A woman arrives in Paris with her little girl to look for work. With limited funds and no luck, they end up penniless, homeless and dependent on the rare kindness of strangers.
EN
“I have not a drop of doubt that Marcel Hanoun is the most important and the most interesting French filmmaker since Bresson... to the qualities which we are used to associate with Bresson – such as the total control of image, the economy of action and image, the precision, exactness, and almost puritan seriousness – Hanoun has added sensuousness, lyricism of image, structural concern, and the eye and hand of the cameraman.”
Jonas Mekas1
“Such a brief discussion can hardly do justice to the excitements and revelations contained in the film’s sixty minutes: the bold departures from the conventional cutting continuity (for example, a shot of the woman crossing a street from left to right, followed by a shot of them crossing a nearly identical street from right to left, without any apparent break in time), which are played against the narrative continuity provided by the woman’s voice; the subtle shifts and gradations of lighting from shot to shot, which play a part in establishing the film’s rhythm; the extraordinary performance of Micheline Bezancon as the mother. For the moment, it is enough to say that Une simple histoire creates a new kind of filmic reality, a fugue-like narrative form which infuses a simple story with unnatural beauty and power.”
Jonathan Rosenbaum2
- 1
Jonas Mekas, cited in the MoMa press archives.
- 2
Jonathan Rosenbaum, “UNE SIMPLE HISTOIRE (previously unpublished, 1970),” Jonathan Rosenbaum website, 14 May 2024.
FR
« Une simple histoire se présente comme un document, comme une déclaration clinique sur le réel. Et j’insiste sur le mot « clinique ». Marcel Hanoun propose un film où le suspense ne naît pas de l’aspect social des mésaventures de l’héroïne, mais bien de leur aspect pathologique. L’originalité de Marcel Hanoun est d’avoir su non seulement décrire une situation dramatique, mais aussi élaborer un personnage féminin. C’est pourquoi j’aime ce film. »
Jean-Luc Godard1
