This mixture of pictures
these personal archives
with general archives whom belongs to history
this parallel
between intimacy and big history
as he says
This also is very interesting
but maybe it came after ?
- it came after but he was conditioned by it all life long.
without knowing it
he says so many things
but sometimes it can be repressed. you watch and you repress simultaneously something
and here he speaks of it
effectively he was acting in a theater
he is a very good actor
he was in Switzerland or Germany
you have there cemeteries inside town
driven by a pulse he goes for a walk
he says it very soberly
but he founds himself in the child corner of the cemetery
he collapses into tears
with no understanding of what's happening to him
he is over affected
he cries
in front of these children's tomb
and don't understand why
so here start the investigation
he's going to go back through the whole story
to try to get a clue on what happened
after, retroactively,
through a slice of psychoanalysis
(as we say, although we are not sausage we do slices)
So he did a little analytical work
and he realized....
while he was going to learn medicine
and had other goals for his studies
but to become actor
was, for him, the way
to enlighten
something that was in the shadow
there are 3 shots in the film
for those of you specializing in cinema
one shoot reappears twice
a black window
opening on a black background
this is the Real, the unknown
and the camera gets closer
it gets lighter but there is a grid
something preventing to get closer
in psychoanalysis we call it
the symbolic
we can put words on it but many dark remains
but the camera manage to get across
we don't know how
it's a tribute that Eric made to Antonioni
who made the same kind of shot
which Eric often told me about
so it is a cinema's quote
that you find twice in the film
as a will to confront himself to the real
of what has been hidden
there are no words for it
the real is the unspeakable (Beckett)
what cannot be said
and as Freud correctly said :
" what you do not want to remember you are condemned to repeat"
so there is
a huge lesson here
contrary to what is said today
on miracles of genetics
artificial intelligence
what is really transmitted
in humans
transmission is of a genealogical nature
not genetic
we are the only creatures
to decode the genesis
there is no transmission purely genetic
a real geneticist will tell you that a gene is not isolable
so out of this scientific business
what are truly transmitted
is the stories
and some holes in these stories
and here, what was transmitted from a generation to another...
recall the mother from whom the death of her own mother was hidden
so she can not tell the truth
everybody laughed (silently)
when she says "I do not lie to my children"
and it is here that truth...
someone here was asking me about psychoanalysis
and I spoke about truth touching the real
Even Eric's mother
tells the truth
because truth is not what is objectively  true
its something else
as G.Bracq said " truth has no contrary"
it has something to do with desire as a structure of existence
and since what matters are the signifiers placed on it
the symbolic system giving access to the real
she would collapse without it
so she started to lie very soon
because it is impossible to bear this story so full of holes
so she invent herself other identities
other surnames
birth dates
I met Eric through his son Balthasar
my son Gabriel who is 2 years younger
was in the same school
not the same class
since Gabriel is 2 years younger
But one day, Eric comes to me and ask
Are you the father of Gabriel ? I said yes
he said "you're child is extraordinary
it is already a man in miniature "
Gabriel has this special thing, since he knew I was upset to leave him alone at school
before I left
he would pretend to play with other children
to let me go fully  reassured
and recently I heard that Balthazar
does the same thing with his farther
he never speaks oh his grand father
Eric's dad who died in hospital
you see him hairless when he is ill
last Saturday
Eric told me :
" I heard Balthazar spoke very often of my dad but never in front of me"
to not upset me
so this is about transmission
so this film, which an aesthetic manifesto
I know Thierry is very sensitive to Eric's pictures
it is a very good film director
but beyond this
there is something universal in this story
it is absolutely singular, nevertheless we are sensitive to its universal dimension
because what he calls " wish of death" about children
dont believe  it concerns only abnormality
as we saw yesterday
about Mulholland drive
there are in the unconscious
drives....let me put it in a funny way
there is a famous expression:
"Don't throw the baby with the dirty water"
in psychoanalysis
we think it is the contrary
we must throw the baby and keep the dirty water
because the baby
is the ego of the analysand
what he think he is
and the dirty water
contains his fantasy and desire of agression or revenge
this heritage of the death drive
that can be found from generation to generation
and when it is not assumed by a generation
the next generation does the harvest
Francoise Dolto said: "you need 3 generation to make a psychotic"
it does not disappear, we  all have to stick to an ethic, as subject
and to confront ourselves to our own real
and our own death drive
this is why, although this story is very particular
it contains a universal that makes the beauty of this film
you talked yesterday about beauty of words
what about beauty of pictures ?
- you know Gerard de Nerval, french poet,
abandoned by his mother
his mother had married
an officer of Napoleon's army
and she abandoned her son
and there is a quote from Nerval
which looks like Eric's quest :
" I am looking for a picture and nothing else"
it is like all this movie
was based...
towards its final resolution
when he founds, at last a picture of Christine
there is a kind of incarnation
even if he knows himself that it is fictional
he must tell himself a story
but he must put a form on it
As you have seen this passage in Sicily
all these dead, very impressive
because only dead are really what they are: corpse
we, we are always somebody else
we are always telling tales about ourselves
in alterity, in relation to others, permanently
we are always dying
ad here in the quality of the picture
we can find a formal anchor point
which allows Eric to make this marvelous job
Isn't it the picture of his mother he is searching for?
of course
at the two performances I attended
he was asked " Did your mother see the film ?"
no
Eric brought his mother to Morocco on the grave
but nothing was said
some things you just can't ...
rape the silence
we talked yesterday about silence being the highest degree of words
and he did not authorize himself to speak to his mother
and she said nothing new
they just went together
- But what is called resilience
is it this kind of work?
this is more a psychological concept
which flattens too much the stakes of the subject
there is no virtue in being unhappy
it doesn't give you more forces
each one is called to confront his own real
so it is a stake of truth
it depends of the relation we have to truth
As Freud said:  even if I resist truth by shutting my mouth
like the mother who won't speak
or in the previous film
remember how silent they are,
truth will manifest itself
through the gestures, as a betrayal
This where Freud discovers, splits, missed acts
a truth which tries to tell itself nevertheless
and truth is not pleasant to see
it put us in front of shame and culpability
we discover we are not just pictures, not ideal
somethings are wrong even in our parents
all the pictures we fancied
can suddenly disintegrate
and in this relation to truth we are summoned
and Eric can't do otherwise than searching for truth
and expose it in a film
what was supposed to be hidden
he will reveal it
this is his actor destiny
to enlighten what was in the darkness
an older sister with Down's syndrome
hidden by the parents
- Did it immediately come this parallel between this denial and the recklessness of decolonization?
or did it came later ?
because there is a magnificent work on archives.
- This is typical of Eric
he can only authorize himself....
I have an anecdote only two month old
in September he called me and asked me to come
I have a free rein at the cinematheque
they will show  "Carré 35"
but there are two other films I want them to show
so the first one is a film from Imamura, one of his first film
not well known
in which Imamura himself
with just a microphone and a small camera
goes to enquire
Japaneses prostitutes
who have been fooled and deceived by the Japanese state
and found themselves obliged to prostitute
for 40 years in Malesia
and this is the counterpoint of the big story
about the successful economic development
whom, while being an oriental country
becomes a great power equal to the Western powers
and for Eric it was the same
he realized
the repression in the memory of what is called "the events".
when you hear the news
there is a counterpoint, as we saw yesterday in Mulholland drive
you hear the sound track :
" France will help the colonies"
and you see civils being shot by the french army
all these lies are repressed
it's about the truth coming out
with a possibility to grasp
the big story through the little one
the story of the subject integrated in the signifiers of his time
this corelation
allows the possibility of a work of art
and precisely it's universal nature
and the quality of this storytelling
and you find this in Imamura's film
he is fully involved
in the life of these prostitutes
and he manage
to persuade them to return to Japan
and to prepare their repatriation
and the second film is Onibaba
another excellent Japanese film of the 50 's
this is really the universe
of Eric
film like this where Immura
precisely is the one who wrote
a treatise on the ethics of cinema
what must be done and not done
it is a book from the 60's
and he clearly says
that never must be allowed
identification of the spectator
emotions must not be manipulated nor given place
identification must not be permitted
neither an enjoyment on what is happening
so it is a matter of brushing lightly
discarding obscenity
forcing emotional
you notice, these films are very moving
but they touch things
and you don't get the feeling of entering an intimacy
it is a respectful way of filming
and to show things
respecting privacy
while still showing something
this is the difficult task
the opposite of Tarentino if you want
- it makes me think about what you said yesterday
some things are said in silence which cannot be said with words
- it is the truth of his desire
the analytical work is a lot of silence
and what is said,
is said on the background of silence
as when he keeps the shot where the mother says "I did not lie"
it is his way
of not judging
there is no judgment to have
no one can make a judgment
just learn to listen
you saw how good he is at listening
after there is a story, a fiction
this is complex for for film students
when are we in documentary or fiction ?
- At the beginning she says:
" yes I did talk about her"
as you said , sometimes children protect their parents
maybe she  talked
in a way children could no more ask questions
they understood it had to stop there
but the word was fixed
and that is why it came back
it does not come out from nowhere
- of course, the traces of the absence are there
and this what is transmitted
these are the holes of the real
the black in the window
between the words there are absences
a void, a nothing
and one must climb up to avoid being swallowed up
- he also has a keen eye for nature
a scene in wild grass
- this is the formal beauty
the form is like the reversal of the fund on itself
behind there is this structure
and this beauty
even in monstrous children
there is something that belongs to our humanity
something beautiful paradoxically
as Rilke said " Beauty is the last degree before the terrible"
the last limit
and effectively it is beautiful
it is an excellent photographer
After he finished this film
he went through a moment of décompensation
as long as he was shooting he was hold by the tension of his accomplishment
Desire keeps the illness away
when you have something important to do
you are dominated by the desire to go to the end
it is very stimulating
filming or writing is catchy
but after that
he had a difficult period
Eric is solicited by theaters, cinéma, many kinds of roles
and many people want him
he gets stupid proposals
from tv or cinema
so he makes his choice
and tries to choose roles...
...well whom are not a waste of time
because he fully  implies himself
Last time he said to me:
" the only moment when I am really happy..
is in a theater, when I tell words from someone else "
of course
he is so precise in his learning of texts
I saw him learn all Beckett
Artaud, for instance
wondering where to place the comma
repeating in empty theaters
until perfection
where the ego disappear
as we saw yesterday, our problems are not with things or beings
but with words
the intermediary between us and the world
we are always mediated by words
and to fit in a work of art as he do
or in a character
is for him a happy place
Devers already said something similar
Eric is not like Devers, he is not on drugs and so
but Devers, each time he came out of a role
life was unbearable for him
but Eric is so much inside his role
this is why he favors the theater
because roles are more catchy and text more powerfull
you can watch it several times
like "Mulholland drive" you loose nothing watching it again
I saw it it five times now and did not hang out
