Re-née ou le rendez-vous avec le temps (1984)
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Générique principal
Contenus
Thèmes médicaux
- Personnes et caractéristiques personnelles en pathologie. Caractéristiques du patient
- Séméiologie générale. Symptomatologie. Signes et symptômes. Examens. Diagnostic. Propédeutique
- Traitement
- Pathologie du système uro-génital. Affections urinaires et génitales
- Psychiatrie. Pathologies psychiatriques. Psychopathologie. Phrénopathies. Psychoses. Anomalies mentales. États psychiques et mentaux morbides. Désordres émotionnels et comportementaux
Sujet
Psychological and medical support for women struggling with infertility or menopause
Genre dominant
Résumé
The film portrays two women who consult the same doctor: one is struggling with infertility, whereas the other is going through menopause. Both women experience psychological distress and call on the doctor for support, namely his ability to listen and provide care, during these different periods of transition.
Contexte
Society
Consumer society, inherited from les Trente Glorieuses [the thirty-year post-war boom], took root in France between 1960 and 1990. It entered a more turbulent phase at the end of this period when new needs continued to emerge. In the wake of 1968, the 70s gave concrete expression to sexual liberation, although it did not equally apply to men and women and society as a whole. Women’s rights, especially with respect to their decision to have children, were strengthened thanks to the democratisation of contraception and the legalisation of abortion. Furthermore, women progressively entered the workforce and gained autonomy during this period.
Medicine
During the same period, medicine benefited from impressive technological advances that not only stabilised the health of the general public but also prolonged life expectancy. As a result, the rise in consumption among senior citizens — in good health with time and often money to spare — progressively entered the spotlight. Medicine also assigned new roles to women — teenagers, young adults and senior citizens — and gave rhythm to the course of their lives.
The media coverage of test-tube babies like Louise Brown (1978) and, especially in France, Amandine (1981), contributed to portraying infertility as a problem that could finally be discussed in the public sphere. Moreover, fulfilling "scientific dreams" related to procreation gained ground throughout the 80s following the production of Re-née: Zoe, born in Melbourne (1984) from a frozen embryo; Audrey and Loïc, twins born in 1986 by simultaneously implanting embryos; Rebecca and Emma, Australian twins born 16 months apart; etc.
Éléments structurants du film
- Images de reportage : Non.
- Images en plateau : Non.
- Images d'archives : Non.
- Séquences d'animation : Non.
- Cartons : Non.
- Animateur : Non.
- Voix off : Non.
- Interview : Non.
- Musique et bruitages : Oui.
- Images communes avec d'autres films : Non.
Comment le film dirige-t-il le regard du spectateur ?
The film is a chronicle of a woman’s life — Renée (Pauline Macia) — with a pronounced dreamlike quality as dreams are simultaneously presented as signs to help grasp the mystery of infertility and instruments to treat physical and psychological suffering. Viewers "enter the mind" of the three main characters: the mind of Renée, the infertile woman; the mind of Cécilia, the woman on the brink of menopause who regrets abandoning her child; and the mind of the doctor who represents Jean Reboul, author of the film, gynecologist and psychoanalyst. The aim of the film is not to explain infertility (in a technical or medical manner) but to understand what prevents Renée from conceiving. The reason, given at the end of the film, being that she was abandoned by her father, which corresponds quite well to a Freudian understanding of infertility. Once the patient has accepted and overcome this trauma, she will be ready to have a child. The off-screen voices of Renée and the doctor guide viewers down the path to solving the mystery of the young woman’s infertility.
Comment la santé et la médecine sont-elles présentées ?
In the film, the doctor constantly questions his treatments, his expertise and even his status. He seems to shape himself through contact with his patients. He struggles to find his bearings when placed before these women. His internal monologues contribute to the storyline. In the way they speak to him, the women treat him like a human being, someone who is understanding and fallible. Furthermore, the doctor appears to be troubled by their stories and feminine bodies, as shown in the rather suggestive medical examination scene. He often responds to them in puzzling ways, for instance, when he wonders about his relationships with his patients. While the story immerses viewers in the patient experience, it also provides a window on the doctor experience. The authority figure is blurred: the film does not include any technical discourse and above all the doctor seems to be almost as unsettled as his patients. Everything happens as if the young woman’s speech is freed at the expense of the doubt she plants in the doctor’s mind. In this encounter, viewers no longer know who is learning from whom.
Diffusion et réception
Où le film est-il projeté ?
Cinemas with screenings reserved for guest professionals and university classrooms for teaching purposes
Communications et événements associés au film
Public
Professional audience: doctors and students
Audience
Descriptif libre
Dreamlike and Symbolic Introduction
Opening credits roll with a travelling shot of a low stone wall in the background as the melancholic music of a harp and a trumpet plays. The opening credits indicate that the title of the song is "Berceuse pour un petit enfant à naître" [Lullaby for an Unborn Child] — a fitting selection given the topic of the film. Wintry countryside landscape: the ground is dry, the sky is a cold blue and the scene is sterile (but this is only temporary). Female voice-over: “Who am I, who discovers that when I ask for life, my body cannot answer? Who are you, who understands that my suffering is rooted in my desire?” A child runs on the low wall that separates the field from the road. Male voice-over: “I am the one who holds space, who replaces and who passes, the one to whom nothing belongs. You were the child, I am the child, you were the time, I am also the time”. This is how the doctor-patient relationship that will form in the following sequence is introduced. (02.00)
The Encounter between the Patient and the Doctor
Echoing the voice-over that evoked the theme of time, matching cut to a shot of a clock on the pediment of a train station. A young woman appears at the entrance. She bows her head. Matching cut to an indoor setting where the same young woman raises her head. At the edge of the frame, a man is seated at a desk. The young woman says to him, "I want a child but can’t seem to have one". She explains that she has been married for three years and that after the first year (of marriage) she saw a doctor who told her that she was not ovulating regularly. He prescribed ovulation induction drugs. "I ovulated but didn’t become pregnant". She gives the doctor her file "with the exam results and copies of the prescriptions". Although the character is overplayed, her psychological profile quickly becomes apparent: a determined woman who is just as worried about not being able to control her despair as she is about not getting pregnant. The doctor asks her about her periods. "Are your periods normal?" "Painful. It hurts before and during my period". Close-up of the young woman’s face as she stares at the doctor with an intent look while she explains that she often has abdominal pain: “I'm always aware of my tummy”. Pan and zoom out revealing the office in the background and the doctor’s profile. The music from the opening credits plays once again as the doctor examines the patient as she lies on an examination table. He notices that her thyroid is “a bit large”. The music adds an odd touch of pathos to a seemingly clinical shot. Male voiceover, but not the voice of the doctor: "Who is it then, the body of the other? A body of movement and silence? To hear with hands the presence, the love, a special language, the call of two inviting bodies longing together”. This reference to sex is paired, using a closer shot of the woman’s bust, with the doctor’s act of removing the sheet covering the patient’s body to examine her breasts with slow, delicate and attentive movements. The poem abruptly comes to an end as the voice of the doctor is heard: “You have a good core. Do you do sport?" She replies that she used to dance. Without any transition, she adds that she cannot stand being around pregnant women. “It’s right there”, she says as she points to an area of her pelvis. The doctor adds, "Your stomach is soft”. At the same time, she places her arm behind her head in a gesture of relaxation. She smiles, imagines herself pregnant. Her face freezes as she states, "I can’t stand pregnant women who treat their bodies poorly”. Return to the office, the music has stopped and they are seated once again facing each other. “I dream of a baby whose face I cannot see”. First reverse angle shot of the doctor, the camera remains distant, a bit farther back than the patient: “And the father, what does he think?” “I don’t know, he has his work. He tells me that he is willing to have a child since I want one”. Resignation is expressed in her voice. After we hear the noise of the doctor writing (what the patient says? his own observations?), she adds, “In any case, I could very well take care of the baby alone”. She concludes, "Sometimes, I would like to be pregnant by the work of the Holy Spirit”. (07.38)
Wandering in the Desert, Acknowledging Distress
Pan shot of the patient walking alone in a desert landscape of rocky dunes (another image representing sterility). As the camera moves, it leaves the patient to show the landscape void of any presence. Male voice-over: "Perhaps she was expecting medical care, a programme, a “therapeutic” intervention, and what she discovers before her is nothing but emptiness and insecurity." By continuing its rotation, the camera captures once again the woman walking aimlessly. Female voice-over: "The more you look to the sun, the more tears cloud your eyes. The more you search for light, the more your gaze sinks into infinity”. This sequence showing, with a wide shot, a woman roaming in a landscape of desert hills brings to mind the visions from the film La cicatrice intérieure by Philippe Garrel (1970, with Nico). The film directing assumes a poetic approach through its metaphorical shots and the register of the commentary that enhance and refine the thoughts of the main characters. Female voice-over: "Desert, for whom?" The male voice-over replies, “Yes. What is my place in this encounter, my role and my power? Powerlessness, questions and doubts. Have I heard the other in her body and her words?” This are undoubtedly the words of the doctor. The story looks to combine two points of view: those of the two main characters who are brought together by the consultation. The persistent loneliness expressed by the woman, as she has not received the answer she is looking for, contrasts with the emotions expressed by the man after meeting her. Here, it is interesting to take notice that the doctor is not portrayed as someone with all the answers but as a professional who is subject to doubt and inner turmoil. (09.46)
Consultation with the Husband
Matching cut to the face of a man who we assume to be the patient’s husband. He clears his throat when answering a question posed by the doctor who remains off-screen. “Yes, I was able to take time off to come here and to see family”. Seated next to him, the patient explains that she was raised by her grandmother. Shot together in the frame, the couple appears to be at odds with one another. The patient turns away from her husband and closes her eyes. He seems embarrassed. He explains that he is a sales representative, that he travels a lot and that he is not always around. He smiles nervously in the silence that follows. The doctor says, "Does she talk to you sometimes about pregnancy?" "She cries every time she sees a pregnant woman. I tell her not to think about it, but she doesn’t listen”. The camera zooms out, capturing the doctor in the frame the moment he replies, "It is impossible to not think about it”. He adds, "But she can think about it differently”. She reacts, “Differently?" The husband dodges the topic by asking which new treatment she could undergo. The doctor replies that it is a treatment for both of them. She is in favour of this idea and reminds her husband that the issue of infertility also concerns him. (11.39)
Two Years Later: Between Resignation, Hope and Anguish
Intermediate sequence: music abruptly begins to play, close-up of the doctor’s face deep in thought, then a shot of a dune atop of which two solitary trees sit. The music fades and the patient is once again in the doctor’s office. She recalls that two years of medical consultations have gone by and then adds, “I still don’t have any children, but I have no regrets”. The comment affirms that she is no longer fixated on her condition but has now entered a “creative phase”. At home, the telephone rings. She answers with enthusiasm and seems disappointed when she hears the voice of her grandmother. This was not the call she was expecting. Pan shot of photos wedged in the frame of the mirror in the hall. The shot freezes on a photo of her and another of him, each framed and placed on the cabinet where the telephone sits. She and he, each in a frame, separated and together. She is in the kitchen when he enters carrying a package against his stomach, as if he were pregnant. It is a gift he offers to her: an egg-shaped sculpture that they stroke together. (14.00)
She walks down a path lined with vegetation. She no longer wanders but walks about. In the music that plays, a harp dominates. The male voice-over says, "She now knows that something else already lives that has not yet taken shape”. In a shop, she tries on a dress, slides her hands into the pockets and stretches the material out before her, as if to prepare it for a round stomach. “It looks good on you", says the shop assistant. "If you’re pregnant, you’ll be able to wear it”. Female voice-over: "The thought has also crossed her mind”. She smiles in the mirror. Return to the doctor’s office. She resumes, "There are two things which helped me a great deal over the past two years. Our consultations…" — at that moment she looks directly at him to reinforce what she has to say, communicating the confidence that she has once again expressed to him — “… and dance”. Dance class. She performs movements in front of a bay window looking out onto houses in the village surrounded by vegetation. The female voice-over takes over the initial reflection and continues, "Inexpressible tenderness. Inaccessible. Inaccessible. Inaccessible". In an environment marked by vineyards, she sits on the low stone wall separating the field from the road. It was her birthday yesterday, she says via voice-over. She is the same age as her mother was when she brought her into this world. Two women pushing a baby carriage and a pushchair pass in front of her. Children run on the low wall. This is a symbolic composition set in her reality to crystallise her permanent preoccupations : “But who am I? Is getting what you want only a matter of will?” She walks up to the baby carriage, wanting to see inside. Close-up of her face frozen with anguish. Matching cut to a metaphorical shot taken from inside the baby carriage of a faceless woman: it is her, a woman who is not yet recognised as a mother. (17.53).
Wandering in the city, she focuses her gaze on children she meets, projections of what she imagines for herself. Male voice-over: "Lost object. Eternal search". Near the town hall, she stumbles upon a wedding. Each encounter tells a part of her story and embodies her obsessions. Dreamlike composition when she returns home. An electric echo is heard as she climbs the front steps, submerged in a stream of smoke, leading up to her house. At suppertime, there is silence between her and her husband. He moves to sit next to her and offers her a forkful of food. Black and white shot of a family sitting at a table. A memory is forming: the grandfather is blessing the bread with his penknife and the grandmother is feeding her granddaughter seated next to her. In the doctor’s office once again where a face to face is captured by a perfect pan, beginning with her and finishing with him. Male voice-over: "Am I still the doctor in this encounter? The language that Renée presents to me, I don’t receive it with all the weight it deserves. Why? She is trying to make me hear her desire and I respond with a strategy". This reflection puts the doctor-patient relationship into a new perspective, bringing it closer to that of an unprofessed romantic relationship; the doctor seeks refuge in his expertise to curb his desire for her. He suggests a new protocol, she agrees. (22.56).
Another Patient, Another Issue: Transition to Menopause
Another patient comes into play. She is well dressed and her demeanor is elegant. The doctor asks her how old she is. She replies that she is 43 years old. “You’re here for a check-up”. She smiles and says, "At my age, I believe that it is necessary to have check-ups”. She mentions that her menstruation is fading away. "I am going to be delivered at last. Men cannot understand it, but for us, periods keep us on our toes. It is associated with maternity, pregnancy, contraception". The doctor replies, "You have the impression that without a period a woman is not a woman?" The camera remains focused on her, captures her face in a close-up while she listens and searches for an answer. Finally, she nodds. "I also think that from the moment we no longer have a period, it must be sad yet, at the same time, it must lead to something else. Women, if they have sexual relations, begin to think that they are not considered women just because they can have children. They are loved for who they are”. The doctor asks if she had children. She first replies, "Two", and then corrects herself, "No, one, a daughter", before adding, “She must be twenty-one now”. She wanted to have a second child but experienced difficulties. The doctors she saw told her that she was sterile. The doctor chimes in, “‘Sterile’, that is not a pleasant word”. “That’s true, it’s not pleasant, it’s sad”, she answers. She adds that after eight years of hoping, she resigned herself to the idea that she would not have any. She turns in her chair. “Is it that way?" she asks as she points off-screen. Close-up of her face reflected in a mirror. A blur effect makes it appear fuzzy. Her voice-over begins, “Who are you, you who hears my suffering? You, the witness of words". In the office sits the same patient wearing different clothes and with her hair down, which indicates that it is a different visit. “You asked me to return in one month’s time to see how my infection was healing after treatment. She adds that she is doing well, that it was easy to cure. He shrugs his shoulders. "Cure, what does it mean?" Bewildered, she responds that it is his occupation. “This word intrigues me”, he adds. "It is about not putting a barrier between the desire to cure and desire alone". A pan once again turns viewers’ gazes from one main character to the next, doing away with the obstacle separating them: the doctor’s desk. The patient continues, "Often, we believe that we are healed and then the wound opens once again. I'm talking about a wound that is more serious, deeper. Following your consultation, I had the impression that something in me was liberated”. She had an abortion at the age of eighteen. It is the first time she speaks of it. Her partner left her soon after. "We couldn’t stay together", she explains. (29.20)
Renée Once Again: Still Waiting
Return to Renée. She is in the doctor’s office with her husband. The doctor’s voice-over begins, “Since I saw Cécilia, I knew that I would hear Renée”. She tells him about a “strange” dream she recently had. “I was expecting a child”, she stops, looks at her husband, smiles and continues on, "we were expecting a child”. While she was holding it in her arms, "it became tiny". She wanted to put it in a coffin but her husband took it from her to warm it up in his hands. The husband speaks up, says that he spoke about his problems with a friend who is experiencing a similar situation. “I felt less alone”, he admitted. She adds that her husband feels as though the fact that they do not have children has an impact on their sex life. “There are times when we can no longer tolerate one another”, he says as he shoots a glance at her, “especially when we have to calculate for fertility”. The doctor asks if calculating is a good thing.
Back to Cécilia
In the doctor’s office, Cécilia tells him about the moment in her life when she became pregnant. She felt a burning desire to have a child when she was living "with an older man”. “I felt good about shaping something each day”. Close-up of the attentive doctor. She then describes the “large empty space” she felt after childbirth. “I wasn’t prepared". The doctor asks about the father, a piece of information he often works into his consultations. Cécilia replies that the father was not invested and "in any case, I especially had a child for myself". At the time, she was indifferent to that man’s lack of interest; today, on the other hand, she is moved when she sees a couple harmoniously embracing parenthood. “Because it is something they both wanted”, says the doctor. She nods like Renée, with that "yes, of course" that is acceptable yet shields her from further questions. “The child that I had, I didn’t keep it”, adds Cécilia. She fears that the doctor is judging her. “I am not judging you”, he answers. She explains that she entrusted her child to her mother with whom she did not get along. She managed to see her child regularly and then less and less. She looks to the ceiling, her lips move without making a sound. The topic is clearly not easy for her to discuss. She strokes her lower lip. The silence grows. “You haven’t seen her since?” asks the doctor. She shakes her head and adds, "I abandoned her. But I’m the one who made her". "You gave her life", he affirms. He asks if she would like to draw, to do a drawing "that you’ll then discuss". He hands her a white sheet of paper, which is actually a transparency in the following sequence shot from beneath the surface on which she draws, like in The Mystery of Picasso by Henri-Georges Clouzot. On the transparent surface, she draws an oval shape. As the sequence progresses, we see the doctor standing behind her, looking over her shoulder. “I drew an empty circle. Perhaps I drew death or the body of a woman, round, which gives birth. And if it was…?" "Life", the doctor says, finishing her sentence. “Life?" she repeats. She puts the marker down, looks at the drawing and then the doctor before saying, “There you have it”. (36.50)
Happy Conclusion: The Child Comes to Be
Transition shot of a man in a field knelt down on the ground with a wooden box next to him. In the doctor’s office, Renée says, "Lovemaking always sends me back into the past”. The doctor stops his assistant as she passes through the room and motions for her to come and sit next to Renée. “I’m afraid”, she adds. "Afraid of having a child?" asks the doctor. "In any case, now, I want it", replies Renée. The doctor says, “You are the start of a new lineage", a way of freeing her from her past. Close-up of Renée’s eyes glistening with tears. Matching cut to a severed seedling with a drop of sap running down the stem. The voice of a man says, "This is the one that will bear the grafts”. He uses a penknife to cut into the plant and then inserts the graft. Back to Renée who brings up her father who abandoned her and whom she practically hates, her husband and her grandfather who assumed the role of father. “This child, I wonder if I want it for myself, not for the couple. I still haven’t been able to answer the question: what is it to be a woman?” “To be a woman is perhaps to be desired or to make it possible for someone else to desire”. When Renée leaves, the camera zooms in on the poster of a white horse that decorates the wall next to the door. Male voice-over begins, “Why is this image linked to the story of Cécilia, Renée or Eve?” Eve, the third woman to suffer from infertility, is mentioned. She appears in the frame, but her voice is not heard. The doctor explains that her mother has just passed away. "Eve, the mythical mother”. She rides a white horse that gallops in the sea. “Eve, life, death, life, death…". The horse sinks in the swell. “Eve, who accepts her mourning in order to give birth and to also be reborn. Pregnant after the death of her mother as if to reincarnate her”. Close-up of her blond hair that fades into a golden field. A farmer works his land, digging a furrow with his plough. In the doctor’s office are seated Renée and her husband. Renée is smiling as she announces, "I think I’m pregnant". The husband is also smiling as he adds, “I’m almost sure of it”. She explains that she did not bother taking any medication last month. The husband adds that he recognises that he was missing the desire to have a child in the past. He reflects, “What is strange is that it took an external intervention”. “An encounter”, specifies the doctor. Zoom out to show that his assistant is attending the consultation. Renée places her hands on the table, completely relaxed. She looks at the doctor and then the assistant. "I think I’ll still need to be looked after during my pregnancy”, a way of showing her satisfaction with the care they provide.
Shot taken in a wheat field where children run. A woman’s voice sings to the melody that ran throughout the film: "Stay curled up inside of me, my child, my little one, the journey is not over. I feel my belly stir beneath my fingers..." Final shot of a man accompanied by a boy who points out a tree and says, "That is my tree, it is my father’s grandfather who planted it”. Childhood knows that it is part of a long lineage. The song is sang by a woman who is speaking to a baby she is expecting; on-screen is a man speaking to a child. This preoccupation with acknowledging fatherhood, even defending it, runs steadily throughout this story of patients haunted by the desire to be mothers.
Notes complémentaires
Fonds Éric Duvivier code 536.
Références et documents externes
Contributeurs
- Auteurs de la fiche : Anne Masseran, Joël Danet
- 2 Traducteurs_vers_anglais : Sherry Stanbury