LA TRAVERSEE (THE CROSSING)

France, 2001, 85 minutes, Colour.
Stephane Buquet.
Directed by Sebastien Lifshitz.

La Traversee is a documentary that plays like a fiction drama. It is the collaboration between two friends, the actor and the director.

Stephane Buquet discovered the truth about his father, who was a 21-year-old American soldier stationed in France in early 1967, who was ordered to go back when General De Gaulle wanted the Americans to leave. He had an affair with a 27-year-old Frenchwoman who never told him that she was pregnant. She told her son about his father as he grew up. The son decided then that he needed to find his father.

The film shows the collaboration between Stephane and his friend Sebastien, who suggests that he film the journey and the search. At times Stephane says he is embarrassed by this exhibitionism and that he doesn't want his mother and father to see the film. He also feels imprisoned by the experience. However, he goes along with it.

The film is a road film, a journey through the United States. There are graphic sequences of New York City, of Washington DC and the Vietnam memorial, of the landscapes of Tennessee and life in the Tennessee southern towns.

Towards the end the film is quite moving as Stephane finds his father. In close-ups to camera, he explains the experience of meeting his father. He was very lucky to have a decent man as a father - although the father's wife is hesitant and suspicious. Stephane is welcomed into the family, especially by his half-sister and her husband. However, all this happens off-screen and we find it told vividly by Stephane himself. We hear his father during a phone call (and we also hear his mother during phone calls). The father is finally glimpsed in long shot saying farewell to his son.

Sebastien Lifshitz has made a number of films, focusing on gay issues. Stephane mentions at times that he is gay, but nothing is made of this as a theme of the film. It remains a film about family and about a young man on whom his mother depends seeking out his birth father, who has been psychologically absent during his formative years.

1. The audience sharing Stephane's journey? The narrative development as if the audience is sharing a fiction? The cinema verite as the audience watches the actual events, characters?

2. France, the city, Stephane's background? The airport, the build-up to the flight? The flight itself and the detail? The landing in New York? The American landscapes and cityscapes? New York, the buildings, the streets, the familiar landmarks? The people? Washington DC, the research, the Vietnam memorial? The Appalachian Mountains? Tennessee, the towns, the familiar American shops, McDonald's etc? The contrast between the United States and Europe?

3. The decision to film the journey, the friendship between Stephane and Sebastien? Sebastien keeping out of the film until towards the end when asking questions and explanations? The audience sharing Sebastien's view? Close-ups as well as distance? The ultimate effect of the filming of the journey, the editing?

4. Stephane's commentary, written after the events, the diary during the journey? The combination for leading the audience to share his search, the experience of finding his father, the aftermath?

5. The explanation of the affair in Orleans? American soldiers in France? De Gaulle and their withdrawal? The affair, the lack of correspondence yet Stephane's mother telling her son about his father? The cumulative effect in terms of an absent father, curiosity? The decision to go in search of his father? His mother's attitude, the phone calls, the questions, the support?

6. Stephane in himself, the photos of his growing up, his comments about himself as a child, an only child, the relationship with his mother, the seeming dominance, his being the surrogate of love in her life? His comment about his homosexuality, sharing his mother's perspective? The comment on homophobia? Yet his not pursuing this particular theme in his search for his father? Introverted, quiet, his reaction to the plane and the trip, to arriving in America? The beginning of his search?

7. His research, the information available? His staying in New York, not for the search, but for the imagination? His fantasy of having his father being comfortable, his being there in the city with him, a possible brother? The European romanticising of New York City?

8. The research in Washington, documents, going to the memorial, not finding his father's name? The impact of Washington, the people, his interactions with ordinary Americans?

9. The hiring of the car, the salesman, the deal, needing the salesman's help to drive out? The film becoming a road movie as Stephane took to the roads and the highways, the motels, the accommodation, the meals, takeaway food? Listening to the radio, the music? The changing patterns of the American scenery?

10. Arriving in Tennessee, the discussions with Sebastien, Sebastien urging Stephane on? Going to the addresses, making inquiries, the people that he met? Going to the post office, the phone calls, the difficulty in hearing pronunciations in getting the phone number?

11. Finally getting the phone number, the call and his going to his father's house? The audience not seeing this? The close-up of Stephane explaining what happened, his arrival, his father's wife and her hostility, suspicions? His father's acceptance, the photos, the name of his mother, his thankfulness that his father remembered? The second visit, his stepsister and her husband? Being made to feel at home? The phone call and the audience hearing his father's voice, the accent? The warmth of the father towards his unknown son? The counterpoint with Stephane ringing his mother, discussing the meeting with her, her reactions, questions?

12. The audience seeing, in the distance, Douglas Macarthur and his relationship with his son, the shaking hands, the embrace? A future? Stephane walking in the distance?

13. The consequences for Stephane, his father in his life, the extended family? The importance of the final close-up and Sebastien asking the effect on him and whether the trip was worth it? The audience identifying with that question?

14. The film's insight into family, relationships, the significance of absent parents and their effect? The human search for parenting and relationships?