Archival Film and the Unveiling of the Hidden: The Case of Jean-Gabriel Périot's Returning to Reims (Fragments)

The article examines the political potential of archival material through the example of Returning to Reims (Fragments) (Retour à Reims [Fragments], Jean-Gabriel Périot, 2021). It analyses the film’s organisation of archival footage in relation to the ideological charge of the French class-conscious autobiographical writing, exemplified by Didier Eribon, whose book Returning to Reims served as the main inspiration for the film. Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s conception of the archive as a site of authority that simultaneously preserves and consigns to oblivion and on Jacques Rancière’s understanding of unveiling the hidden as a political act, the article considers how the film situates itself within French class-conscious thought.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!