BAD FATE

Sylvain Madigan by Claude Chabrol

The ridiculous question - an auteur film or not - is no longer asked as soon as the work of a true filmmaker appears. This is the case with Sylvain Madigan and Sale Destin. How could one possibly question the status of the person responsible on discovering this implacable and pathetic world with its abominable and joyous characters ?

The vision of the world and the tone are truly the two main keys to cinematic happiness. Because they imply all the rest: the clarity of the story, the precision of the style and the efficacy of the performances. You find all that in Sale Destin: the numerous characters and the paths that they follow never diminish the intelligibility of the narrative and the cruelty of the words is transformed but never contradicted by the sheer merriness of the dialogue. As for the actors, they give the complex impression of rigour and liberty that is such a joy for the audience.

I was delighted to play a small part in this gallery of portraits. At first flattered at having been offered the part by Sylvain Madigan whom I didn't know from Adam, I'm now almost proud of it. Because being involved, even at such a humble level, in the birth of a genuine filmmaker and a true author, is simply a rare delight, a treat even, for a young fogey from the New Wave.

In Sale Destin, the other idle questions - too aesthetic or not, literary or prosaic, realistic or not, intellectualism or demagogy - never get a look in either because everything is clear and forthright: the truth is right, stupidity is idiotic, violence is brutal, irony is funny, vulgarity is candid and compassion never tearful. The film is a film.