"But I still always felt the absence of a mother"
About this Quote
Coming from Marcel Carne, a director whose work helped define poetic realism, the line carries an oblique self-portrait of an artist trained to dramatize what can’t be repaired. His cinema is full of crowded rooms that somehow feel lonely, lovers framed against fog, fate pressing in from the edges. Read through that sensibility, the mother isn’t just a person missing from childhood; she’s an organizing absence that shapes how intimacy is pictured and how trust is negotiated. The intent feels less like confession for its own sake and more like an origin story for a worldview: tenderness always underwritten by loss.
The subtext is cultural as much as personal. In early 20th-century France, "mother" is loaded with ideas of home, moral anchoring, and social legitimacy. To say her absence is always felt is to admit a permanent outsider status, a gap that no professional identity can fully paper over. Carne’s phrasing is almost cinematic: one clean line, no ornament, letting the audience supply the backstory - which is exactly how absence becomes a theme rather than a footnote.
Quote Details
| Topic | Mother |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Carne, Marcel. (2026, January 17). But I still always felt the absence of a mother. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-i-still-always-felt-the-absence-of-a-mother-79527/
Chicago Style
Carne, Marcel. "But I still always felt the absence of a mother." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-i-still-always-felt-the-absence-of-a-mother-79527/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"But I still always felt the absence of a mother." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-i-still-always-felt-the-absence-of-a-mother-79527/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.





