In The Super 8 years, a sort of commented family album, Annie Ernaux revisits, with the help of her son David, images captured by her husband Philippe, who, at the time, carried a Bell & Howell camera wherever he went. Having become the most coveted object of wealthy households, the camera will be a privileged witness to a decade of family life, between 1972 and 1981. And the dissatisfaction of a woman who struggles to find her place in it, except when she writing.
Those who have already immersed themselves in the words of Ernaux will recognize his poetry and his propensity to tell and describe, down to the smallest detail, until a fresco, a portrait, a story is revealed. What reality hides behind the family reels? No one would know if Annie Ernaux had not delved into her images, taking a delayed look at her own existence and the world around her. “Words were needed to make sense of this silent time,” she says towards the end of the film.
The trembling archives, with their singular grain, are not very eloquent in themselves. It’s what the narrator says that’s interesting. She reveals to us that behind this wife, this mother, who does not seem entirely comfortable in her roles, there is a woman in the middle of writing her first novel, who dreams of emancipation.
At the turn of several trips – Albania, Morocco, Spain and Russia, among others – we witness the rise of tourism from the point of view of the French bourgeoisie, a social class that Ernaux disavows, despite the evidence. The writer has this way of revealing the social mechanisms behind phenomena that one might think are only intimate.
Until the last trip filmed with Bell & Howell, with which Philippe Ernaux will leave after the break-up of the family unit, The Super 8 years examines in a touching way what constitutes family memory and, against the grain, the birth of a woman of letters.
The exercise of self-reflection to which Annie Ernaux lends itself is in no way innovative, but will appeal to those who appreciate the autobiography that is the work of the writer, whose unique voice is amplified with each new project.
Documentary
The Super 8 years
Annie Ernaux and David Ernaux-Briot
1:01 a.m.