It seems that this link erroneously plays the Messerschmitt programme. This will hopefully be corrected soon. Ten past six in the evening, a cafe on Nice beach. A hazy day has made the horizon disappear and the normally azure sea blends into a light grey sky. Occasional swimmers, stark and sharply focussed. A man with a close-cut beard, maybe thirty years old, is wading clumsily over pebbles into the water accompanied by a girl, maybe nine or ten, in a crimson swimsuit. He sits in the shallows to pull on plastic shoes. She splashes him, calls out “Papa” and remains close by his side. He stands upright again, takes a few more steps into the sea and then swims back to the shore, just three strokes, stands, the girl joins him again. Something about his movements, the direction of his face, the slight hesitation. She calls “Papa” and they both laugh. She takes his hand and now it’s obvious that he’s blind. La Chanson Dada by Tristan Tzara and Georges Auric performed by The Hafler Trio, Manoir de Mes Reves from Gitane by Charlie Haden and Christian Escoude, Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg by Christian Marclay and Ubiquitous by Dennis Coffey all played over/under recordings made in Nice.
