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“I’m a pessimist who desperately leans toward optimism—in fact, a happy pessimist.” - Yannick Bellon (1924–2019)
Yannick Bellon discovered and learned about cinema from those who made it—by going to the Cinémathèque Française and movie theaters tirelessly throughout her life. She rejected labels, schools, and cliques, following a path she carved out for herself.
Bellon’s first short documentary, Goëmons, was released in 1948, followed by a career in television. In 1972, she directed her first narrative feature, Quelque part quelqu'un (Somewhere, Someone), written, produced, and directed independently by founding her own company, Les Films de l’Équinoxe. From then until 2018, she directed several personal shorts, feature-length fiction films and documentaries. In each of her films, Bellon explored topics rarely addressed in cinema (rape, cancer, ecology) through the lens of predominantly female characters, many provoking intense public reactions and critical success.
Over the course of the eight fiction features she directed throughout her career, all to be screened in this two-part retrospective, Bellon tackled social issues well ahead of her time. She offered a clear-eyed perspective on individuals striving to reclaim their dignity. Operating outside dominant movements, including the French New Wave, Bellon remained uncompromising. Regarded as an engaged filmmaker with a deeply personal voice, her formal inventiveness is equally noteworthy—especially her seamless fusion of fiction and documentary, and her persistent exploration of time and memory. - Éric Le Roy, series co-programmer and film historian