Être Vivant et le Savoir plot
Cinematographer Alain Cavalier and (script)writer Emmanuèle Bernheim have been friends for thirty years. Together they film her autobiographical book about the self-chosen death of her father. Cavalier plays the father, Bernheim himself. Then she gets sick. Don't worry: “We make the film as we are the moment we make it,” he assures her. Waiting until they can resume their work, phone calls, diary entries and letters discreetly outline the painful course of Emmanuèle's illness. In between, film veteran Cavalier (1931), who makes both feature films and documentaries, records his surroundings with a simple camera.