"A Place for Pierrot" by Hélène Médigue: "My film is based on the bond that unites people"

Pierrot, 45, is autistic and lives in a nursing home. Determined to give him a dignified life, his sister Camille takes him in and sets out to find a place adapted to his difference. The road is long, but it is the promise of a new life, in which everyone will find their place. This is the synopsis of the feature film directed by actress, writer, and director Hélène Médigue. The latter, whose brother is autistic, committed herself to this cause by creating the association Les Maisons de Vincent in 2019, intended to welcome autistic adults. The first home opened in Mers-les-Bains in 2021. That same year, she was named a Knight of the National Order of Merit. Interview.

Contrary to what one might think, this is not a film about autism...

Exactly. I didn't want to make a film about this subject at all. I already dealt with these themes in my first film, I also published a story with Flammarion 15 years ago, Entre deux vies , I am the founder of the association Les Maisons de Vincent… I wanted to move on to something else. The theme of the film is caregivers. And it goes even further: I wanted to make a film that talks about connection and difference. Connection is what makes us meet, rub shoulders, know each other, and help each other. It is ultimately what drives us all. The question of the limits of this connection is also raised: at what point are we free of our affiliation?

Did you draw inspiration from your personal life?

What the film shows, I actually experienced with my autistic brother. On the other hand, the character of Pierrot has nothing to do with the personality of my brother Vincent. My brother brought me his truth, and it shaped my way of approaching the world, but also my approach to my job. I wanted to create a story around the connection through the return to life of a different man.

How did you select the two main actors?

In my eyes, there was only one actor in France who could play the role of Pierrot: Grégory Gadebois. He perfectly embodies the sensoriality, the temporality, the childhood element: that's all I wanted to show. He's an organic actor. With Marie Gillain, who plays Camille, they had already acted together in Les Choses simples . Marie delighted me, she's a real actress, and God knows I'm not easy with my actors! I asked them to go through a succession of states that weren't easy, it required them to really let go.

Music plays an important role in this feature film... Is it symbolic?

The film is very musical, it integrates from the beginning of the scenario "Pierrot's song" which punctuates the story. I made the choice of Ce n'est rien by Julien Clerc which symbolizes impermanence. Everything passes... We all go through the shadow and the light. For me, this song was like an obvious choice, it is therapeutic for Pierrot at the moment when he undergoes the invasion of his troubles. I also wanted to choose a song that brings us together, that calls on our collective memory.

What message did you try to convey?

I didn't want to reduce the film to autism, my own story, or disability. Rather, I wanted to address what the experience of difference conditions, in relation to the evolution of our society: the mental burden of caregivers, solidarity, the powerful quest to invent adapted solutions to find meaning and the place of each person. I wanted to highlight the daily lives of caregivers. And how to convey the difficulty my characters have in living in their time. That was my goal.

> By Hélène Medigue. With Stéphane Cabel, With Marie Gillain, Grégory Gadebois, Patrick Mille... 1h39. Dramatic comedy. Our opinion: 4/5.