The roots of this project lie in my desire to work with my characters — to “program randomness,” as it were. And while La belle visite is about old age, the film is not at all intended as a sociological study; nor is it a didactic or moralistic essay. The story that unfolds on-screen is something else entirely. Above all, it is a cinematic experience anchored in a physical and allegorical place.

In this film, I deliberately maintained distance from my subjects by withholding all details about their past and identity. I also dispensed with the notion of “lead” characters, which would have been a key aspect of a more conventional approach to the topic. I chose my approach with the aim of highlighting the idea that these people really are characters with whom viewers can identify, just like the characters in a work of fiction. As a result, the group becomes a symbolic representation of our elders, which gives the viewer greater latitude to interpret the film.