This documentary is assuredly one of the most representative films of Direct Cinema at the NFB, following the cult film Les raquetteurs. Georges Dufaux took full advantage of the opportunity to use this new way of doing things (use of a light camera and the Nagra) in order to say something without reacting or intervening in order to allow for the emergence of all possibilities. Here, the fragility and the vulnerability of an elderly couple is seen, and their story – a true descent into isolation and anguish – is told.
The film was shot over four months, and Dufaux never arrived at the home of this couple – who lived together for 55 years without children – in a time of crisis. The crisis developed gradually in front of him and his small team on the shoot. We watch the couple pass from the hope of living in a residence together to the painful reality of being separated for the lack of finding a suitable place to stay.
Pierre Perrault suggested that this film was one of the most moving and authentic ones he has seen which, coming from him, is saying something. Gilles Carle, during the production of an archive montage to commemorate the NFB’s 50th anniversary, presented a clip from the film as “one of the greatest films ever shot within this organization.”
From my end, I re-watched it this week and it really shook me. I was shocked, because the question of the place of our elders in our society is as burning a question as ever. This demonstrates that our healthcare system in Quebec is stagnant.

Christian Mathieu Fournier
Filmmaker