A plane speeds into Paris. The tourists are destined to see it all: the figure of Notre-Dame and the crossroads of the Métro, where stone and steel meet and embrace. Pedestrian and vehicular traffic, no matter whether on road or water, old Paris and modern Paris, also workers hastily unloading firewood, sand, and coal. By night, the city shimmers with the lights of amusements that continue in Montmartre, while by day it is Paris by the water, it is the face of a woman.

A unique city symphony – Derain is the only known woman to have shot “urban cinematic harmony”. Bringing moving images closer to music and toying with the concept of synaesthesia, she created an impressionistic staccato in tune with the ideals of Ruttmann, Vigo and Vertov regarding a modern form that has its own address. Derain was a journalist, director, screenwriter, critic, founder of the Ciné-club de la femme, and a close collaborator of Henri Langlois, founder of the Cinémathèque Française.