L’Incandescente et le Gang des cracheuses de sang

Being overwhelmed by a film and discovering a fascinating story of filiation. That's how Louise Chevillotte, hitherto recognized as a film and stage actress, decided to stage the story of an emancipation in love for her first play, based on the eponymous novel by Claudie Hunzinger and the documentary by her son Robin Hunzinger. The writer and filmmaker bring out of oblivion the passionate correspondence that their mother and grandmother, Emma, maintained with Marcelle over almost ten years from 1923, when they were both training to become schoolteachers. Immersing herself in this extraordinary material, the director brings to life the dazzling language of Marcelle's letters, the dizziness of bodies and desire, but also the confinement in the sanatorium and the tuberculosis that hovers over death. The four actresses on stage embody these female students of the early 20th century, a far cry from the docile, self-effacing images our era assigns to those who came before us. By bringing these forgotten lives to light, Louise Chevillotte gives us access to another possible lineage, this time literary, of young women who were creative, uncompromising and free.