Portraits d’Alain Cavalier, second series

L’Illusionniste
L’Accordeuse de piano

These portraits consist in interviews with people I would like to prevent from sinking into oblivion, if only for the few minutes they speak before the camera. I interviewed working mothers whose spirit of independence has not been broken. I have aready made 24 portraits and I wish to make up to a hundred in order to keep a record of women’s labour. I also hope to keep a record of my own work as a filmmaker. I wonder what my seventy eighth portrait will look like. I have chosen to devote only thirteen minutes to each woman. To begin with I wanted to avoid boring the audience and making any cuts. I wanted to make the film as quickly as possible so as not to lose momentum and work smoothly. I’m not a researcher, but rather someone who likes faces, hands and objects. I like the generosity displayed by the women who accepted to be filmed. I don’t particularly like the idea of conveying “reality”, it is only a word, one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is fiction, an art which I like practicing in other films.