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NAMUR 2024

David Oelhoffen • Director de Le Quatrième Mur

"El arte ayuda a iluminar lo peor de la realidad, a pesar de todo"

por 

- Entrevistamos al cineasta francés, cuya adaptación de la novela de Sorj Chaladon reflexiona sobre el papel del arte frente a los conflictos, con un dramático eco en la actualidad

David Oelhoffen  • Director de Le Quatrième Mur
(© Valentin Louvrier/FIFF)

Este artículo está disponible en inglés.

After Far From Men [+lee también:
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which was set in the Algerian War, and The Last Men unfolding in Laos during the War in Indochina, David Oelhoffen is exploring a new theatre of war by way of The Fourth Wall [+lee también:
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, an adaption of Sorj Chalandon’s novel following the fragile project to recreate Anouilh’s Antigone in early 1980s Lebanon. The movie was unveiled in competition at the Namur International French Film Festival.

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Cineuropa: What were your thoughts when you first read this text?
David Oelhoffen:
Sorj Chalandon is an author I admire. I’d read The Fourth Wall without thinking to adapt it, not least because the difficulties that come with depicting the War in Lebanon as it happened in the ‘80s seemed hard to overcome. It just so happened that just as I was thinking of some other texts of hers, exploring the civil war in Ireland, I received a phone call from producer Christine Rouxel, who’d just acquired the rights to The Fourth Wall, and who suggested I adapt the book and direct the resulting film. Since there was a producer who was brave enough to throw herself into it, I accepted.

I was really moved by the question the book asks, about the transformative power of art; questions that we ourselves ask when we make films. There’s no doubt something arrogant, megalomaniacal or vain, as it’s stated in the novel, about thinking you can change the world by making art. In the film, it’s turned into a kind of failure at a certain point, or a deadly project for Georges. But at the same time, the world is transformed thanks to these magnificent defeats, which by no means stop wars, but which shine a light into the darker recesses of our humanity and help to shift certain lines.

The film explores a collision of different eras, showing a play devised in Antiquity, recreated in 1945, and then performed in 1982. And it resonates to devastating effect with the present-day.
Current events are always catching up with us; this was the case when we were shooting two years ago and it’s even more of a reality today. The film revolves around the character of Antigone, who’s immortal but who’ll always be modern. It’s an ongoing tragedy, which gives rise to perpetual questioning. When we shot the film at the end of 2022, there was already a kind of porosity between the past and the present. We were depicting a war which took place in 1982, but we didn’t have to use many special effects to recreate the historical nature of the story. The wounds of that war are still visible. The past is still present. Both for us and for the Lebanese. And now today, once again, rockets are being fired on Southern Lebanon, hospitals are being bombed. Since 7 October, it’s been like watching images from our film on TV.

The fourth wall refers to the porosity between the illusion of theatre and reality, the tragedy of war. Georges transcends the fourth wall. He’s on the side of reality to begin with and then, over time, he turns into Antigone. He steps into tragedy out of blindness, a bit like Oedipus. Georges should say no and put a halt to this theatre project, abdicate in the face of reality. But just like Antigone, he refuses to lie; he’s prepared to die for it.

The film opts to show fear rather than horror itself.
The entire film explores how war comes looking for Georges, how it interferes with him. And when he discovers the camps in Sabra and Chatila, it’s a real tipping point for him. He’s not able to get away from war after that. The film isn’t an objective report on the war in Lebanon, it shares Georges’ subjective viewpoint. For Sorj, who visited those camps himself as a journalist, writing the novel was a way of shaking off war. Georges doesn’t find the same escape.

What’s at the heart of this film, in your opinion?
There are two things. Showing war for what it is, horrific and corruptive, even for the purest of souls. Which is why we agreed to shoot scenes which were pretty unbearable, to make sure we didn’t turn war into pleasant viewing. And the film also questions the place of art when faced with war. Art helps light to penetrate the worst of reality, in spite of everything.

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(Traducción del francés)

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