Although not mainstream, the Passe-Muraille is an iconic figure in French popular culture. He is known superficially, mostly for his power to go through walls. His name is Dutilleul and other traits are mundane, he is an ordinary office worker with a taste for order. In the stories he becomes famous under the pseudonym Garou Garou, by stealing from banks and museums. These are motivated by his boredom, to redecorate his room, as a daily fitness exercise, and the temptation to go through more challenging walls.

The Passe-Muraille started as a story from the writer Marcel Aymé. Being quite short and undetailed, several movie adaptations fleshed the story further, giving their own twist to the plot. The one from 1951 is very comedic and contains a lot of pranks, whereas the comedy one of 1977 plays more with the absurdity of the situation. The most recent one, from 2016, more serious but still with humor, focusses more on the character of Dutilleul and his personal growth.

Even if the movies plot's concept stays the same, the stories of the movies differ thanks to the points left open by the novel. The side characters and events are not the same. It could be interpreted as different Dutilleuls, their given names also being different, a Monsieur Dutillieul, a Léon and an Émile. How bizarre their power is, the doctors aren't that much surprised and they don't seem to be a new thing, only a rare occurrence. The movies could thus be seen as existing in the same universe, the characters being distant family.

The character being often only known for his ability to go through walls, I wanted to look at the particularities of this power in each movie. Because walls tend to become invisible in films as they're often just backgrounds, I use the format of a 3D exhibition to look under a new perspective at walls.