"Things happened to me so that I could write about them." Annie Ernaux's writings are a prolific source of inspiration for cinema (the fiction films Happening [+lee también:
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entrevista: Anamaria Vartolomei
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entrevista: Danielle Arbid
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entrevista: Annie Ernaux y David Ernau…
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entrevista: Claire Simon
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The programme is very simple: in eight secondary schools across France (Paris, the working-class Parisian suburbs including Sarcelles, three different provincial locations including Toulouse, Villefranche-sur-Saône and Saint-Christol-lez-Alès, and overseas with Cayenne), students read excerpts from Annie Ernaux's books and discuss them, first in class and then outside of class. A mosaic of exchanges and new insights that perfectly illustrate the profound meaning of the literary source: “writing about life, the same for everyone, but experienced individually, a subject to explore, a sensitive truth”.

Social classes, communication difficulties within families, place in society, love, sexuality and the issue of consent, motherhood, patriarchy, language, etc.: each reading sparks a flood of comments, debates and anecdotes from young people who relate the topics addressed very directly and without filter by Annie Ernaux to their own experiences. The result is a fascinating composite picture of a diverse generation (particularly those from immigrant backgrounds) still caught up in the relative naivety of their age, yet often displaying great maturity in many areas.

"Don't bite off more than you can chew." By choosing this quote for her first sequence, Claire Simon immediately sets a modest tone for a charming film focused on "essential truths." But make no mistake: the filmmaker has a masterful grasp of subtext and very subtly orchestrates ("no detail is left to chance") the refreshing spontaneity of the testimonies in her editing. Like Annie Ernaux's writing ("I adopted a neutral, flat style, without metaphor, violence or emotion. The violence comes from the facts, not the writing"), the documentary is "beautiful, simple, philosophical, refined" and accurately echoes the motto of France inscribed on the pediments of several secondary schools: “Liberty, equality, fraternity". 

Writing Life: Annie Ernaux Through the Eyes of High School Students was produced by Rosebud Productions. Be For Films handles international sales.