BKS Presents #4

BKS Presents #4
A Claire Simon Double Bill @Cinema Orion
05.05.2026

Ahead of the release of Claire Simon’s Writing Life: Annie Ernaux Through the Eyes of High School Students on 8.5., BKS and Cinema Orion present a special double-bill screening of Writing Life paired with Claire Simon’s 1993 film Récréations.

A master of observational documentary filmmaking, Claire Simon’s style is often compared with the great Frederick Wiseman. Her style can be characterised by her willingness to let scenes play through with an eye to real-time duration, a minimum of obtrusive cutting, and very limited externally imposed commentary.

In Writing Life, Claire Simon delivers an original depiction of Annie Ernaux, winner of a Nobel Prize in literature, and a major figure of contemporary feminism. Through the words of students and teachers, the film asks how is the author’s work taught in schools? How is it received, studied, and comprehended? How does today’s youth, whether in France or elsewhere, make her writings their own?

Claire Simon placed her camera in French high-school classrooms, capturing the vivid impact of Annie Ernaux’s words: their power to awaken, their ability to rattle convictions and feed blossoming minds, finding in them a reflection of their own adolescent lives.

Writing Life shows how Annie Ernaux’s work continues to inspire young people on a quest for freedom and meaning, and is a deeply hopeful portrait of today’s youth.

Filmed at the beginning of the 1990s in her daughter’s school, Récréations demonstrates that Claire Simon’s masterful skills in observational filmmaking were present from the early stages of her career.

A portrait of kindergarten children at play in a schoolyard, the film takes on almost theatrical dimensions as dramas of violence, love, jealousy, betrayal, and resentment unfold in every corner.

Programme:

Récréations, dir. Claire Simon, 1993, French with English subtitles, 57 min.

Writing Life: Annie Ernaux Through the Eyes of High School Students, dir. Claire Simon, 2025, French with Finnish & English subtitles, 90 min.

Récréations:

When the bell rings, the courtyard of a kindergarten school transforms from an empty space to an animated stage. Finally freed, the little ones pretend to be adults. A small philosophical treatise about living together.

Writing Life: Annie Ernaux Through the Eyes of High School Students:

Through observing the way that Nobel Prize winning author Annie Ernaux’s books are taught in French schools, celebrated filmmaker Claire Simon creates a deeply inspiring and hopeful portrait of youth and the enduring power of literature.