In 1950. Questioning a certain number of people, like on television now. Talking with qualified people, in other words, well-known figures” (Nicole Vedrès in the Tv program Portrait de Nicole Vedrès, 1964).

“Perhaps […] [intelligence] should simply be considered a category of aesthetics based on which we can establish cinema not only as the heir of the novel or theater or, more rarely, poetry. It can also be a descendant of the essay – and apparently there can be awful ones, just like at the bookstore. All of this today sounds commonplace, but before Paris 1900 and La Vie commence demain it wasn’t at all” (Chris Marker, Marker Mémoire, Cinémathèque française program, January-February 1998).

The title comes from a 1947 book by André Labarthe (1902-1967), who appears in the film.

Émilie Cauquy