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The Story of a Life, Told in 1,000,000 Movie Stills

“I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die.”
Screencaps by the author, via

Armed with the dulcet tones of Claude Debussy’s "Clair De Lune," and inspired by a quote from the 1999 film American Beauty—“I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die,”—18-year-old French artist Candice Drouet, who goes by the handle Really Dim, is putting together an ambitious visual project called 1.000.000 Frames, in which she pieces together stills from every film she’s ever watched into short videos organized by theme.

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The stills flash on the screen so fast they’re almost unrecognizable—in the first video in the series, no comprehensive list is provided. Instead, it becomes a sort of experimental docu-narrative, the product of a world that is intensely, innately visual. It doesn’t matter which films the viewer can—or can't—pick out; this is her life we're watching. The second video in the seriesThe Movies That I Saw With My Father (90’s Films), is even more personal, but simultaneously more accessible to the viewer. This time, there is a list of films she’s included, the stills change slower and often repeat themselves, and the viewer can recognize films they might also have personal connections to, chuckling and reminiscing along with her.

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Part III came out on October 5, 2015 and is themed 1996/The Year I was Born/. Though not as fast as Part I, and more intentionally cut to fit the rhythm of the music, it feels even more chaotic: the same few images keep coming up in wide-screen, while others continue to flash in full-screen, scattering the eye and altering perception.

The project is supposed to culminate in 100 videos, and it will be a fascinating journey to watch Really Dim decide on other milestones in her life to portray in this innovative manner. Start your trip down her memory lane below:

1.000.000 Frames from Really Dim on Vimeo.

Follow the 1.000.000 Frames project on Vimeo.

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