Dérives

Abstract

This last chapter begins with a study of Jacques Rozier’s films, with an emphasis on two films that directly plunge into the travel motif at the core of my focus: Les Naufragés de l’île de la Tortue/The Castaways of Turtle Island (1976) and Maine-Océan (1985). I make a distinction between filmmakers who (like writers) are indebted to geography as opposed to history. Rozier’s films unlock new ways of looking at the ‘open road’, and the call for an elsewhere, away from predetermined patterns. I examine Rozier as a traveler within French cinema, part of the New Wave but also a loner and an artisan. I borrow the term ‘dérive’ from Situationist theories although I apply it to a rural landscape. Rozier advises a new outlook on travel and time, like Jacques Tati, with an emphasis on slowness.

I create an opposition between writers inspired by history and writers inspired by geography. I’m definitely on the side of the geographers. (Tournier 97)¹

Thus I had to give up at six years old, a magnificent career as a painter … I had to choose another profession and I learned how to drive airplanes. I flew a bit everywhere in the world. Geography, for sure, helped me a lot. I knew how to recognize at first glance, China and Arizona. It’s very useful if one gets lost at night. (Saint-Exupéry 2)²