L'envol du marcheur

Departure: Paris, arrival: Bâle. Between the two, a journey on foot through the depths of France. Daniel de Roulet spends three weeks exploring what he sees and encounters. The vigorous monologue of the day turns into an imaginary dialogue during the night with another solitary traveler who made the same journey a quarter of a century later. Banlieues, farmers, the absence of cafés, and lush terrain are all found at the foot of the comic or despairing Alps of the 19th century. A pudgy auteur, Daniel de Roulet evokes in this récit, without losing his breath, marvelous fragments of intimacy. Xavier Voirol's images, on the other hand, manage to punctuate the film with perspicacity and elegance.