Eustache returned to his birthplace in 1968 to document an annual ritual, the election of Pessac's most virtuous young woman. At a moment when student protests were erupting across France, Eustache observed this archaic pageant of youthful conformism straightforwardly, without comment. (“Everything happens as if Eustache were not there,” Dominique Noguez wrote.) In 1979, he filmed the whole thing again, this time in color. Plus ça change . . . This pair of films reflects the director's archival and ethnographic impulses as well as his eye for dry irony. Luc Moullet wrote of the 1968 version, “The contest reveals the hypocrisies, incongruities and general ridiculousness that dominate such campaigns. . . . [The film is] a triumph of unprompted deadpan humor.”

Please note: these rare prints are in French without subtitles.

The Virgin of Pessac (La Rosière de Pessac) (1968, 65 mins, B&W). The Virgin of Pessac '79 (La Rosière de Pessac 79) (1979, 67 mins, Color).