The film by Nicolas Philibert from Nancy takes place on a barge that welcomes people suffering from mental disorders in Paris. French filmmaker Philippe Garrel also received the Silver Bear for best director for The Big Carta film that looks like an artistic testament shot with his children.
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Yesterday at 08:52 | updated at 21:01
France rewarded at the Berlin Film Festival! The documentary On the Adamant by Nicolas Philibert, born in Nancy, won the Golden Bear this Saturday.
In his film, Nicolas Philibert’s team boards a barge that welcomes people suffering from mental disorders in Paris. The filmmaker goes to meet patients and caregivers who “try to resist as much as they can the decay and dehumanization of psychiatry”, according to the synopsis of the feature film.
I tried to reverse the image that we always have of crazy people, so discriminating
Two decades after the immense success of To be and to Have, the 72-year-old documentary filmmaker leaves school for this dive into the psychiatric universe, the first film of a trilogy on this subject. “I tried to reverse the image that we always have of madmen, so discriminating,” said Nicolas Philibert, reading a short speech prepared in English after receiving his award.
“I want us to be able, if we are not able to identify with them, at least recognize what unites us beyond our differences, something like a common humanity,” he added. “As we all know, the craziest people are not the ones we believe in,” he concluded to thunderous applause.
Philippe Garrel wins the prize for best director
Another Frenchman was rewarded this Saturday at the 73rd Berlinale: Philippe Garrel received the Silver Bear for best director for The Big Cart, 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 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 The Big Carteven if the film almost transparently stages his own family and questions the idea of artistic heritage and success.
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 luck or not on their side,” explained Philippe Garrel, interviewed at 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.
