Caught by a flash, Nathalie Sarraute is next to me at the Cinémathèque.
She was 94 and came to see "Vagabond".
Actually, to see it again.
Her presence filled me with joy and pride, as did her long friendship.
I knew her through Anne, her daughter,
who helped Alain Resnais edit "La Pointe Courte" in 1954.
She said her mom wrote.
"Portrait of a Man Unknown" deeply impressed me.
Then, I met Nathalie and have loved her ever since.
I read her books and admire her work.
She takes us on a journey through the underwood of thought.
She talks about the indescribable with often hesitant words.
Her books give me strength.
I'd visit her sometimes.
She smoked, drank some vodka, spoke of everything and nothing.
Then, she talked about Dostoevsky or Proust.
So intelligent, so mischievous!
For the film's release,
Alain Veinstein at France Culture Radio invited us
onto his show.
I've selected extracts from the program.
"Vagabond" is dedicated to Nathalie Sarraute.
Could you tell us why you dedicated your film to her?
I'm pleased to say I don't know why.
When I decided to, it was obvious.
I wouldn't have dedicated it to anyone else.
After I had this idea which I really liked,
I thought: "One day, I'll tell her. I hope she likes it."
That was the emotional reason for it.
I later found all kinds of almost logical reasons.
When she told me, I was absolutely amazed
she'd dedicated her film to me. I was extremely moved.
I was sure I'd love it, because I love everything Agnès does.
And I must say, I wasn't disappointed - far from it.
I tried to work out why she'd thought of me.
I think she revealed to me things that I didn't know myself
or that I only vaguely felt and that I felt when I saw the film.
I dedicated it to Nathalie Sarraute,
because, to me, she's an absolute rebel,
despite her "lady of letters" side
that sheltered ladies have, of course.
I first saw a photo of her a long time ago.
She was walking in a plowed field.
She wore a leather coat. She was striding forward.
This photo, taken when she was about 30,
is engraved on my memory.
It evoked a rebellious woman walking alone in the country.
As I watched the film,
I felt so close to the film's main character,
though she had nothing in common with the sheltered life I've led.
Sheltered in a way, but also rather abandoned
as a child.
I'd like to pick up on a word Agnès used about you: "rebel".
Nathalie Sarraute, do you think of yourself as a rebel?
Well, I think...
it's very hard to confide one's innermost thoughts like that.
But as I watched Agnès's film, all of a sudden I saw
something of my own life.
I'd already vaguely sensed it like that,
but it was as if I'd always protected myself as much as possible
to avoid being like the character in the film.
I surrounded myself with safeguards and things which, in reality,
didn't correspond in any way...
to my real urges...
so as to protect myself.
And without all that,
I think that, when I was young,
I'd have probably resembled this character.
It's very hard for me to tell,
but Agnès tells me that I withdraw
into great solitude in what I write.
I've always been very alone,
because people didn't follow me.
They didn't understand what I wrote.
I continued to write like that as I couldn't write any other way.
I wrote what I felt.
You plow such a lonely, thankless furrow,
an elusive furrow which you try to capture
- not to say you don't succeed -
but your work is trying to capture the elusive,
the spaces between things,
delving into feelings before they are put into words and actions.
With all humility, the work you do
is what I tried to do in "Vagabond":
Portraying each character in various ways,
constantly reassessing opinions,
everyone being contradictory, nothing certain.
During the shoot, we called the film "Grasp lt"
as the film itself was elusive.
I wasn't sure I grasped the film I was making
and I liked this sensation which made the shoot a real risk.
Like Mona, I was wandering around,
trying to capture images and sounds
which would express
what Mona wouldn't put into words and what others thought they saw.
I used prisms and mirrors
to portray this character who shuns other people.
You said that there are deep links
between your filmmaking and her writing.
For example, in the novel, "Martereau" by Nathalie Sarraute,
the main character is elusive. We don't know what to think.
At first, he's this hero who finds the dream house.
He helps out as a man of straw, then he's a crook,
then likeable again, then we don't know...
Martereau is described yet constantly elusive.
- Am I wrong? - No, no.
You can't grasp Martereau.
- Can you? - No.
I wanted to create a character that looks like a character
but who is falling apart, who is disintegrating.
I was struck by the fact that you dedicated
"Vagabond" to Nathalie Sarraute.
There's one thing I borrowed
to pay a small tribute to you.
In "The Planetarium", an elderly aunt has a big apartment
which her nephew wants to get his hands on.
He just got married and he wants it.
So, as it's wartime, he plots an exchange.
He hopes they'll put her in a small apartment
since his wife wants a big apartment
and thinks it would be good for his career.
So, "Vagabond" isn't identical,
but there's an elderly aunt and a nephew who wants her apartment.
He just wants her to die or go into a home.
So, I had fun making small references to your novels that you might notice.
And that's why I dedicated this film to you
and maybe it brought us together in a way.
It's an extraordinary meeting of minds.
When I saw "La Pointe Courte",
it coincided perfectly
with what I would have liked to do if I made a film.
I found a world which was already mine.
I saw in it a kind of approach...
a sort of... jump through appearances
toward what people spontaneously feel.
But I don't think it's connected
to the substance I work on.
- That's not possible. - I like your word, "substance".
I say "texture" for film.
I've seen in some of Nathalie's books
things in which the words
already contained the emotive power of personal or collective feelings,
as if you couldn't approach them without taking emotional risks.
I often think that some images are already loaded...
already loaded with collective feelings.
The very texture of emotions, not the story.
What an image can show would need pages and pages of writing,
and you still couldn't do it,
but the image shows it at once.
A question for Nathalie Sarraute: Would you have liked to make films?
Definitely, but I'm quite incapable of doing so.
I'd also have liked to compose, but I don't have an ear for music.
It's totally different.
I came here to talk about your film.
We should end on that.
The main thing is that people see this film.
Maybe we could end...
That's what matters.