The ‘Decades Collection’ from directors Alain Moreau and Patrick Cabouat comprises four documentaries which revisit four successive decades of French history through the medium of archive footage: The 50’s novel, The Mythologies (the Sixties), The Carefree Years (the Seventies), Mes Cabossées (the Eighties)
“On the Champs Elysées, 14th July 1989, at the peak of a decade fuelled by visual media, the Eighties came to an end with a staggering parade organised by designer and photographer Jean-Paul Goude to mark the bicentenary of the French Revolution. The decade had started late in May 1981 under the rain at the Bastille. The Left celebrated, euphoric in the face of the opposition who never imagined that France would lose its longstanding right-wing administration.
Enthused with hope, the Eighties would incarnate a new world ‘disorder’ influenced by easy money and speculation. It was a decade that can be best described by its major themes and slogans: pirate radio, yuppie traders, Coluche, Les restos du coeur, unemployment, SICAV (mutual funds), AIDS, Bernard Tapie, Pierre Desproges, flat-sharing, Daniel Buren, sponsoring and corruption…”