René Viénet

René Viénet is a French sinologist who is famous as a situationist writer and filmmaker. Viénet used the situationist technique of détournement - the diversion of already existing cultural elements to new subversive purposes. René Viénet was born on 6 February 1944 to a family that had been dockworkers for several generations in Le Havre, France. He lived in Le Havre until he moved to Paris to study Chinese with Jacques Pimpaneau, an extraordinarily productive scholar, with whom he has remained close friends ever since. Viénet's film 'Mao by Mao' (1977) is dedicated to Jacques Pimpaneau. René Viénet was a member of the Situationist International (SI) from 1963 to 1971. He was one of the SI's two filmmakers (the other being Guy Debord), though his films were made and released after he had left the group. Between 1969 and 1972, Viénet discovered and fell in love with the contemporary cinema of Hong Kong and older Chinese classics. In the period 1972-1974 he distributed more than one hundred films to markets in Europe, the French West Indies and French- speaking Africa. His first two releases in Paris, offered with his own straightforward translations, were 'Du sang chez les taoïstes /ShaJie' and 'Les félons d'AnTchai'. He then created 2 films détournés: 'Can Dialectics Break Bricks?' (1972) and 'Une petite culotte pour l'été (aka Les Filles de Kamaré)' (1974). Viénet subsequently authored and directed two more complex and personal films based on archives: 'Mao par lui-même / Mao by Mao' (1976) and 'Chinois,encore un effort pour être révolutionnaires / Peking Duck Soup' (1977). René Viénet is also a publisher and made numerous contributions to the preservation of the early photographic history of China.