The documentary “Sur l’Adamant” by Frenchman Nicolas Philibert, on a barge that welcomes people suffering from mental disorders in Paris, won the Golden Bear for best film in Berlin on Saturday. Two decades after the huge success of “Being and Having”, the 72-year-old documentary filmmaker leaves school for this dive into the psychiatric universe, the first film in a trilogy on this subject.
And additional Cocorico, the French director Philippe Garrel received Saturday at the 73rd Berlinale the Silver Bear for best director for “Le Grand Chariot”, a film that looks like an artistic testament shot with his children. “Long live the Iranian revolution”, declared this heir to the New Wave when receiving his prize which he also dedicated “to Jean-Luc Godard, who is (…) a very great master, who is no longer of this world “, who died in September.
The filmmaker turned three of his children into his last film, including the most famous, his son Louis, actor and director. The 74-year-old filmmaker swears that he did not want to make an “autofiction” with “Le Grand Chariot”, even if the film stages his own family in an almost transparent way and questions the idea of artistic heritage and success.
Louis Garrel under his own name
Louis Garrel, the eldest, plays under his own name, as does his half-sister Léna, while his other sister Esther has chosen to be called Martha in the film. They play the children of a puppeteer, a profession exercised by Philippe Garrel’s own father before becoming an actor.
On the death of the puppeteer, each child will make his own artistic choices or not, Louis flying on his own and becoming a well-known actor while his sisters prefer to take over the family puppet theatre.
“It is the destiny of all artists to have the chance or not on their side,” explained Philippe Garrel, interviewed by AFP during the festival in Berlin. “There are talented people who succeed, talented people who fail, untalented people who succeed and untalented people who fail,” he added.