Elisa and Eric are two teenage war orphans. They change their apartment on the outskirts of the city into a photo-studio to make a living, and they are very devoted to it. The two seem to live like heavenly beings without connecting to the outside world. Their only contact with the exterior is through Jacques, a loyal friend, but he also cuts himself out of any social life. The sister and the brother then take to get in touch with the world by Mrs Jean, a friend of their deceased mother with whom Elisa takes courses of singing. They live in harmony until a young man, whom Elisa falls for, eventually leaves with Eric for the USA and left her brokenhearted alone in France.
Cinematography
Glowing, intimate frames that feel like developed photographs.
Direction
Thévenet's confident, barely-known debut with visual poetry.
Director
Virginie Thévenet
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Éva Ionesco, who plays Eva, was a famous child model turned actress; her own controversial childhood photoshoots strangely mirror the film's themes of voyeurism and constructed innocence.
This barely-seen gem captures a specific 1980s French indie aesthetic—part Rohmer conversation, part MTV dreaminess—that almost nobody remembers.
FR
