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Nov 08, 2007
"L'équipier" : play it safer in Normandy. (5/5)
Foreign visitors to France sometimes judge the French as a whole to be arrogant. « L’équipier » documents a more complex situation -and, if only for that reason, is worth watching by a foreign audience- : first, the French as a whole do not exist ; second, when a Frenchman behaves arrogantly with foreign visitors, he does not necessarily do so because they are foreigners : a Frenchman can be equally, if not more unpleasant with Frenchmen.
« L’équipier » shows that, seen from Ouessant in 1963, mankind was organised according to a caste system.
At its bottom, were the Untouchables : the Parisians ; « Parigot, tête de veau » (« Parisian, veal head ») sneers one character in the film : a brilliant piece of provincial wit shared by the whole of France, and not just Brittany, against its capital city.
The Bretons nevertheless did not look much more kindly at the inhabitants of the other provinces : Antoine originates from Touraine, a sin that his new colleagues decide to punish via a petition requesting his transfer to any lighthouse, other than theirs.
Then came the continental Bretons, those from the coast slightly better regarded than those from the inside, like Yvon, who was born in Vannes.
Last but certainly not least, at the top of the world seen from Ouessant, sat the islanders : like Garbo, they only wished to be left alone.
The film is called « L’équipier », but, in the course of the movie, Antoine is never referred to as an « équipier », a teammate : he is instead a mere « auxiliaire », the administrative word for assistant or apprentice -without Donal Trump innuendos-. Antoine shall never belong to the team, even from Yvon’s perspective ; professionally too, he shall remain a second-class citizen.
Thence « L’équipier », a title probably chosen by the marketing people for its positive hints at team spirit and the mythical brotherhood of the sea people.
History is witness to it : Bretons are a proud and stubborn people. Many of them fought against the French Revolution, remained faithful to the king and the Church, some still fight for independence, or at least increased autonomy, their language and their culture. Nevertheless, in the film, the islanders celebrate Bastille Day -though with Celtic music- : is it a touch of irony or a symbolic frame for the mating of a Breton and a non-Breton, Mabé and Antoine ?
This is also no coincidence that, in the « Astérix » comic books series, the Gallic village which keeps resisting Roman rule is located in Brittany and one cannot but feel sorry for the invaders if they had to put up with Bretons as hard-headed as those in « L’équipier ».
Antoine is so badly received that the related scenes do not ring true and a versatile actor like Philippe Torreton looks out of tune, as if psychologically unable to persuade himself of his character’s pettiness.
Philippe Torreton’s acting will return to its usual excellence as Yvon starts to respond, in how gruff a way, to Antoine’s tentative openings.
True, Antoine’s story will prove that a non-islander may hope for a less freezing reception from the female population if he is a good-looking, vulnerable young man, but this will spell another kind of trouble.
Whether he fled his « teammates »’ hostility, Yvon’s ambiguous friendship or his passion for Mabé, one thing is not disputable : Antoine only lasted a few months on the island and never returned. His alien body was effectively expelled by the island collective organism, through an expert combination of hate, love and indifference.
The film took place more than forty years ago. The islanders have since had ample time to discover some of the charms of civilised behaviour, among them greed : a tourist, even a Parisian, even a foreigner, shall probably be smiled at and well treated, provided he has deep pockets and is willing to empty them.
If, as suggested by the opening sequence suggests, Parisians are now allowed to buy real estate on the island, they probably do so at a costly premium on the local price.
Even Yvon’s and Mabé’s daughter now lives in Paris, though this does not make her a Parisian, but rather a displaced person and a victim of the island economic woes.
In the closing sequence, though her biological father was from Touraine and Yvon from inland Brittany -could the island spirit be a cultural rather than genetic trait, or transmitted, like Judaism, solely through the women ?-, her islander’s nature returns with a vengeance to take hold of her and she breaks her promise to sell the house to the Parisian couple.
As the hopeful buyers are de facto expelled from the island, we move backward in time : rookie visitors to Western France may be well advised to test nearby and more amenable Normandy before they venture to Brittany.
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