Aude Bertrand On Embracing Your Influences
Project: Au travers du rayon, 2021
Words & artwork: Aude Bertrand
My self-published short comic book Au travers du rayon marries cinema, a field which I studied at university and thus a culture from which I come, and comics. I created the project in the winter of 2021 while seeking a bit of summer nostalgia. It tells the story of a boy who, in the heat of July, feels bored. The young man immerses himself in a frantic viewing of films and develops a certain obsession for parallel diegesis, a narrative’s time-space continuum. He thinks, “What if the time-spaces in which these stories take place are not closed and there is a way to create a bridge between reality and fiction?” He becomes convinced of this idea and with a friend, embarks on a somewhat fantastic quest to meet a film character.
Au travers du rayon exhibits a strong cinematic influence from its narrative to its images and rhythm. I frequently consider the link between our own creation and other works, the question of inspiration and re-appropriating things to make them your own. Quoting real artistic works allows me to anchor the story to reference points for the reader. It also allows me to embed in my story the films that have inspired my project.
Films are such well-thought-out objects, almost every shot and detail prepared months in advance—there is a lot to observe and learn from them. I have always pulled from films that I admire for their immersive qualities. Each time I create, I am not only inspired by things that have touched me, but I also try to openly integrate pieces of them into my work. Au travers du rayon, for example, takes its title from the film Le rayon vert by Eric Rohmer (in my story, a character also refers to Rohmer’s film directly). The films that Elie, the main character, chooses for his quest—Orlando by Sally Potter, Vif-Argent by Stéphane Batut and Heureux comme Lazzaro by Alice Rohrwacher—all meditate on the relationship to time and space in their own universe. These films both make an appearance in Au travers du rayon and inform the work directly.
Being aware of what inspires and nourishes us is very important and in my opinion, a real support in creation.
Aude Bertrand is an illustrator and author of comics based in the south of France. She graduated with a degree in film and audiovisual studies, and her deep love of cinema defines her aesthetic, sense of narration and the themes she often pursues—the everyday, summer, the concept of waiting and a certain surrealism. In addition to her illustration work, she co-founded Les 11%, a project that champions women filmmakers through a blog and popular Instagram account.
