A self-portrait is defined as a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, photographed, or written. But, how can we identify the subject in the self-portrait by the author, if it doesn’t have a face? Would it be possible to show or represent oneself without any physical description? This paper investigates these questions through three films of self-portrait ​​by Alain Cavalier: Ce répondeur ne prend pas de message (1978), La Rencontre (1996), et Le Filmeur (2005). Although the films of Alain Cavalier are deeply intimate and personal, the figure of the filmmaker remains almost absent in the image. In Ce répondeur ne prend pas de message, he plays himself, with his face covered with a band. Similarly, in La Rencontre, he is shown only in a brief shot where we can just see his silhouette reflected in a glass. He is more present in Le Filmeur, exposing his face disfigured by the disease. Otherwise, the camera takes most of the time for the patient task of framing small everyday objects so as to reveal intimate stories that are engraved in them. In the same way, he focuses his camera on the details of his wife's body. The bodies in close-up are constantly fragmented in the images. The ego of the filmmaker is also represented by the pebbles, animals, etc. These things that refer to the personal memories replace the body of the filmmaker. The objects are considered as the parts of his body. Moreover, filmed in video camera in hand, the images themselves show the permanent presence of the invisible body of the filmmaker offscreen. The work becomes a cinematic inscription of the body: physical movement, look, voice, and the sense of loss and pain of a disease that pass through the body.

A self-portrait is defined as a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, photographed, or written. But, how can we identify the subject in the self-portrait by the author, if it doesn’t have a face? Would it be possible to show or represent oneself without any physical description? This paper investigates these questions through three films of self-portrait ​​by Alain Cavalier: Ce répondeur ne prend pas de message (1978), La Rencontre (1996), et Le Filmeur (2005). Although the films of Alain Cavalier are deeply intimate and personal, the figure of the filmmaker remains almost absent in the image. In Ce répondeur ne prend pas de message, he plays himself, with his face covered with a band. Similarly, in La Rencontre, he is shown only in a brief shot where we can just see his silhouette reflected in a glass. He is more present in Le Filmeur, exposing his face disfigured by the disease. Otherwise, the camera takes most of the time for the patient task of framing small everyday objects so as to reveal intimate stories that are engraved in them. In the same way, he focuses his camera on the details of his wife's body. The bodies in close-up are constantly fragmented in the images. The ego of the filmmaker is also represented by the pebbles, animals, etc. These things that refer to the personal memories replace the body of the filmmaker. The objects are considered as the parts of his body. Moreover, filmed in video camera in hand, the images themselves show the permanent presence of the invisible body of the filmmaker offscreen. The work becomes a cinematic inscription of the body: physical movement, look, voice, and the sense of loss and pain of a disease that pass through the body.

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Alain Cavalier, self-portrait, face, body, object