Overlayed and intertwined with aspects of Pialat’s personal life, Arlette Langmann’s original autobiographical script was moved from the 60s to the 80s and narrowed to focus on the character of Suzanne. The striking debut of fifteen-year-old Sandrine Bonnaire, À nos amours also features Pialat himself in the role of her father, who abruptly abandons the family and sets the beautifully constructed narrative violently drifting and bobbing, leaving behind large cavities and open lacerations. On the surface, Suzanne seems the epitome of youthful beauty and carefree independence, yet hidden behind her sexual escapades and disarming smile are confusion, loss and opposing drives—exposed most discernibly through Pialat’s discordant storytelling, jarring editing and agitated camera. The breath of every inexpressibly compassionate moment—most often between father and daughter—seems continually threatened by its emotional adversary, most viciously manifested in the dinner scene in which Pialat decides to both settle personal scores with actors and catch them off guard by suddenly appearing on the set to capture the stunned reactions of those he may actually love.