They are diehards. Men and women who have definitely chosen to live differently. At the wheel of an old blue convertible, Antoine de Maximy travels the roads of France to meet them. He goes to an old mine in Gard where some have taken up residence to lead an alternative existence. He also goes to a Buddhist temple in Hérault or to a rebellious village in the Pyrenees. For the occasion, he decided to match his shirt – traditionally red – to his vehicle. A few weeks after his return from Algeria where he filmed the next “I will sleep at your place”, Antoine de Maximy returns to this French journey.
Why did you go to meet these Gauls?
I like to change. I had produced episodes in France around twenty years ago. I was able to film normally since I wasn’t known, the show wasn’t either. There, obviously, I knew that the situation would be different but I also knew that I could go see people who are not easily seen because journalists are not interested in meeting them most of the time. And they themselves are not inclined to meet journalists. With me, they know that I will respect what they say, that I will respect them, and so they were happy to see me. It gives something that, I think, feels really good. It’s happy and joyful.
Why did you look into these alternative lifestyles?
I was always interested in what was different. When I was young, I wanted to go on a sailboat or live in a truck. I didn’t do it because, initially, I wanted a different life. In reality, when I started working in audiovisual, making documentaries, I realized that that was enough to give me a life that was out of the ordinary and that fascinated me.
Unlike your other trips, we imagine that this time there was a little less improvisation…
In fact, there were quite a few! In fact, this film, initially, I did not sell it to the channel, nor to the production. It was too early. RMC wasn’t ready to take on this program and I didn’t want to wait. I did what I always did, which is to say what I wanted. So I took my car and left, as if I were on vacation, with all my equipment, and without knowing a specific goal. There were things I had heard about, but mostly it was people who told me about it during my trip. I wasn’t in a hurry. I was not at all into a notion of profitability. As a result, I had no pressure. For example, I heard about people who live in an old mine from a friend who lived nearby. The rebel village in the Pyrenees, people told me it was a great place 20-25 years ago. The Buddhist monastery, I just knew it existed. I later learned that there were others in France.
Without the language barrier, is the journey the same?
No, he’s different. In France, the approach phase is much less interesting than when I am abroad. On the other hand, with the people I meet, we can go much further in the discussion. We have the same culture. For many reasons, we are going to get to deeper things, more quickly.
Doesn’t being known change your relationship with people?
This completely changes the relationship! There would have been no point in me going to France to meet anyone. I needed people who were out of the ordinary. That’s why my goal was to meet people who had another way of seeing life or who lived in another way. This is how I met people who have things to say that are less traditional than what others would say.
At the end of the documentary, you suggest that there will be a sequel…
It’s true. Let’s just say that, quite simply, I have some images left and then France is big. So there are reasons which make me say that it is possible that there will be a sequel. Now we will see how this will be received by viewers.
So, will there be a new color code: red shirt for abroad and blue shirt for France?
Yes, ultimately it was life that decided that. I found it funny to change the shirt because it was too complicated to repaint this car red. Then I like to renew myself. I have already repainted my hearse in the United States with a roller and a bucket of paint. So doing the same thing again in France doesn’t amuse me. What I need to do is have fun. If not, then I’m working and in that case I’m bad, so I better stop.
You say you do according to your desires, what are they currently?
It’s already a matter of continuing “I’ll go and sleep at your place”. Then I was on stage at the Avignon off-festival last summer. It went very well and I will definitely do something in Paris. We’re going to try to do a test screening between Christmas and New Year’s Day in a theater. I also have a fiction project for the cinema but it’s so far from what I’m known for… I had already had a lot of difficulty doing I will die in the Carpathiansso I tell myself that this one is going to be much harder.
Are you going back on the road soon?
Of course ! I can’t tell you my destination because I decide at the last moment. I can just tell you that I’m leaving on December 3rd. I’ll probably choose a week before, depending on my mood. Otherwise, the next “I will sleep at your place” will be in Algeria, from where I returned barely a month ago.