MISÉRICORDE

“Here, even more than in my other films, I’ve worked hard to cultivate the mystery. I’ve tried to get the viewers to ask questions and take part in the story. It’s the best way of avoiding boredom, and transcribing desire. Which, for me, is life’s great mystery. You realize pretty quickly that the hero stays here because he wants someone. Even if the whole thing is shifting. He himself is the object of desire. And I’m also very interested in the confusion that this stranger and his unclear intentions can bring. I like the fact that we don’t know who the villain is, and we don’t really know which side we’re on. […] I’m well aware that I’m almost always working on the same questions, the same motifs, and I play with that, with what’s expected of me. But I also want to surprise, to surprise myself, to renew myself. Perhaps it was also time for desire not to end in sex. I don’t know if anyone’s said this before, but it seems to me that people used to film fights to avoid filming sex. In a sense, I’m going in the opposite direction. In any case, here, desire isn’t clear either, I’m not looking for resolutions, there’s also a main character who imagines things, and so must the viewers, just as I have (and still do).” (Alain Guiraudie)

Alain Guiraudie (France, 1964) studied at the University of Montpellier. In 1990, he directed his first short film, Heroes Never Die. His medium-length film That Old Dream that Moves, earned him the Prix Jean Vigo in 2001 and another at the Directors’ Fortnight. In 2003, he made his feature directorial debut with No Rest for the Brave, which was selected for numerous festivals, from Cannes to Karlovy Vary, among others. In 2013, his film Stranger by the Lake won the Best Director Award in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. Guiraudie was back at Cannes in 2016 with his Staying Vertical on the competition lineup. Five years later, his film Nobody’s Hero premiered at the Berlinale (Panorama section).