René ou le roman de mon père

About this title

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.