SYNOPSIS + STATEMENT

A tragic event takes place without warning. The life of a woman, so far confined to a humdrum routine, is suddenly upset. She begins, progressively, to chart new paths, attuned to longly neglected passions.

An Entirely Simple Truth illustrates the absurdity of quotidian life through the juxtaposition of the minute and the immense, the trifle and the transcendent, the inescapable self and its tragic fatality. It is the expression of the aftermath of death in a modest household. Grief leads the protagonist to realize the vacuity and solitary nature of her existence. As she goes on with her daily routine while coping with a growing feeling of estrangement, ordinary chores become corrupted by nostalgic interference: everything that seemed safely anchored in certainty is now blurred, deconstructed. When, trying to reengage with a former passion, she lands a job as a costume seamstress for a theatre company, the play being prepared — Camus’ Caligula, a line from which provided the title for the film — offers an acute resonance between the Roman Emperor’s situation and her own. As she emancipates herself from superficial, mundane worries to further engage into the absurd, into seclusion, alone with her tormented mind and all its irrational impulses, the similarity only becomes more prominent.

TECHNICAL SUMMARY

2016—2017 • Narrative short film • 09:40 • Full HD video • Color • 1.78:1 • French

CREDITS

Screenwriting, directing, production: Marco Joubert and Guillaume Saindon

Photography, editing, sound design: Marco Joubert

Interpretation: Ginette Fournier, Richard Léger, Annie Cloutier,

Caroline Lefebvre, Jonathan Lorange and Guillaume Saindon

Voices: Simon Philippe Caron, Caroline Monast-Landriault,

Isabelle Monast-Landriault and Benoit Racette

With support from: SAW Video and City of Ottawa

VIEWING LINK

Watch An Entirely Simple Truth on Vimeo

OTHER LINK

Guillaume Saindon's website