The script of a film made by Malka Ribowska and Josée Dayan, produced by Josée Dayan; copyright © Editions Gallimard 1979

With the help of:
Jean-Paul Sartre Colette Audry
Claude Lanzmann Andrée Michel
Jacques-Laurent Bost
-+Hélène de Beauvoir
Olga Bost Jean Pouillon

Claude Lanzmann - Why have you made this film?

Simone de Beauvoir-That's an interesting question. I could give two different answers one rather less pleasant than the other. I could say that vanity prompted me to do it - I want people to know who I am. Now there are many people who never read books but who will come to know me through this film. If I wanted to be more polite, on the other hand, I could say I was prompted by a desire to be recognized for what I am, because many of those who read my books form a completely mistaken impression about me-and that goes too for people who have never read me and have just heard of me. This will be a way of putting the record straight. But the two things go hand in hand. Vanity and a desire for truth, let us say. Doesn't that seem a sufficiently good reason to you?

Yes but I think there may be another element involved, though I'm not quite sure what it is. What will the film tell us about you that ...