Right after Maurice Pialat won the Palme d'or at Cannes in 1987 for the totemic Sous le soleil de Satan and gave that beautiful, legendary acceptance speech — "Si vous ne m'aimez pas, je peux vous dire que je ne vous aime pas non plus." ("If you don't like me, I can tell you I don't like you either."), a TV interviewer asked him one of the most intelligent questions ever posed to a film artist, occasioned by the catcalls and hisses directed Pialat's way when he took the stage to accept the award. —
"Did you react to these people's stupidity the same way Bernanos did when he was talking to idiots?"
Footage of the question posed and the response offered up will be included in the forthcoming MoC Series edition of Sous le soleil de Satan to be released early next year.
I'm glad that MoC are releasing the film. I think that their Pialat series has been some of their best work.
ReplyDeleteThat is quite a weighty question to ask someone. It's almost a trick. If you react like him then the interviewer can say "so you react like a Falangist" and if you don't then the interviewer can make a point about being gracious and turning the other cheek.