Cécile Decugis

This ‘roman’ (both romance and novel) of her father is narrated by Cécile Decugis’ voice – somewhat hoarse, unsentimental and unforgiving. It is a ‘photo-roman’, a story in stills (a few cinematic shots excepted). It starts as a chronology of her father’s and mother’s lives: characters like everybody else – and thus unique. The photographs in the family album record the feeling of time past through the gradual changes in body language, in women’s dresses, in artefacts of self-representation – cars, planes.

In 2007 Cécile found the soundless negative of The Refugees (Les Refugiés), and decided to remake the film. Recording new narration, she re-evaluated the 50 year old images.

Between 1931 and 1993, the main Renault plant occupied the whole of an island in a loop in the river Seine to the west of Paris. This was one of the most modern factories in Europe. It was also a bastion of trade-unionism, one of the major hotspots of the events of May and June 1968. Decugis’ film records a process of dismantlement, month-by-month, from April 2004 to March 2005. Demolition began at the downstream end, with the generating plant, then proceeded building by building. The camera remains on the opposite banks, filming the island from across the river. The narration pinpoints and expounds on what is being shown. By March 2005, ‘deconstruction’ is complete. Depollution lasts into 2006.

The last major cold snap of the twentieth century. An inventory of Paris locations: the Champ de Mars, the Invalides, the Grand Palais, the Bois de Boulogne.

Kino-eye and ciné-tract: the skippers of the inland waterways are demanding a revaluation of their services and blocking the traffic on the Seine in Paris, between the Pont Alexandre III and the Pont de la Concorde.

Young actress in a man’s world. Dinner with a director. They observe people at neighbouring tables. The man’s pass comes to nothing. Then, back home, she fights with her boyfriend. Back home, there is another row, with her boyfriend.

"Nancy, Hôtel de Guise, November 25th, 1983." A young woman enters the establishment after a long day's work. She hopes to watch a film on television, but the set is broken. Nothing out of the ordinary happens — an uneventful evening. The young woman meets a quiet young man.

Clotilde meets Richard whom she has not seen for a few years and who has been through a divorce. He is taking his two sons to Italy. He suggeests she join them with her own son in a house they have taken by the sea. Both this reunion and the holiday prove a disappointment,

A woman comes home from a long illness (read: a long absence). The city hasn't changed, the man she's returning to has. She will have to learn how to live all over again.