In 1980, two biographies cross paths in a Paris cinema: those of young cinema-goer Alexander Horwath and the actor Henry Fonda. Horwath recognised early on that the popular view of Fonda as a “typical American” and the “conscience of the USA” in his acting roles doesn’t paint the full picture. It is the more convoluted paths of Fonda’s biography and how he played roles and embodied attitudes extending beyond individual characters that truly interest Horwath.