The Invisible Work: An exciting and moving treasure hunt (review)

Love at first sight for this documentary attempting to unravel the mystery of a cursed filmmaker whose projects have never been able to see the light of day… On the condition that everything is true and not invented in a little game that would be uncomfortably inelegant

His name is Alexandre Trannoy. This probably doesn’t mean anything to you. But once you finish this wonderful documentary, you won’t forget it. Because no fiction could have invented what he went through. From 1949 to his death in 1980, this filmmaker, mentor of Jean Rochefort, multiplied ambitious projects, in France and even in Hollywood. Besides Rochefort, Belmondo, Anouk Aimée, Ventura, Mastroianni or Marlene Dietrich should have been the headliners. But none of them made it to the end. No more than the film which was to be dedicated to him, written by Modiano and where Edouard Baer should have played him! The invisible work tells the journey of this cursed child of the seventh art in a treasure hunt style. Where the more the investigation progresses, the more people testify with enthusiasm about his flamboyance, the more the Trannoy enigma thickens. Because all material existence of his films seems to have disappeared and when reels reappear, they only reinforce the mystery.

Much more than its cinematographic quality, what counts in this type of film is the art of storytelling that the Tambouret-Rodoniov duo masters like crazy. By their ability to bring into dialogue the chaotic journey of Trannoy and the stations of the cross that they experienced to give birth to this documentary (the exchanges by email with their producer are delicious). And the fifteen years that were necessary give the film a poignant emotion because most of the witnesses (Anouk Aimée, Jacques Perrin, Jean-Claude Carrière…) – starting with Rochefort – have died in the meantime… And this emotion also fully embraces what we end up understanding about Trannoy. The fact that he may have constantly sabotaged himself throughout a chaotic life where he even ended up thinking he was Kubrick! A fascinating cinema story. On the sine qua none condition that everything is true and not a total invention in a smart guy’s game which would really be without interest, in contradiction with all the sincerity which dominates the film and even tinged with an uncomfortable indecency by associating deceased personalities post-mortem. But we don’t have enough cynicism to consider so much energy devoted to creating a fake of such confounding banality.

By Vladimir Rodianov and Avril Tembouret. Duration: 1h11. Released April 8, 2026