Une année studieuse

Last week I finished reading Anne Wiazemsky's autobiography, "Une année studieuse". I must confess that when I bought the book I had no idea who she was, nor that it was an autobiography haha, I think I read something about it online and put it on my "To read" list and now here we are. The book covers one year in Anne's life, a young student who is studying for her BAC (which is sort of France's SATs, I guess) while picking plums in France's provence during the summer months, at a friend's house. Then we find out she had acted in a movie the previous semester, one called Au Hasard Balthazar, directed by Robert Bresson, and that she had then met several famous people, like Jean-Luc Godard - to which she feels she has been continuously rude in their 2 or 3 encounters in Paris. Thus she sends him a letter saying how much she admires his work, specially Masculin Féminin and Pierrot le Fou, and apologized for always being so rude. Who'd have thought that not only he did he forgive her but that he also would come to pick her up in southern France because he had been in love with her since seeing Au Hasard Balthazar in the movies?

"Oui, je souhaitais ce mariage et en même temps, j'eus soudain une étrange intuition: "Je veux vivre le plus longtemps possible avec toi. Mais je sais que ce n'est pas pour toute la vie, que j'aurai d'autres amours et d'autres vies", lui dis-je dans un souci d'honnêteté."

The story goes on for the year following their encounter, when she starts studying philosophy and Jean-Luc goes on shooting films. My favourite part was definitely reading how Jean-Luc was while filming, how did he feel about the way things had to be, how did he treat actors and crew, etc. And also, of course, reading about all their friendships to Famous Intellectuals of the time, like Cournot and Truffaut.. She mentions Sartre's work all the time, which was cool because I love reading his books too (not that I actually understand what he's trying to mean though). Also, it goes on in 67, so we see how things are hitting up to what one day would be May 68.

"Puis, je me glissai nue dans le lit, bien décidée à ne pas le réveiller. Satisfaite, je m'apprêtais à sombrer dans un profond sommeil quand je sentis une main étrangère se poser sur mon épaule et une voix, qui n'était pas celle de Jean-Luc, marmonner: "C'est toi, Sabine?" Mon effroi fut tel que je crus que mon coeur s'arrêtait de battre. Je connaissais cette voix, je l'avais souvent entendue au cinéma et au théâtre, c'était celle de Jean-Pierre Cassel qui occupait avec sa femme la chambre voisine de la nôtre. Je demeurai quelques secondes paralysée à l'idée qu'il se réveille complètement et me découvre dans son lit. Mais heureusement Jean-Pierre Cassel me tourna le dos et se rendormit. En une seconde, je fus devout. J'attrapai mon linge, ma mini-robe, mon pull et mes sandales qui traînaient éparpillés sur le plancher et me retrouvai, toujours nue, dans le couloir de l'hôtel. Un peu de lumière filtrait sous la porte de la chambre voisine et j'y entrai précipitamment. Jean-Luc lisait sagement dans le lit et de stupéfaction lâcha son livre quand il me découvrit, collée contre la porte, nue, avec mes vêtements serrés sur ma poitrine."

The whole book reads as fiction though (I'm not sure if all biographies are like this, but it was a pleasant surprise) and we're inside Anne's head all the time, while she ponders if she's really in love with Jean-Luc, if he's not gonna fall back in love with Anna Karina, if she should pursue higher education, etc. I liked seeing how she fluctuates around loving him to death or wanting to be free, because I think that if I ever fall in love with someone (never have) I'd be scared of growing too dependent on them as well. And how awesome would it be to date Jean-Luc Godard in Paris in the 60s??? I felt so nostalgic about Paris that I decided to download an app called Fake GPS and set my location to my old apartment there, and then turned Tinder on and started talking in French to all these hot french guys. Still not sure if that's too crazy or not, but hey, at least I'm practicing my French! (They do get disappointed when they find out I'm not going to have sex with them though haha).

Anyway, it's a great book and I totes recomend it if you like:
1. the 60s
2. Paris (or France in general)
3. Godard
4. all the options above.

A pleasant day to you,
V.