Literature Meeting

Céline Zufferey on the trail of a forgotten pioneer

4 reading minutes

written by Sandrine Rovere · July 18, 2023 · 0 comment

Céline Zufferey on the trail of a forgotten pioneer

Swiss writer Céline Zufferey © Francesca Mantovani / Gallimard

She caused a sensation when her first novel was published by Gallimard at the age of just 25. Here we meet Valais-born Céline Zufferey, who this spring published her second opus, also in Paris.

Chez elle, la valeur n’a pas attendu le nombre des années. A 32 ans, la Valaisanne Céline Zufferey a publié ce printemps Nitrate, son deuxième roman. Ce livre propose une plongée dans les premiers temps de l’histoire du cinéma. Comme pour son premier ouvrage Saving the furniture in 2017, Nitrate was published in Gallimard's prestigious «Collection Blanche», alongside such French literary monsters as Nobel Prize winners Clézio and Modiano.

We meet the artist in the kitchen of her family home in Granges, near Sierre. Now based in Lyon, the writer is taking advantage of a visit to Switzerland for the Festival international de littérature de Loèche-les-Bains to see her parents. And although a meeting with a journalist interferes with this intimate moment, she doesn't seem to mind.

It has to be said that Céline Zufferey loves talking about her books. «We're very much alone when we write. And so we want to share our work with others, and that happens at the time of release,» she explains, sipping her cup of tea. The pleasure of meeting readers is all the greater now that several years have passed since the release of Saving the furniture.«For me, each novel is my last. When I finish writing a novel, I never know if I'll manage to write another,» notes Céline Zufferey. «It took me a long time to find a subject that was close to my heart and that I felt was worth telling».

A forgotten pioneer

A subject worth talking about, it's the life of the first female director in the history of cinema, Alice Guy. A woman who did everything in her time: she made hundreds of films, was a director at Gaumont, founded her own production company in the USA... before losing everything. She spent years trying to recover her works, without much success. Then she sank almost completely into oblivion. «She was a pioneer and pioneers are often forgotten because they started too early and stopped too early too,» laments Céline Zufferey. The author chose her title in reference to the cellulose nitrate that made up the first cinema films.

A l’instar de son personnage de Constance, l’auteure s’est passionnée pour Alice Guy, au point de lui consacrer un an de recherches, entre rencontres avec historiens et collectionneurs et visites dans des réserves de films comme celles du CNC, le Centre national français du cinéma et de l’image animée. «Quand on est écrivain, on a une espèce de carte blanche. On peut aller vers des gens et leur dire: « Je m’intéresse à ce que vous faites, est-ce que vous pouvez m’en parler? » En termes d’inspiration, c’était vraiment très riche.»

The result is a treasure hunt for a missing Alice Guy film. But like a detective story, the interest of this book doesn't really lie in the outcome of this investigation. «When I came to the end of my year's research into the history of cinema and Alice Guy, I told myself that the research itself was enough. Everything I'd done already provided enough material for this novel», explains the author.

Writing in complete freedom

The thirty-something is delighted to have been given so much freedom by her publisher. Gallimard never made her feel the urgency to publish this second book. Nor, she says, did she ever feel any personal pressure to produce a sequel to her acclaimed first novel. «I had shown myself that I was capable of writing a novel. I had shown myself that I was capable of going all the way. I was published. All that was left was to keep writing.

Ecrire, oui, mais sans recette toute faite. Car Céline Zufferey éclate de rire quand on lui demande comment s’explique sa réussite précoce. Diplômée de l’Institut littéraire suisse à Bienne, la Valaisanne estime surtout avoir eu la chance de rencontrer les bonnes personnes au bon moment grâce à ses études. Elle souligne également la nécessité de rebondir face aux échecs. «Il faut avancer et se dire que ce n’est pas la fin du monde et qu’on trouvera une autre route», estime-t-elle.

Ce deuxième roman en poche, Céline Zufferey avoue ne pas avoir encore songé à l’avenir et à ce qu’il lui réserve. «Ecrire, c’est un peu se jeter dans un trou sans fond. Le saut n’est pas très rassurant. Pour l’instant, je me tiens encore sur le bord et je me demande si je vais sauter ou pas», conclut-elle avec un sourire.

Write to the author: [email protected]