FRED Film Radio - Interview with director Pascal Rabaté on his film PATCHWORK FAMILY (Du Goudron et des Plumes)

FESTIVAL SYNOPSYS - With its unusual title in the original French (“Tar and Feathers”), this story of atonement refers to a public punishment condoned in the Middle Ages and beyond: the perpetrator was doused in tar and rolled in feathers.

 

In the present case, the figurative culprit is Christian, a divorced man who until now has blundered between his real life as an inconsiderate loser and his desire to be an example to his adolescent daughter, and perhaps even to find a new relationship. Set in a small country town where boredom and middle-class rituals hold sway, Pascal Rabaté’s ironic morality tale inventively handles the individual scenes from a perspective reminiscent of his previous Holidays by the Sea, for which he won Best Director at Karlovy Vary in 2011.

 

Even the players’ performances are subordinated to a certain theatrical stylization: Christian is played by Sami Bouajila, an actor of Tunisian origin and a favorite in France, with the similarly well-known Isabelle Carré taking the role of Christine. She becomes a bright spot in the sullen hero’s life, and the director was able to take advantage of the actress’s actual pregnancy during the shoot.

 

 

Matt Micucci: What influenced you to look at the theme of modern family?

Pascal Rabaté: [...] When a man and a woman split up, they experience a certain poverty, and this is a situation that I found myself in personally. This is the story of a man who is fighting for survival in a society that is in a precarious condition. [...]

 

MM: And how important is it that this story is set in a small town instead of a big city?

PR: It's very important because it's about people that get pushed out of the big city, living outside of them. It's aesthetically interesting too, but also it's a type of society that is not very much represented in French cinema. French cinema is always more concerned with urban settings and countryside settings, but not anything in between. [...]

 

MM: The working class too doesn't get much represented.

PR: This class is being represented less and less because the spirit is also characterised by the end of the working class memory. In France it's hard to find work and I have a feeling that this memory is being sacrificed as a result. For instance, the central character's father fought for working class rights, but the leading character himself is against the hardships but doesn't know what to do to fight back [...]

 

 

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