Movie
2004 Documentary
1h 6min
| Original title | Le Fantôme de l'opératrice |
| Original lang. | French, English |
| Country | Canada |
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERATOR invites us into a world where science meets fiction -- breathing poetic new meaning into archival films and revealing a little-known chapter in industrial history.
The 20th Century had its invisible workforce: telephone operators. Not merely "voices with a smile", they were shooting stars in a universe of infinite progress. They were test pilots for the management systems of their time.
Caroline Martel takes overlooked artefacts of cinema history -- one hundred industrial, advertising and scientific management films produced in North America between 1903 and 1989 -- and turns them into a dreamlike montage documentary. She also resurrects from the past an arcane electronic musical instrument: the ondes Martenot, adding to the mood set by the voice of award-winning actor Pascale Montpetit.
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERATOR sheds light on the corporate, scientific and popular imaginations of the past century to provide a wry yet ethereal portrait of human society in the technocratic age.
| Directed by | Caroline Martel |
| Written by | Caroline Martel |