art-folio by michèle laird

Lausanne’s celebrated museum of outsider art presents an artist wrapped up in his make-believe world of filmmaking. The son of the owners of a small movie house that did not survive the arrival of television, Guy Brunet (b. 1945) is an endearing man who since the age of 16 has written over 350 screenplays. He confined them to notebooks until, one day, he decided to produce and direct his own films.

His actors and actresses, famous directors and producers are figurines that he cuts out of cardboard and then draws with remarkable likeness; spot Laurel & Hardy, Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner! So many of the celebrities of Hollywood cinema in its heyday from the 30s to the 60s turn up in his films.

Acting as the movie producer, he brings the cardboard silhouettes alive by shifting them around his elaborate decors and delivering the dialogues with his own voiceovers. He is also the promoter and publicist of his films and draws large-scale posters on the back of recycled materials.

Guy Brunet’s Paravision Studios make for a charming display, and dispel the thought that talent must be channelled by art schools to produce beautiful, strange and wonderful things.

Guy Brunet in front of his house in France