Entrées de Secours (Google translation: “Emergency Inputs”) is the work of French filmmaker, Jérôme de Missolz. From the late ‘70s through the early ‘80s, he filmed a number of notable acts at Le Palace, a Paris theater and the epicenter of the city’s underground scene. Using a Super 8 camera—and without any sort of formal credentials—he shot the Clash, the Cramps, Public Image Ltd., Richard Hell, Iggy Pop, and many others.
 

Iggy Pop on stage (and wearing a shirt!) at the Paris Palace, 1979.

De Missolz eventually assembled what he had captured to make Entrées de Secours. During the editing process, he synched up unrelated audio—from the likes of Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, the Stooges, as well as ‘60s pop hits—with his Super 8 footage, and then manipulated the elements further. Finally, he blew it up to 16mm. The result was an 18-minute experimental work. In a 2010 interview, (roughly translated from French into English), de Missolz said his aim was “to transcribe the fury of the link between the electricity of music and the loss of identity in cities.”

Jérôme de Missolz died in March of 2016.
 

 
Entrées de Secours came out in 1982, and isn’t exactly easy to come by these days. As of this writing, the film doesn’t appear to be obtainable for sale in any format, nor is it streaming online. To further give you an idea of its rarity, its IMDb page doesn’t have a single rating or review. The short can be rented in its original 16mm form through a French distributor, Collectif Jeune Cinema (Young Cinema Collective), but that’s apparently the extent of its current availability.

A one-minute excerpt has been uploaded to Vimeo by the French collective, giving us a tantalizing glimpse of Entrées de Secours. DEVO are up first in the clip, then Siouxsie and the Banshees, plus some additional footage is incorporated. For the soundtrack, de Missolz used “Yummy Yummy Yummy” and “96 Tears,” as well as some sound effects. The Super 8 visuals, combined with the unexpected audio—all shaped further by de Missolz—creates a dizzying effect. It’s all very strange and unreal.
 

 
Our research indicates that the DEVO performance was recorded at Le Palace on November 19, 1978, while the Banshees piece is from their February 2, 1979 concert at the Paris Palace.

We couldn’t locate a complete list of who’s in the film, but found evidence that the aforementioned Public Image Ltd., Iggy Pop, the Cramps, and the Clash all appear, as do 999, and the Police.

Hopefully the short will receive a wide release one day. For now, this is all that can easily be seen of Entrées de Secours:
 

 
We’ll end with Super 8 footage (presumably shot by Jérôme de Missolz) from Iggy Pop’s May 16, 1979 show at Le Palace. The audio track, a live version of “Five Foot One,” was recorded at the same gig.