Golden bear of the last Berlinale, On Adamant of the Nicolas Philibert (famous documentary, including Being and have) Just came out on physical support... The ideal moment to (re)discover this documentary that takes us back to the human center.
Oasis on water
Some of the foregrounds include the barge of L-Adamant, laid on the tranquil waves of the Seine, surrounded by the chronic agitation of the city. Police vessel pressed, bridges saturated with anonymous and uninterrupted traffic, trains hastened to fill their gap, anonymous crowds... Everything gets excited, everything shakes, and the barge seems to be watching from an eye distant from this urban annoyance. And for cause! The boat and its entrails are detached from this temporality. It is part of the long time, when the constant contraction of our society is forbidden. His hull is the promise of a break...
But this place of long time is not without life, on the contrary. From the opening of its strange futuristic shutters to the last suns of the setting, the barge is home to a vibrant life. The day centre in the water protects those who need it most from its walls. But here, if their scathing remarks, disinhibited movements or sometimes leaking eyes indicate an underlying mental disorder, there is nothing more to distinguish patients from caregivers. Psychiatrists, animators and cared for mingle without hiding behind a uniform, a blouse or clever glasses. Adamant is not a hospital (but it is attached to a service), but a carcan where these women and men not like others can flourish, at least for a while.
And seeing the world around this barge getting excited, running after time, harassed by work, money, reputation, one ends up wondering where normality is in this story. But truce of digressions, let's go back to the bones of this documentary...
Fools' Nef?
Nicolas Philibert (s The plans take time, tease, hang eyes, pick up calls: "Are you filming me here?" And the director simply answered, without reviving the discussion. Philibert captures the place as time passes, becoming as much a witness of altercations as of joy.
We guess the pathologies, many. Sometimes barely visible, sometimes more. And they question our normality, like the Penelope my love where Claire Doyon filmed with a poignant tenderness of her daughter's autism. And according to the words exchanged, we plunge into the world of theirs, with joy sometimes, with emotion often. One also guesses the complexity of such a place, the risk of a spark that could create a fire over this so peaceful Seine. Here, we are not behind screens, nor reduced to these check boxes. But how long?
This is the question asked by Philibert at the end of the documentary. Until when... At a time when hospitals have become money machines, subject to yield, and patients of human matter to be treated as quickly as possible, Adamant is an exception. Let us hope that these places of humanity remain... We dare to believe, better, that they can make emulations. An exciting documentary, upsetting at the moment, which deserves its best in Berlin!
Data sheet (On Adamant)
DVD Region B (France)
Publisher: Blaq Out
Duration: 109 min
Release date: 03 December 2024
Video format: 576p/25 – 1.85
Soundtrack: French Dolby Digital 5.1 (and 2.0)
Subtitles : French
The set contains the other films by Nicolas Philibert (On Adamant, Averroès and Rosa Parks, The Typewriter and other sources of hassle & The Mind of Things), numerous video bonuses (including « Nicolas Philibert, chance and necessity », a film by Jean-Louis Comolli (2019, 90) and a 144-page booklet. The films are the subject of separate reviews to be found on MaG.
[...] from the collector case Nicolas Philibert: In psychiatry at Blaq Out (containing the films On Adamant, Averroès and Rosa Parks, The Writing Machine and other sources of hassle & Moindre des [...]
[...] from the collector case Nicolas Philibert: In psychiatry at Blaq Out (containing the films On Adamant, Averroès and Rosa Parks, The Writing Machine and other sources of hassle & Moindre des [...]
[...] will then find the known heads of Sur l'Adamant, infiltrated directly at the patient's home. The goal is twofold: to help the [...]