Anne-Marie Miéville has always been notoriously shy about the specific character of her collaboration with Godard. In her later work, the films between Le Livre de Marie (1984) and Après la reconciliation (2000), we recognise elements that look (and sound) familiar from Godard’s work (the typography of the opening credits, the sounds, the abruptness of acoustic editing, for example), but they are entirely transformed. During the Sonimage years, Papa comme maman provides a unique insight into Miéville’s style since it is the only work she directed outside of the AMM/JLG framework.

She could collect rocks and lace. She could be a harpist or a horsewoman. Lots of elegance, of calm blonde hair. Her first feature film, Mon cher sujet, is a film that talks of women without preciousness or complacency, a musical and essential film. Anne-Marie Miéville often answers questions with a hermetic gracious smile, as if everything we need to know about her is in her film. She’s right, of course. Miéville: “I also have a daughter. In the film, you can see her sing a song she has written; she’s twenty-four. And some months ago, when the film was already finished, my daughter in her turn had a little girl... I start from the principle that we need to talk about what we know.”