Dinner with Panique au Sénat (Panic in the Senate)
An interview with Antonin Peretjatko, director of Panique au Sénat (Panic in the Senate)
Why do we have to watch Panique au Sénat through adult eyes, as we are requested to do at the beginning of the film?
It’s a response to the expression that says we have to know how to remain a child. But nothing is crueler than recess, which is about survival of the fittest, injustice, arbitrariness and a complete lack of self-deprecation. The film talks about power. I start from the notion that people in power are children, with their meanness, their consuming desire to always be the boss, and all the rest. In fact, one of the favorite expressions politicians [in France] use is “recess is over”, proof that they think they’re still at school. Look around us: Who for one second can possibly think that Trump is not a child? I think dictators are fickle children who’ve been given power. I invite the audience to watch the film through adult eyes to see to what extent the people who govern us are dangerous children.
Why were you interested in the idea of an ecologist President? And in the debates about French formal gardens as an intangible national heritage?
French formal gardens are a mirror of power. If power changes, then why not begin with the garden. An ecologist President of the Senate (which is impossible) is the necessary humorous premise for being able to accept everything that will happen in the garden.
How did you envision your Senators?
I had in mind the dusty idea we have of the Senate. The crushingly male majority of the members is completely ludicrous. Senators by nature have great comic potential stemming from their childish whims about wanting to command. That’s why I put them in front of dioramas – that way we see them playing like children who are playing with matchbox cars. Moreover, the Luxembourg Garden that the Senate oversees is filled with games for children. But since you have to pay to play them, and children cannot pay for them, this is proof that the senators want to keep them for themselves.
Do you see the film more as a humorous way to talk about politics or as a satire focused on politicians’ egos?
The film talks first and foremost about the representation of power in gardens. You could make a very serious film about that. The topic is serious; it’s the way I deal with it that is not. I wanted the garden to immediately become the most important thing for the Senators. There is no more talk of laws and public funds: the garden is suddenly above everything else. It goes back to the reason for the garden’s existence. It’s a way of talking about the political organization of our society. Through this comic hook, the film still talks about the role that Institutions play and the way they function. How have you experienced this question personally?
Do you think that France as a whole spends enough time thinking about these questions, or should be more alive to them?
I think the elected representatives of the Republic necessarily had to ask themselves how the Republic works, the common good, the symbol. For all that, the privatization of society results in an absence of this sort of questioning. The State is the common good. The private sector is individual good. We saw that recently with Lactalis, where the CEO, who has power, refused to recall milk that was suspected of containing salmonella. To increase profits, he decided to poison newborns. We’re bottoming out in terms of the common good. It’s clear that he simply does not recognize the statue with its breast bared – the symbol of the Republic – which is meant to nourish its citizens. In fact, have you seen the gardens in the Lactalis factories? They’re little squares of grass between the cars. It’s a reflection of power without splendor.
What sort of freedom would you say the short format allows?
Shorts allow you to tackle topics that maybe don’t warrant more than sixty minutes. They allow you to test out things, ideas, techniques. In our case, that was 3D.
Panique au Sénat is being shown in National Competition F8 and the special 3D screenings.
