“Véronique”: an intimate portrait of Véronique Sanson by Tom Volf

A never-before-seen documentary retraces the life and career of Véronique Sanson. Directed by Tom Volf and produced by INA, it will be broadcast on France Télévisions by the end of 2025.

An icon of French chanson for over five decades, Véronique Sanson opens up in an exceptional documentary, soberly entitled Véronique. Directed by Tom Volf, known for his work on Maria Callas, the film is based on never-before-seen archives, restored personal images and concert footage. Previewed at the Festival du film francophone d’Angoulême, it has already received a standing ovation, a sign of the audience’s undiminished attachment to the singer.

A first-person narrative

At 76, the performer of Drôle de vie and Besoin de personne agrees to tell her story in the first person. Her life, made up of dazzling successes, intimate wounds and rebirths, merges with her songs. The documentary follows this thread, in a narrative that blends raw emotion and sincerity, true to an artist who has never dissociated her music from her existence.

“Her life is music, her story is in her songs”, sums up the poster, which features an archive photo of the singer. No staging, no artifice: just the profound gaze of a woman whose vulnerability and strength have coexisted since her debut in 1970.

Tom Volf’s meticulous work

For Tom Volf, this project is part of a continuity. After devoting a film and an exhibition to Maria Callas, he is now putting his exacting standards and sense of the archive at the service of another major voice. Several years of research have brought together the pieces of this intimate puzzle, restored by Composite Films.

The director claims that his portrait is “sincere and sensitive”, far from a simple career story. By revealing unpublished fragments of Sanson’s life, he charts a journey through the trials and triumphs of an artist still inhabited by her piano, which she will be returning to on October 10, 2025 for a new tour.

A long-awaited tribute

With Véronique, INA and France Télévisions offer the general public a film that goes beyond a simple tribute. More than a documentary, it’s a dialogue between the artist and her songs, an invitation to rediscover a repertoire that has marked several generations.

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