Chesterfield

A 90 minutes fiction.

All of us can recall the archive footage, in colour or in black and white, of the American troops entering Paris or other French cities in 1944. The images of young women throwing themselves at the liberators, kissing them on the mouth, embody for us this immense joy, this celebration, this liberation, which remains eternally engraved in our collective memory as the most magnificent day of the 20th century.
Yet the war continued for these passing soldiers, right up until May 8th 1945. As much for these soldiers as for the populations they liberated, the “Liberation” was a time so pregnant with hope, joy, dreams and utopia that the atmosphere became laden with Cupid’s arrows. Many couples were formed in this manner, in passing…
Most of these chance encounters were ephemeral, but some bore unexpected fruit. Thus, thousands of young French women became the legitimate spouses of these soldiers en route for Germany, these young men who, somewhere between the beaches on which they landed and the Ardennes, succumbed to the charm of French women, to the point of committing themselves for life.
Some of these freshly married young women are the heroines of Chesterfield.

Chesterfield was precisely one of these “Cigarette camps” (Lucky Strike, Philip Morris…) established in the countryside of Normandy as a resting post for the soldiers arriving from the front - and hastily transformed in order to accommodate this flood of new wives, before their departure for the USA. The American army welcomed these young women into these temporary camps for “newlywed brides” as soon as they stepped off the bus and helped them with their administrative procedures.

These young women are our heroines. Their names are Jeannette, Mireille, Marie-Thérèse, Madeleine… As soon as they arrive in this Chesterfield camp, they quickly understand that they will have to learn to become American wives. They take English classes, acquire a few notions about the country they’re going to live in, hold knitting competitions and so on. While waiting to embark on a one-way voyage, an intimate bond forms between them within a few days. The crowded conditions in the dormitories encourage social exchange and conversation. Jeannette, Mireille, Marie-Thérèse, Madeleine and the other girls share their love stories, their encounters with their GIs, and exchange wedding photos.
These narratives, like short sketches, express many things about this period of deprivation, poverty and destruction. In this context, friendships are born, as well as hostilities - characters reveal themselves and dramas ensue…

On the eve of departure, the post office is taken by storm by young women making calls to their parents, who they won’t see again for such a long time. There are the sudden fears of leaving everything behind, of taking this great leap into the unknown. Fears of culture shock in a country whose language, values and civilization are so foreign to them; fear for the more or less latent hostility aroused by their reputation as frivolous, easy women, so-called ‘ooh-la-la girls’; fears too of discovering that their handsome GI from 1944, reconverted to civilian life, is almost a stranger. Buses come to collect them and take them to the port – attempts to organise them into rows are futile, the women rush onboard in haste. When it is time to leave, a jeep arrives, officers get out and call a name: Mrs Hunkey. That’s Jeannette, our main heroine. She gets off the bus. She is told that her husband has died in an accident: she won’t be leaving anymore.
In the bus, the news is received with panic and incomprehension, while Jeannette fetches her suitcase.
Mireille, who is prevented from getting off the bus, asks for her address to write to her. Jeannette rips the label off her suitcase and hands it to her; the label passes from hand to hand, finally Mireille holds it, brandishing it high as if to show Jeannette that she won’t leave her. The bus turns and moves off into the distance.
We follow Jeannette, first to the office where an American officer makes her sign a paper stipulating that she renounces all claims to a pension in exchange for a sum of money, which is given to her.
Then we follow her back home, on the farm. The welcome is glacial, exacerbated by the fact that she crossed paths with a certain gossiping postman and that everyone will soon be informed that she is a widow: who will want to marry her now?

The days roll on - boredom, solitude, feelings of failure and shame.
One day, she receives her first postcard from America, with photos. Mireille tells her about the boat journey and the start of her brand new life. Other letters and postcards (Marie-Thérèse describes her life in Alabama with an alcoholic, shell-shocked husband) from all the girls from the dorm soon form a wall of images in her bedroom as she pins them up, reconstituting an imaginary map of America. She spends hours contemplating them, dreaming. All the more so since life on the farm has become increasingly difficult. From being liberators, the Americans have become “occupiers”; their behaviour is intimidating, and stories of accidents and of rape are cause for alarm. For many of the men of the village, Jeannette is nothing more than a soldier’s girl – which amounts to being a whore!
She doesn’t know what to do with her life, spending hours riding a bicycle, aimlessly, in the countryside or the neighbouring city. One day, as she wanders in the city, she decides to enter the American Consulate.
Upon her return to her parents’, her mind is set: she will go to find Marie-Thérèse, who is waiting for her in Alabama. The money she was given will pay for the journey.
- “She’s insane!” – says the mother.
- “Don’t count on us to pay the return fare!” – says the father…

In the implacable light of the Deep South, Jeannette waits at the bus stop, her suitcase at her feet. Marie-Thérèse and her child come to get her in a car. It’s an emotional reunion for both of them. Jeannette discovers a country of contrasts where democracy meets segregation and wealth, the starkest poverty. Marie-Thérèse’s marriage doesn’t hold up in the face of the husband’s madness and violence. The two friends flee, taking the child with them in the car. They travel where the wind takes them, helped along the way by “vétéranes”, French women from 1914-18, who, like them, became American citizens.

But the friendship born in the Chesterfield camp during this exceptional period and in the passion of first meetings, gradually erodes with the test of time and in the face of the cruel reality of their situation. Soon, their destinies separate the two friends. Marie-Thérèse, now divorced, returns to Paris with her son. Jeannette, who remains alone in America, finds love again and commits herself confidently to a future that is as bright as it is uncertain.