Dinner with Guy Moquet

An interview with Demis Herenger, director of Guy Moquet

 Your film shows a kind young man in love by the name of Guy Moquet, who wants to kiss his beloved in public. What inspired you to make this film?

I don’t think she is really his beloved, but it is indeed about kissing in public. The question this film arises from is less about feelings and more about modesty, publicity, and language. I don’t know if the characters are in love or not. In a way, I don’t feel concerned by that. I’m more concerned about the situation, not the feelings.

 Why Guy Moquet? Is it a reference to the young man who was shot in 1941 because of his opinions? Is it intended as a reference to the homophone “moquait” (to mock)?

Both! The young man shot in 1941 was used politically by a president who wanted to make young people aware of World War II. He asked teachers to read the letter Guy Moquet wrote to his parents just before his execution. I imagine the young people faced with the reading of this letter. I imagine the divide that separates such a presidential action from the reality experienced by these young listeners. I imagine it and I see the divide being formed. My Guy Moquet is thus a play on words that works on several different fronts: historical, cultural, symbolic, critical. It points to many different ways to resist and even overcome.

 To make his fantasy come true, our hero and his sweetheart face lots of social pressure imposed by their friends. How do you explain this pressure? Do you think taboos exist that cause today’s youth to suffer and which lead to this kind of behavior, or is it a way for them to relate themselves and their fears to the imminent event?

What interests me is the way we give shape to our desires. The solution for the hero is less convoluted and less costly that what he had originally imagined (the fireworks). The solution he comes up with is more profound and corresponds to the deployment of another treasure which is linked more closely to intimacy and transgresses the modesty involved in expressing one’s feelings. So, to answer your question, it is in this transgression that the gesture appears significant. The pressure is applied by the betrayed people who witness the collapse of their implicit system of connivance. Guy Moquet shows not only that he is not understood, but even worse, that we do not understand each other.

 In Guy Moquet, your characters seem particularly sensitive to Walt Disney films. These films, and the Disney universe as a whole, did they have a particular effect on you? Do you think this reference is common among all French people?

In Guy Moquet’s gesture, there is a will to trivialize, which is the contrary of the expression “to emerge from”. Something like “to be with”. All the same, “to be with” does not necessarily mean being on the right side either. The Disney reference is really a zero degree reference, because once we kick Disney out the door, he comes in the window. It is huge and pathetic at the same time… What matters here is not as much Disney as the fact that my characters are in search of models.

 Guy Moquet shows the before and during of the undertaking, but not the after. Like in the films of Walt Disney. Why did you choose to stop at that particular moment? Have you imagined an after?

The after is also the passing of the baton to the viewer. The end note of the film is suspended, it inspires hope and gives the illusion of possibility. We could say all that is just cinema… and it’s true.

 Guy Moquet deals particularly in human relationships as our hero puts himself in a position of vulnerability by openly expressing his affection. This can be used by others to humiliate him, starting with the young woman he loves. In general, do you like your films to relate to this question of vulnerability and the endangering of ourselves?

Absolutely. For the moment, and in the current configuration of my work, I want my films to exist in order to show characters who expose themselves, who choose to take full measure of our world by the sole standard of the strength of what they feel regardless of the consequences… for them and their friends… potentially serious consequences, or at least which have an impact.

 For you, does Guy Moquet address the inhabitants of the suburbs in particular, or does it equally address the inhabitants of affluent and rural areas?

Guy Moquet speaks to, addresses and charms one side like the other, but not for the same reasons I think. One one hand we are happy to be there, while on the other we feel a bit of shame…

 In Guy Moquet, the protagonist that applies the greatest amount of pressure on our hero uses the word “nigga”as a community designation which includes very precise borders and to which the hero is expected to adhere. Why did you choose to show this behavior on the screen?

Woah! Some real questions! Thank you.

The identification with American figures as well as the political and musical history of that country concerns me. Our guys speak French but call each other “niggas”. It is the “nigga”part of the speech which sometimes means less than the playing or singing. All day long, those guys are shaped by the form and rhythm of their speech… They are in search of their music, they search for references, and “nigga” plays a part in their flow. They are in a way our new Yé-Yés, which makes me laugh tenderly and ironically. On the other hand, and more seriously, there is a strong feeling of “us” and “them”, a feeling that is on the contrary not always counter-productive. Without getting into too much detail, I wanted to show the meaning behind that which we make our own. Taking pleasure in saying the word “nigga” is a way to appropriate the sinister privilege which allowed the white man to insult the black man. It is the metonymic expression of achieved equality, even if it is based in foolishness. In that formula there is a wildly political humor and insolence. You would have to talk to psychoanalysts, linguists, anthropologists…

 Lastly, Guy Moquet is a French production. In your opinion, what does French short film production have that the others don’t?

I’m not versed enough in short film to answer that question. What I know is having studied in Switzerland, France inspires a certain fascination… There’s an expression I picked up somewhere that says that France is the country where History is made… we could add to that “or is unmade” as a reference to a famous Swiss man. Personally, I like that formula, and it is also what I expect from French production… a particularly fine and subtle attention to the way in which History is written…

Guy Moquet was screened at the national and international competitions. He won the national Special Jury Prize and Audience Prize in 2015.