In the shadow of our sister the DS — Video montage by Pierre Magès

In this document

This video montage, created by Pierre Magès and titled In the shadow of our sister the DS, blends archival footage, voice-over commentary (evidently written and spoken by a child of Paul Magès, referring to "our father"), and an interview with Paul Magès himself, as well as a testimonial from Jean Satin, former head of testing. The document is presented in two successive films. The transcription comes from automatic subtitles (speech recognition) and contains alterations, particularly regarding proper names: "Majes"/"Majess" for Magès, "ADS"/"DN" for DS — silent corrections have been made here, noted only once.

Film 1. The narrative opens with childhood memories: a Traction Avant parked "in front of our house in Chaville" (00:19), then an episode of an automobile gymkhana where "Mr. Magès actually refused the first prize and wished not to be classified" (01:04). This is followed by evocations of road tests with the mechanic "Mr. Dumoulin", in Lapland in February 1949 and in the Sahara in September 1954 (01:44-01:58) — episodes that overlap with the collection's test campaigns. A long passage reconstructs hiring methods at Citroën, "like entering a religion" (02:52), with very thorough neighborhood investigations (02:27-02:45). The heart of the film focuses on the genesis of the DS: the 2 CV presented as its "legitimate mother" (01:20-03:25), then the account of engineer Lefèvre's method of gathering his teams on Monday mornings and letting everyone "raise their hand" to take on a problem — this is how Paul Magès supposedly took responsibility for the hydropneumatic system, thus becoming "the boss […] the absolute master of the study" (03:57-04:56), an episode to be linked to the plans of 17 February 1944. A quote taken from Roger Briau's book reports a dream of Magès: to design "a new Rolls-Royce on which everything, absolutely everything would have been hydraulic" (05:29-05:39). The suspension mechanism is then explained in detail (pump, accumulator, sphere, height corrector, 05:44-06:51), before a testimonial from Jean Satin, "over 90 years old", head of testing since 1951: "we were driving on the road […] we were doing kilometers" (06:53-07:35). The film closes on the journalistic leak from the Auto-Journal near Draguignan which prematurely revealed the new Citroën (07:45-08:05) and the shutdown of the Traction Avant lines at Javel.

Film 2. It opens with the presentation of the DS in 1955 and a family anecdote: a caricature of Paul Magès pinned to his door (00:21-00:25), an echo of the caricature drawn by his son Pierre. Roland Barthes is cited, for whom "the new Citroën has obviously fallen from the sky […] as a superlative object" (00:39-00:57). A journalist recounts a test in the woods of Meudon in September 1955: "the car was flying over the obstacles on the side of the road" (01:33-01:45), concluding that Citroën had "found the definitive formula […] of an automobile, a real one" (01:57-02:02) — an episode contemporary with the test of the 15-Six H, April 1954. The tone then changes: the children mention their father's "severe migraines" (02:16-02:18) linked to technical setbacks — oil leaks, untrained dealers (02:24-02:32). This is followed by a long interview with Paul Magès himself, looking back, half a century later, on the accusations he faced: "I was accused of having made a hydraulic car" (02:51-02:53), the rush of the commercial release due to a lack of financial means (03:09-03:27), the shortcomings of the "chemistry laboratory service" (03:31-03:35), and his own admission: "I wouldn't have had hydropneumatic trouble, that's for sure" (04:23-04:29), concluding with self-deprecation: "I chose the wrong solution, [I should have made] a beautiful car with springs, by hand, like a grandfather" (04:33-04:40). The film ends on the episode of the Petit-Clamart attack (August 1962) against de Gaulle, saved by the DS despite two flat tires (05:59-06:48), and on the sentence by Marcel Pagnol that Paul Magès kept on his desk: "Everyone knew it was impossible and there came a fool who didn't know it and who did it" (07:13-07:24).

Context

The DS, presented on 6 October 1955, embodies the work begun by Paul Magès as early as 1939-1940 (plans of 17 February 1944; first tests of the 2 CV, 1946). The Petit-Clamart attack, on 22 August 1962, is an episode widely documented elsewhere in the history of the DS and Citroën. This montage, created by a son of Paul Magès blending paternal testimony and family perspective, is part of the same memorial dynamic as the Paul Magès Association, active since 2013.

Archivist's perspective

This document has exceptional value: it preserves the very words of Paul Magès, speaking about the technical and human difficulties of the DS with rare frankness — acknowledgment of leaks, quality control shortcomings, self-deprecation regarding his own choices. The automatic transcription, despite its flaws regarding proper names, allows for a faithful and dated restitution of the remarks. It would deserve quality control (frame-by-frame verification) before citation in an academic or editorial context, as some passages remain [uncertain] due to automatic speech recognition.