After a fatal accident, Catherine approaches her grieving husband, becoming the narrator of the family ceremony following her own funeral, sharing memories of the couple’s life together while she revisits the tragic moment of her death. The preciseness of the gestures and the theatricality of the funeral rites temporarily suspend, with silent elegance, the expression of emotions. Finally, at once empty and full of Catherine, the couple’s mansion becomes the main witness of Philip’s pain. Dramatic frames of both architecture and landscape, light and shadow dances, the sophisticated restraint of colour and a flawless geometry gather to create the Art Déco aesthetics that is both the film’s atmosphere and its identity, evoking the Hollywood of the 1930s and 40s. “Le Cortége” is the first foray into cinema of illustrator Pascal Blanchet’s visual universe – famous for his graphic novels and his collaboration with Wes Anderson – in association with director Rodolphe Saint-Gelais and Pierre Lapointe, in charge of the film score. (IR)