For her first novel, Laure Desmazières explores a young woman’s intimate relationship with creation, specifically with the construction of a film structure. How the choice of what to show and what not to show, of the temporal and spatial cuts of cinema, constitutes her art, appealing to her history and unconscious zones.

Coupez ! plunges us into the precarious life of Manon, a young screenwriter who is by turns essential and despised. With her bank account empty, she rewrites in a hurry and without remuneration, struggling to keep her project afloat. Her strength as a writer is exploited, her share of recognition minimal. Manon has a blackout on part of her childhood, which resonates and intertwines with her difficulty in constructing a narrative, and in filigree, in constructing her own life.

By delving into the inner workings of an author’s storytelling, Laure Desmazières explores the heart of cinema through the cut, and in this mysterious interstice, containing nightmares, delirium and memories, she also illuminates the beauty of an art: that of making transitions, between scenes, but also, between people.

I said OK to do a job in the shadows, I didn’t know I’d be asked to be invisible.