TRACÉ

TRACÉ consists of a single sequence shot and played backwards, then edited in reverse for its broadcast.
At first glance, the story appears to be about a man waking up on a beach and reuniting the woman he loves. However, it is structured in such a way that in the end we realize that it is probably quite the opposite that has happened. In fact, even before reaching the final punchline, various clues scattered throughout the film suggest that the story is not built on a single temporal axis. I even think that what we are given to see during the 17 minutes of the screening time is not limited to a present moment unfolding, but that it symbolically evokes both the past and the future of the two characters, the film therefore representing a journey through their memories and their future.

Tracé, this French word chosen for the title, means among other things the natural contour of a route, a coast, the coastline. In my opinion, it represents here both the contours of the landscape in which the characters evolve and their trajectories.
At the end of the film, at the opening of the credits, the title TRACÉ switches to become ÉCART. This is a semordnilap, a word that can be read backwards or forwards, but whose meaning changes depending on whether it is formulated and read backwards or forwards. The word ÉCART touches on the notions of difference, of shift, and fits here as a sort of subtitle to underline the gap between a world, a situation that the public first considered displayed in one direction, then considered in an opposite direction. It also represents the gap between our different perceptions of time and reality.

Shooting the entire film in one sequence, and in reverse, required a lot of work before filming, and enormous concentration on set. Yuta OHASHI and Yukina KUNO, the main actors, had to systematically walk backwards and master every facial muscle. In general, it is reflection and emotion that guide the actors to display this or that facial expression, but for this film, everything being reversed, they had to first learn their gestures and movements as if they were part of a choreography.
The camera also had to precede their movements in order to avoid any impression of discomfort during viewing. The efforts made by the actors and the entire crew during filming still seem extraordinary to me today.

The entire film being filmed in reverse, we had to create a soundtrack entirely from scratch. The challenge for the soundtrack designer, Jeroen DE MEYER, therefore consisted of effectively “dressing up” an entirely silent film, and bringing a breath of realism and poetry to a silent world.
And I must admit that many of his initiatives brought a depth and a dimension to the film that I had not envisaged.
Finally, TRACÉ would not have the stature it has today without the magnificent music, beautiful and eloquent, composed by Raf KEUNEN who also co-produced the film and masterfully managed the sound post-production.

The world around us has never stopped evolving, but it seems to me that today it is changing radically. Many changes are of course the result of new technologies, but one of the most important markers is the speed at which these changes take place. Time seems to pass faster and faster. This is a consideration commonly shared by older people, but as someone who is only 28 years old, I live it deeply and it is sometimes frightening to see the speed at which our world is evolving.
I think it is time for us to “stop” and think about how we should live our lives and face the time we are given.
Throughout history, people have been interested in the invisible, in time and in reality, and it is because of what I have just mentioned that I decided to make a film touching on the notion of time.

Previously, I had a rather banal perception of time, limiting this notion to a measure of the evolution of things through the use of objects such as calendars, watches... But this notion gradually became proved much more interesting and, by questioning it in a more scholarly manner, it became even more mysterious and full of contradictions.

Thinking about how I could, in a work with an artistic dimension, evoke these contradictions and mysteries, the idea of using video as a means of expression, as well as the idea of constructing the story in a single sequence shot and played backwards stood out to me. I would be very happy if TRACÉ could give you the opportunity to reflect, in one way or another, on this notion of time.