Original subtitles

-My father's journey, I'll try to draw it for you.

I was ten years old when he embarked on this adventure.

It was shortly after the war, in 1949.

Sometimes, I think it was yesterday.

I'll draw things as they come to me,

How else can I do it?

Some will come later or not at all.

But first, the house.

On a quiet street, 3 km from the river.

Behind the house, a walled garden.

A vegetable garden with a small pond, where the birds came to drink.

The man you saw getting out of his car,

That's him He's my father.

He just finished his rounds as a sales representative.

As soon as he walks through the door, he puts on a pair of overalls

found in the American surplus store.

If he's frowning like that, it's not because he's in a bad mood.

He's always done that,

as if he always had an important mission.

Even if it's only

reinforcing the chicken coop's wire mesh.

They weren't calling him "Slocum" yet at that time.

My mother's name is Geneviève.

As old as my father,

I find her younger and quite pretty.

In summer, her heart is divided between the chickens she would like

to let free and the vegetables from the garden.

In this scene,

I like them.

She wonders, smiling, why these bamboos,

when the beans planted are bush beans.

Oh, I forgot

The kid watching them and thinking about nothing,

that's me.

The Tour de France is over and I don't know what to do.

-François!

-The Noisiel chocolate shop has reopened.

With our ration card,

we're entitled to two bars of milk chocolate!

The war was over,

but there were still clouds like charcoal marks

that you can't erase once the drawing is finished.

I had no memories of the war.

I must have been too young

So I listened to other people's memories.

Some looked at each other askance.

but for many, life was about to change.

There would be work, we would eat our fill,

we would travel again, brave desert and mountains.

Usually, I didn't care about what was going on between them.

They had their lives, I had mine.

But that day, they had locked themselves

in my father's study.

And I would have liked to know what was going on.

I sometimes wondered how they had met.

Yet I was there, in the photos I had stolen from them.

Nothing stayed in my head.

Except once, a vague memory.

Is that how it happened? I'm not sure.

-Stop it, Pierre.

Have you forgotten what I told you?

-I would have much preferred

to get a good slap, than to see him stay like that,

with his hand in the air, like an idiot.

I really liked her story.

She had found the right words.

Married off by her parents,

she was doing too much mischief, according to them.

And the first bombing! Her husband was at war.

She escaped with her child in her arms.

What I didn't understand was that

the Other wanted to see me again.

Just like that, for nothing.

To get reacquainted! An idea he had.

-It won't be long. Just a short week, at Christmas.

-Do we have to?

-It's hard to do otherwise.

-It looks like a boat.

Did Dad draw that? -Ask him,

You'll see

You can talk to him, you know?

-Talk to him

Breakfast, it was the right time.

It was just the two of us, but I couldn't do it!

"In My Arms" by Yvonne Murray

-a chance to relive

our great love.

I lived for a very long time in burning solitude

-That boat thing was so weird!

My father had built thousands of useful things here.

Like that camping table with supposedly folding legs

that we couldn't fit in the 4CV.

That was my dad!

It had to be sturdy.

Besides, a boat is for going from one point to another.

Now, my father, he was stability itself.

Since we came back up from the south,

he made his rounds every morning at the same time,

with the same suit, the same car

We would all have disappeared from this damn planet

my father would still be there.

So just think a boat!

The next day,

they cleared most of the garden.

The pond, the vegetables

Even the green beans are gone.

My mother couldn't refuse him anything.

I have to tell you

that there were two teams in the house.

My mother and him

and my mother and me.

The first team got along wonderfully.

They were quite a team.

The second team also got along well

when my father wanted some peace and quiet.

But the opportunities were rare.

There had to be a Gary Cooper in the movies.

My mother was still in love with him!

-It was a great movie, wasn't it?

-And what about Gary Cooper?

-We're not saying anything to your father, as usual!

We were saying we saw a Gabin.

As for a third team, I wasn't even thinking about it.

And then that damn Christmas arrived!

-Is that François? What's he saying?

- "Dear parents, I'm having a good time, I'm eating well."

"They took me to the hairdresser."

"My real father"

"is kind to me."

"And I got a Christmas present."

OUCH!

Holy shit, holy shit!

-When I got home, the boat had made good progress!

It wasn't quite there yet

A strange creature lying on its stomach

-François!

Go get your father, it'll be ready almost!

He's at the lock. Surprise him!

-He's in the back, your father.

SLOCUM!

Hey! Slocum, we're asking for you!

"Slocum"? Why do they call him that?

Joshua Slocum:

-July 1st 1895.

Set sail at 9:30 a.m.

Rounded Cape Sable at 4:00 p.m.

Fresh northwest breeze.

I'm off!

I still can't believe it.

François:

-Me neither, I couldn't believe it!

It wasn't just any boat that my father was building.

but Slocum's.

An exact replica, I checked.

A little smaller, it's true, because of the size of the garden.

With it, Slocum had sailed the first time around the world

single-handed.

And for the first time, I skipped school.

- I was planning to sail around the world from west to east,

via the Red Sea.

But I was told that I might encounter many pirates there.

So I decided to go the other way,

before realizing that there were just as many

on the other side.

-Did you do that?

-Yes, Dad. It was me.

-Hm?

Did you trace it?

-Oh, there were others who had traveled the world.

Not just Slocum. Alain Gerbault,

Bernicot,

Le Toumelin

But for sailors, Slocum was the greatest.

During the day, I recovered a little,

but at 4:30 a.m., I was the first out.

My father had cut his tour short, I didn't want to miss anything.

It was as if I was afraid of not being part of the trip.

But I was skinny,

and clumsy.

The worst was when he sent me to get a tool from the cellar.

Actually we didn't need to talk.

And at times, it was almost good.

Like that famous Saturday at BHV,

one day when we were completing the tool collection

-This one's prettier. -Are you sure you don't want the mouse?

-Yes.

-Okay for the yellow dog, but don't make a fuss.

-Okay.

-Choose something

-The store is closing. Please leave.

Spring 1952, the boat is moving forward. But the hardest part was still to come.

-All right, are you ready?

No, more to the left!

Yes, right for you, obviously.

What a bum!

-When I got yelled at too much,

I used to go back to the river.

-I hadn't been this far south in a long time.

and I was staying far from the coast.

On January 28th, I had avoided the dangers of La Plata,

and a good wind was pushing me toward the Strait of Magellan.

But the sky was getting more and more overcast

and it didn't bode well.

-Oh! Wait

Hey! -Stop!

Ouch!

-Oh!

-Hey, Mom!

Oh!

-Disturbing news all over the district.

The tributaries of the Seine including the Marne

have burst their banks.

are forecasting exceptional flooding, avoid the banks.

-Pierre! Shall we go?

It's a shame the boat isn't finished.

-The winter of '53 was the harshest of all.

But by April, the hull was finished.

For the interior, my father had the crane come

and we had to knock down the neighbor's wall.

They were okay with it being reassembled after the holidays,

when we had brought the finished boat to the Marne.

Shh!

-After Cape Horn, I found the trade winds

and my boat was cutting its own course.

I had set a stern sail

and with this new rigging,

I didn't handle the helm for a month.

I was left with solitude which isn't a very good thing,

but I had around me the entire universe

which I now considered

a true friend.

Not fast.

-So, what happened?

-Nothing. Everything's fine!

-And François? Where is he?

-Everything's fine, I'm telling you.

-And then,

Months have passed.

As the holidays approached, I kept an eye on

the box, afraid that my other father would ask for me.

But he didn't write up again.

I never saw him again.

Was my mother wondering

where the boat would take the three of us?

She had opted

for good humor and imagination. She certainly had plenty of those!

She had a passion for psychology,

the secret of dreams, and all that.

One day,

she bought "The Guide to Inland Navigation"

before realizing that it was a map

of rivers and canals with the names of the locks

and landing sites.

-Going down the Marne and then the Seine,

that's already a beautiful trip! Listen:

"The Méricourt Lock

"and the Grand Quevilly. Saint-Martin-La-Garenne"

It sounds like a poem

-Maybe, but the Canaries, they're not bad either.

The Marquesas. Ah, the Marquesas!

Come into my arms, Marquise.

Along the water, Let's dance.

HEAD FOR THE MALDIVES AND THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.

-In the islands, downwind, it's much more charming.

And the Tuamotus

will wink at us.

-The next day,

my mother was still just as cheerful.

The garden was abandoned

since A long time ago, but there were still fruit trees.

They produced well that year.

At noon, my father invited her to have lunch on board

to show her how he was doing in the cabin.

-So, that's where we'll sleep ?

-It's far from finished. -You'll add shelves.

And what's that?

-That's the chart table!

-And François? Will he have his own cabin?

-Of course, let's see!

-After lunch, they turned on a radio,

I cleared the table

and I went to find Joëlle.

In eighth grade, I had a friend.

She made me geography maps

In exchange, I carried her schoolbag.

She lived near the Marne, but she never went there.

So I showed her the spots I had discovered,

the most beautiful spots on the river.

They had closed the house and brought sleeping bags

I couldn't say

what I felt

It was weird.

I should have been happy, the boat was almost finished.

Except that the bunk my father made for me was missing 40 cm.

It was more like the beginning.

I suddenly felt far away,

as if I were the one who had left.

-And François?

Why isn't he here?

-He's going to the mountains with a friend.

I'll drive them to the station.

-Oh yeah? At least he's talking to you!

-Platform 2. Watch the doors. Departure.

-Will you help me, please?

Wait! Is this your swimsuit?

-What?

I forgot about it.

-It's horrible. -But it's nice!

Hey, don't come any closer! -Why? Do you have a fish?

What a beautiful fish!

Hey! Look!

-Where? -There, there!

What's that?

- While I was on vacation "in the mountains",

my Uncle Jean appeared.

We hadn't seen him for years

I liked my uncle.

He was different from my father, when he was younger,

more fun.

In this photo,

it's when they were 20, before he left for Africa.

He owned a motorboat there for deep-sea fishing.

The boat wowed him. He visited everything.

When he learned that my father had been working on it for three years,

he suggested he come over for Christmas to finish it.

That way, we could all put it in the water in the spring!

I wasn't there,

but I guess my father turned to my mother.

She spoke to him with her eyes

and my father said yes!

Would you like living alone on a boat

for months and months? -No.

-No more school, no more friends, no more parents!

Slocum, he left for 3 years to sail around the world.

-3 years? He must have been so bored!

Oh, by the way, I brought your postcard.

-Let's see! -There's already a stamp,

You just have to draw the stamp. -Chamonix

Is that in Savoie or Haute-Savoie?

You know, I don't think he got bored.

Lots of adventures happened to him.

Once, in the Indian Ocean,

he arrived on an island where there was a party.

My boat at anchor, I stayed on deck

to listen to the songs coming from the shore.

A canoe approached with three young women.

One of them greeted me with the native phrase:

"Talofa li," which means: regards to you!

"Talofa li," I replied.

Another asks me:

- Did you come alone? - Yes.

- That's not true.

You had companions and you ate them!

-They were cannibals. He must have been scared!

-You were scared, just now.

-Well, surely not!

-You were scared! -Wait, you'll see!

-Stop! Here! -Ouch!

What will you do after college?

-I don't know. I think I'll leave.

Yes, on my 15th birthday, I'll leave.

-And your parents, what will they say?

Little laugh. -They won't see it.

They're so good together that they won't even realize it.

-Are they still in love at their age?

-Yeah, I swear!

-Is that François? What's he saying?

-Oh, as usual.

-"I'm eating well, I'm having fun, I'm thinking of you."

Let me see

Is it from Chamonix?

But they made a mistake at the post office. They put the Savoie stamp on it.

-Oh, listen to this.

Boat show attendant, he's finished his boat!

"Launching tomorrow at the Nogent Bridge."

Shall we go?

-When I got back,

I don't remember how we ended up in Normandy.

My grandmother had to pretend to die,

It happened to her from time to time.

My mother was taking care of her, so I went out to see the sea.

My father was out too.

Why did I follow him?

I watched him for a moment.

He stayed long into the night

looking at the sea that we couldn't see.

Strong swell

-What do you think of the weather, sailor?

Rough sea, isn't it?

-We can't see it.

-We can't see it, but you can feel it.

And the wind, can you hear it? Force 7? Force 8?

-Uh

-In a sea like this, what do we do?

-We reduce the sail.

We take 3 reefs in the mainsail or we hove to.

-Heave to? -Yes.

The storm jib is trimmed to windward.

If necessary, we'll drop a sea anchor.

-With what you're stealing from the library,

you've become a real sailor.

Why did you leave last time?

-The bunk is too small!

-I'll fix that.

And where did you go?

Did you go see your father?

-My father?

Who do you think my father is?

No, I have a cabin on the Marne. I was with my girlfriend.

-On the Marne

On Rat Island? -Do you know Rat Island?

-I was 13 too.

I had a cabin but no girlfriend yet.

-Hey, Dad. -Yes?

-The boat, is it true that you're going to finish it with Jean?

-Maybe so.

-You know, I could help you with the painting, if you want.

-We'll see

-The following week, I saw the neighbors putting the wall back up.

That's the date they had set.

They could have waited a little longer!

My father helped them without saying anything and went back to work.

It seemed that the wall, by closing

on the boat, gave her even more freedom.

My mother finished fitting out the cabin.

She bought the Atlantic charts

that I colored with her.

And my uncle Jean arrived.

With him, everything would be finished in two months.

We would bring the boat through the bottom of the garden, with the crane.

I went to see

For a while, everything sped up.

Of course,

there was no more room for us on the construction site.

There was no more money either.

We sold the 2CV, my mother went back to work.

We postponed the launch.

In 1955, I already knew that I wouldn't get

into 10th grade.

My mother had found a solution,

and 3 times a week, I went to the Arts Déco school in Paris.

-So? Tell me!

-We only do still-lifes, it's fun.

Are you taking the Marne road?

-A little detour, just like that.

Do you fancy it? -Yes

Hey, Mom, I wanted to know.

Did you name him Slocum? -Your father?

No, it's Jean.

It's an old story.

When they were young,

your father already dreamed of a sailboat.

Maybe even of sailing around the world.

-He was trying to make fun of him? -Oh no, I don't think so.

That's how it is between brothers.

-Do you think he'll ever finish the boat?

-Why do you say that?

-Because the other night

Hey, look out! There's someone on the road!

-But it's Jean!

What are you doing here? -I'm leaving!

I came to help him, he's kicking me in the ass.

-Pierre? That doesn't make sense!

Get in, I'll take you back. -No, go ahead.

I'll manage. I have my bag.

Sorry, François, it's better this way.

-Mom! Come on!

-But it's not possible,

Real kids, those two!

Do you have any idea what happened?

-Are you there?

-The bridge was finished! Why are you taking it down?

-An idea that came to me last night.

Do you remember that batch of iroko I saw at the sawmill?

It costs almost nothing.

It'll be much nicer, won't it?

-And Jean?

What does he say? -And I have another idea.

Come and give me your opinion.

So?

What do you think?

Isn't it beautiful? Of course,

we're straying from Slocum's boat, but he won't mind.

And wait!

That lets me enlarge the deckhouse!

And you'll have your cabin, son.

-Pierre!

Are you there?

Pierre?

Did you see him?

-Look, he's here!

-Well, well done! You've really hurt yourselves.

It's nothing. Your father has a strong head.

Can you explain?

-Who knows what came over him?

The carcass!

I didn't promise anything. You know that, right?

-Yes, I know, I know. But don't move!

Well

The skin's a little torn.

-We argued during the day but nothing too bad.

-And tonight? -I should have been suspicious.

He put down his tools and didn't take his eyes off me.

Suddenly, he lunged at me.

-Just like that, without saying anything?

What were you doing when he was looking at you?

-Well, you see, I took the whole back off.

I'll add 70 cm.

That'll give her a nice line.

François understands me and knows what a boat's line is.

Jean, he doesn't understand!

"Finish! Finish!"

That's all he says. And then?

If it's over, it's over, right?

Damn it!

-Joshua Slocum reached Newport on June 27, 1898,

having completed his 46,000-mile cruise around the world

in 3 years, 2 months, and 2 days.

He moored his boat where he had launched it,

at the mouth of the Acushnet River.

I stayed for a while

without seeing my parents.

I had been accepted to the Arts Déco school and was staying with my aunt in Paris.

One Sunday, I went to see them

-He sold it last week. A dentist from Créteil.

Heading: the Côte d'Azur.

- Was it finished?

- All it needed was a coat of paint.

They brought it through the orchard, back there.

- With the crane? - Yes.

With the crane

-Are you taking over the garden? -Pinto beans!

But that depends on how much space I'll have left!

Haven't you seen your father? He's in his study.

-What do you think?

-She's not bad!

-He's more seated in the water than the other one.

More relaxed. Smaller too.

Lady! There's only two of us now!

- Joëlle knew I was there.

She joined me.

From my room, we both watched them.

- What are they doing?

-They're going to build a boat.

-Oh really? And they're going to sail around the world?

-Around the world

They've already done it, around the world.

In their garden!