Synopsis
“In re-viewing our Super 8 films, shot between 1972 and 1981, it occurred to me that they comprised not only a family archive but a testimony to the pastimes, lifestyle and aspirations of a social class in the decade after 1968. I wanted to incorporate these silent images into a story which combined the intimate with the social and with history, to convey the taste and colour of those years.” Annie Ernaux
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Annie ErnauxSelf (archive footage) / Narrator (voice)
- 90
The New York Times
Memory is also, I think, one reason we watch movies like this, which with its lapidary narration and melancholic images — with its laughing children, its difficult smiles and its ghosts — movingly pairs you with Ernaux and with the world that she has so brilliantly made. - 90
Los Angeles Times
This moving, probing, beautifully written film doesn’t completely eschew nostalgia, but like Ernaux’s books, it treats the past as a prism, casting varying light depending on how, when and where it’s held. - 80
Screen Daily
As a born writer, Annie’s commentary is a time capsule of her life half a century ago but also, by extension, of fascinating changes afoot in France itself. - 75
The Film Stage
The film plays as one extended memory—sometimes more bitter, sometimes more sweet, always a combination of both. - 63
RogerEbert.com
The compact documentary is ultimately more an exercise for the filmmakers than it is a truly rewarding cinematic experience for the audience.