Laurent Achard

To make her meeting with her lover Bernard, Françoise needs Julien's help. Julien is 11, Françoise, 14. They're brother and sister.

From 2016 to 2021, Laurent Achard directed four portraits of filmmakers: Vecchiali, Brisseau, Stévenin, and Mazuy. The fifth (Carax), begun in 2023 at the Villa Medici, remained unfinished. He nicknamed it “The Chairs.” “When we consider how familiar death is, and how complete our ignorance is, and that there has never beenany escape, we must admit that the secret is well kept!” (Jankelevitch)

With few words and leaving it to the spectator to fill in blanks, this short subject contemplates one ordinary day in the life of a single woman and her child.

Jean-Claude Brisseau receives a film crew and some friends at his home to talk about cinema, childhood, time passing by…

It’s summer and the beginning of the long vacation period for eleven-year-old Martin, who lives on a farm, and, at a loss, observes his family’s disintegration : his mother lives locked-up in her room ; his older brother, who he adores, drowns himself in drink ; and his father, dominated by Martin’s grandmother, is a helpless onlooker to the family’s collapse. Although Mistigri, his cat, and Malika, the Moroccan maid, afford him some comfort, Martin is determined to put an end to this confusion.

Sylvain, a young man, devotes his life to small, local movie theater destined to be shut down. He lives in the theater's basement and is the theater programer, projectionist, and ticket seller. Each night, after the last screening, he leaves the building to carry out a ritual killing.

Laurent Achard set up his camera on the set of Paul Vecchiali’s film Le Cancre to capture the director’s creative power. Although Vecchiali’s precision is impressive, Achard also shows moments where his collaborators’ input is essential. Under the director’s eye, the stars are becoming actors again, and Achard revives the heritage of Vecchiali’s '70s and '80s production studio Diagonale.