functioning of its elevators. A movie played daily on the Eiffel Tower itself.

Eiffel has documented everything - down to the smallest detail, and with great graphic quality - in the 2 volumes of "La tour de 300 mètres". It’s the ”open source” before time! Because we could rebuild an Eiffel Tower by following the plans. This is what I did, partly and virtually.
The technical drawings left by Eiffel were a great material. But to make them more understandable for the public, and to get a sense of the scale of the monument, I shot and added silhouettes, 
Despite the their small proportion in the screen, the silhouettes played a great role in the narrative of this silent movie. The scenes were carefully scripted and often linked to the original archives. Like the dummy staircase built to match Eiffel’s original plans.
A 10 min lecture (in French) where I explain the concept and the making of the movie. This video was recorded at the Gaîté Lyrique, the cultural venue of the City of Paris devoted to arts & technologies. The lecture was organized by Designers Interactifs. 
A film by Edoardo Cecchin
Written by Edoardo Cecchin & Marie Cuisset 
Keylight: Maïa Gascuel
Production: La Méduse, Anne Jaffrennou & Chanel Seguin
Architecture, scenography and project management: Agence Moatti-Rivière
Content curator: Lydia Elhadad for Moatti-Rivière
Media sourcing: Nathalie Rosenblum pour la SETE
Translation: Stoquart
© SETE 2014
Crédit iconographie
© Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel
© RMN-GP (Patrice Schmidt / Hervé Lewandowski / D.R. / Image BNF)
© RMN-GP / ADAGP
© Roger Viollet
© Archives départementales des Hauts-de-Seine
© Archives municipales de Levallois-Perret
© Sébastien Jaulmes
© Edoardo Cecchin, création d’après « La Tour de trois cents mètres », 1889
Remerciements
Éric Trahand, agent de maîtrise moyens d’ascension Tour Eiffel • Stéphane Roussin, chef du service maîtrise d’œuvre Tour Eiffel • Jean-Alex Foret, ingénieur services techniques Tour Eiffel 1989–2007 • Xavier Théret, conservateur des Archives Municipales de Levallois-Perret • Hugues Wolff • Cécilia Génard • Patrick Rubin, Canal Architecture, Laurence Madrelle, LM communiquer.
Un grand merci aux figurants :
Anne Frese, Cécilia Génard, François-Xavier Armand, Julien Martin, Marie Lejault, Chanel Seguin,
Oskar Seguin, Pierre Tolmer, Sébastien Jaulmes,
Théo Mongourdin, Tristan Sylvain Gaignault,
Yannick Fleury.