L'Oiseau sans pattes
Valérianne Poidevin
Switzerland, France | 2012 | 65 min
Language : French
Subtitle : English
“Jean-Yves Durand is my uncle. He’s a truck driver. He wanted to be an actor.” Uncle and niece, face to face, in a relationship that develops amid passing landscapes and stops to take stock. Alternating improvised scenes and play rehearsals, past and present, L’oiseau sans pattes is proof that any journey first takes place in the minds of the travellers.
“Jean-Yves Durand is my uncle. I’m going with him on a journey. He’s a truck driver. He wanted to be an actor. By making this film, I want to pay tribute to this sensitive, eccentric personality, who has helped me take a critical look at the modern world” (VP). Uncle and niece, face to face, in a relationship that develops as landscapes go by and they stop to take stock. Drama and literature – Jean-Yves’ long-standing enthusiasms – rise to the surface and form the link between them. Valérianne Poidevin here wears a variety of “hats”, as filmmaker and actress, niece and stage manager.
The geographical locations may seem bland, but they serve to emphasize – in a sort of tribute to the American road-movie – the other dimension of this journey: time. Alternating between past and present, L’oiseau sans pattes is proof that any journey first takes place in the minds of the travellers, confirming the words of Nicolas Bouvier: “You think you are going to make a journey, but soon it is the journey that makes – or unmakes – you.”
Carlo Chatrian
Translation BMP Translations
