Le jardin d’Attila, 2012
short movie, 33’
Video HD couleurs 1:63, son, 33’
Actors : Gaëtan Vourc’h, Eberhard Meinzolt, Dario Costa, Isabelle Angotti, Marlène Saldana, Alexandre Laforet et Alain Dreyfus.

Le film est disponible en vidéo à la demande sur Viméo

LE JARDIN D’ATTILA / SYNOPSIS
The Strolling Man and another man are seated on bleachers installed behind a window. They’re looking at the world. We see a deserted moor. THE STROLLING MAN: Do we really need to sleep? A FRIEND: Marthe Robin didn’t sleep for fifty years… The Strolling Man’s in bed. He opens his eyes. THE STROLLING MAN: Marthe Robin? THE FRIEND who’s drinking a cup of coffee in the kitchen: A mystic, died in the 80s… for 50 years she didn’t drink or eat. We see Marthe Robin lying in bed in a field. THE FRIEND: Well, actually she ate the holy wafer on Sundays. She saw the devil before her communion. And bore stigmata too. The Strolling Man’s pacing the apartment. THE STROLLING MAN: Didn’t I have a wife and children? THE FRIEND playing with sugar cubes: You can have children and not live with them. The Marquis de Sade said it was better to keep them away from home, that children who stay with their family are likely to develop prejudices and focus their affection on their parents. The Strolling Man and his friend walk together down the street. THE FRIEND: Away from home they grow up with an open mind and a patriotic heart… BYSTANDER: A bit like with the Inuits! Their children are not given a last name. They’re raised as offspring of the group, with no special ties to their parents. MARTHE ROBIN seated on a bench, a cigarette in her hand: Reminds me of Tahiti. When a woman can’t have children, a woman with several children will give up one of hers. THE FRIEND: That’s different. Everyone still keeps their children. On a desolate moor, THE STROLLING MAN asks: But, if the filial bond is dissolved, is inheritance too? A PRIEST: Of course! That’s why priests don’t marry! The priest and Strolling Man walk side by side. THE PRIEST: Until the 11th century, we could marry and our children inherited our possessions. The Vatican then established celibacy to secure ownership of church-wealth. A NAKED MAN: And drive you to pedophilia? THE PRIEST: Oh, an Adamite! THE STROLLING MAN: An Adamite? THE PRIEST: A nostalgic for the Garden of Eden. They appeared in the 2nd century. Lived naked when they could. Aspired to regain Adam’s innocence before the fall. They walk away under the serene gaze of the Adamite. THE PRIEST: They refused work, authority, money and inheritance, and practiced free love… They were persecuted and slaughtered, of course. THE STROLLING MAN: By the Catholic Church? THE PRIEST: No, by the Hussites… A throng of Hussite children races down the hill chasing Adamite children of their age. On a bridge over a highway, we see THE STROLLING MAN and THE FRIEND: Abolishing inheritance may be a solution. Saint-Simon said it generates a class of idlers and parasites. Without it, private property is the fruit of one’s labor. He suggested that property return to the community when a person dies. So did Bakunin. They watch the cars below whizzing by. THE STROLLING MAN: I’ve heard about something like that in Tahiti. The house of a deceased would go to a person in need of a roof. THE FRIEND: Never heard of it… Anyway, according to Marx, inheritance can’t be abolished without abolishing private property. THE STROLLING MAN seated on a bench in a square: Which property should we abolish? All forms of property? THE STROLLING WOMAN, who’s appeared by his side: What about individual appropriation? THE STROLLING MAN: Theft? THE STROLLING WOMAN: Yes! According to Sade, theft evens out wealth and encourages basic republican virtues: courage, strength, dexterity. DON QUIXOTE, who’s appeared by the Strolling Man in place of the woman: In the Golden Age, property didn’t exist… “yours” and “mine” meant nothing. BOUGAINVILLE standing in a pool, a string of flowers around his neck: Like in Tahiti! Tahitians trust each other. The door to their house is open day and night… THE STROLLING MAN: Who is that? DON QUIXOTE: Bougainville. The tropical sun must have driven him nuts. BOUGAINVILLE: People pick fruit from trees at will… Everything belongs to everyone! A YOUNG STROLLING MAN, age 10, perched on top of a wall: We could abolish private ownership of themeans of production! THE STROLLING MAN: That boy reminds me of someone… MARTHE ROBIN also perched on the wall: Or do as the Inuit and see everything as common property. DON QUIXOTE: Except for personal hunting tools…. THE YOUNG STROLLING MAN: Or pirates! By sharing their booty, they practiced redistributive egalitarianism! THE STROLLING MAN: But that boy is me! SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, seated on a bench, feeding pigeons: Or the apostles! Jesus’ disciples practiced Communism before the term existed… MARTHE ROBIN: That didn’t last! On a lake shore, Marthe Robin’s playing croquet with Jesus, a pirate and Tahitians. The Strolling Man’s in a boat with Saint- François who’s rowing, a pigeon on his shoulder. SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI: It’s why I chose poverty. I gave up everything I owned and invited my disciples to do the same. But it hasn’t always been easy! The Waldensians were all burnt! THE STROLLING MAN: Waldensians? SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI: Or the Anabaptists… They established a communal system in Münster in 1533. The wealthy entrusted their property to the community… But they were fanatics! John of Leiden, their leader, introduced polygamy, burnt books and put his opponents to death. THE STROLLING MAN to himself: Why am I still talking to a friar? SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI: Keep in mind, the city was besieged by the Catholics. Being under siege favored the redistribution of wealth, as adversities often do. Look at the Inuits! Inuits, fishing with rod and line, wave at the passing boat. SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI: After the city surrendered, they were slaughtered. Their messiah was tortured to death and hung in a cage from a bell tower. I think the cage is still there. The boat slowly recedes. THE STROLLING MAN: They also abolished money, right? SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI: Absolutely! On the shore, John of Leiden’s standing in his cage looking bored. The boat gently recedes. We hear the beeping sound of a cash register. The Strolling Man and his friend are waiting on line at a hypermarket checkout counter. THE FRIEND: They abolished money at Club Med too! The Strolling Man puts his tomatoes on the conveyer belt. THE FRIEND: Guests paid for drinks with beaded necklaces. They lived in a carefree paradise. MARTHE ROBIN behind them: Lived? THE FRIEND: Beaded necklaces were abolished in 1994! THE CASHIER: The Adamites too abolished money! THE ADAMITE at another checkout counter, still utterly naked: Just like some Spanish Republicans! MARTHE ROBIN: Or Pol Pot… THE CASHIER while distractedly scanning the products: Who also abolished property rights, family and religion… The Strolling Man and his friend pull their shopping carts between two deserted ring roads. THE FRIEND: Pol Pot wanted to reshape society as pure peasantry, unsullied by the outside world. Everyone had to fit the mold. They climb up an embankment on the edge of a highway. THE FRIEND: The Khmer Rouge evacuated urban areas. They announced that the Americans were about to bomb. Which wasn’t true, of course! They told everyone to leave the city for a few day and leave all their things behind… All forms of property had to disappear. That’s why they banned money… They walk along a street with no cars. THE FRIEND: The urban exiles were forced to work in the rice fields, without salary. They were provided clothing and food. But not enough. Famine reigned. Hunger was used as a means of pressure… They cross an empty parking lot. THE FRIEND: By suppressing money, they suppressed trade, which they saw as impure and unproductive. They set up a barter system that worked very badly. This system worked very poorly because the professionals most qualified to run such a system, the former executives, were in the rice fields… Only the true revolutionaries – the uneducated peasants – could take part in the organization! They walk through an uninhabited housing project. THE FRIEND: To achieve pure Communism, people had to loose their sense of ownership: material and spiritual, stop saying ‘my’ husband or ‘my’ mother. Everything was collective. Children had to call their parents ‘uncle’ and ‘aunt’, since they were all part of the same family: Angkar, the revolutionary organization. They walk down a wide paved route that’s deserted. THE FRIEND: Emotions were an expression of individualism. So love, grief and passion were abolished. In some areas it was even forbidden to laugh or sing. Personality had to be destroyed. Personality was as a bourgeois quality that would crush the masses. The route runs through wild moorlands. THE STROLLING MAN: But they were crushing the masses, weren’t they? THE FRIEND: Yes! Between famine and executions, they killed nearly two million people! It may have been the most totalitarian regime that ever existed: they aimed to change absolutely everything. They walk toward the horizon. THE FRIEND: Evidence that mandatory utopia is a nightmare! THE STROLLING MAN: Maybe utopia should develop by itself… The Strolling Man and his friend are seated on a hill at the lake shore. They’re watching the sun go down. THE FRIEND: Some Melanesians threw all their money into the sea. By throwing white people’s money, they hoped to get rid of them. Besides, John Frum announced a new Golden Age. THE STROLLING MAN: John Frum? THE FRIEND: A prophet of the Cargo Cult. THE STROLLING MAN: Cargo Cult? THE FRIEND: He wore a U.S. army nurse corps uniform. No one ever knew whether he was black or white… John Frum, wearing a jacket with a big red cross, watches the Melanesians stone skipping. THE FRIEND, lying on the grass: The Cargo Cult is a millenarian religious syncretism. Cargo ships brought food to the settlers, but never to the natives. Melanesians deduced that their ancestors had been taken for a ride but that one day a ship or a plane would bring them wealth. On the deserted moor, we see a landing strip marked by small torches glittering in the dark. THE FRIEND: Some are still waiting for the plane… The Strolling Man and Don Quixote are in a river, with only their heads above the water. THE STROLLING MAN: So there will be no story in this film? DON QUIXOTE: What for? We hear the din of a highway. The Strolling Man and his friend are seated on an embankment in the middle of cars whizzing by. THE STROLLING MAN: So, if we abolish money, we abolish trade, too? THE FRIEND: Except bartering… THE ADAMITE sitting, naked, a little higher up: Or systems based on local exchange! MARTHE ROBIN also sitting on the embankment: And there’s gift-giving! THE FRIEND: Potlatch? MARTHE ROBIN: Yes! When exchanging involves ruining oneself to challenge another, we’re far cry from commerce! THE STROLLING WOMAN lying down slightly below: Or ruining oneself to the point of destroying everything! Some Indians in Alaska slaughtered all their slaves! STROLLING MAN: To meet a challenge? THE STROLLING WOMAN: Yes! Or launch a new one. All the characters are seated on the embankment. But the highway’s gone. They’re in the middle of nature. We see an explosion in the distance on the sea. The Strolling Man and his friend are drinking in a cabin on the shore. THE FRIEND: In South America, the chief had to constantly hand out gifts. Victim of a kind of endless looting, he had to work ten times more than other people. THE STROLLING MAN: But he had power… THE FRIEND: Not at all! Except in wartime, he had no authority! THE ADAMITE, who’s swimming in front of them: The system was a precaution against hierarchies. The chief had prestige, not authority… MARTHE ROBIN, who’s also swimming: Chiefless, stateless, acephalous societies! DON QUIXOTE shouting from an island facing them: The Jivaros! THE FRIEND: Or the Inuits! THE STROLLING MAN: Them again? THE FRIEND: They had a chief for hunting expeditions – seldom the same one. But the rest of time they had no leader! They see a dinghy full of passengers. THE YOUNG STROLLING MAN wearing a tricorn, watches them through binoculars: Pirates also rotated their leaders! Except during battles, decisions were made by the whole crew. THE STROLLING MAN: Did it work? THE YOUNG STROLLING MAN: Not so much… Their ships often wandered aimlessly, until the crew made up their mind.THE FRIEND: There were also the Quilombos, communities of runaway slaves of Brazil! They hid in forests to escape Portuguese settlers. These communities of up to thirty thousand people rejected all authority. THE STROLLING MAN: Slaves rejecting authority… seems understandable! THE FRIEND: Needless to say, the Portuguese killed them all! On the lake, Bougainville canoes away. BOUGAINVILLE: There were also self-managers! The Lip! The kibbutz! The Titoists! The Communards! Christiania! Tower Mine! The Merry Pranksters! The Zapatistas! The Béguards and Béguines! The Ranters! Monte Verità! Shangri-La! AA Comune!… As he recedes he gets too far away to hear. The Strolling Man and Don Quixote are walking in a parking lot, between two rows of trucks. THE STROLLING MAN: And what about Attila? DON QUIXOTE: Attila? No. Nothing special. Some Jivaroans are playing soccer at the foot of a housing project. THE FRIEND watching them from a rooftop: Some Brazil Indians have changed soccer rules: when a player scores a goal, he switches teams to even out the game. THE STROLLING WOMAN, her hair blowing in the wind: And the whole idea of victory and competition is gone! THE FRIEND: This reversal reminds me of Carnival, when hierarchies are abolished: jesters become kings, children become popes… THE ADAMITE, naked, carrying a load of laundry: Or the Saturnalia! When slaves could enslave their masters! MARTHE ROBIN, who’s walking by: For a while… THE ADAMITE, as he hangs the laundry on the line: They elected a king. A handsome young man who enjoyed 30 days of absolute freedom, pleasure and debauchery. Then, he had to sacrifice his own life. Saint Dasius paid the price…. THE STROLLING MAN: Saint Dasius? THE ADAMITE: A Christian martyr. He had the misfortune to be elected and refused to honor Saturn… THE STROLLING WOMAN, who’s appeared between two sheets: Wasn’t it Kronos? THE ADAMITE: Maybe… Anyway, he wanted to stay pure and honor no god except his own. THE STROLLING WOMAN: So he was beheaded without living the high life! Dasius appears, headless. Marthe Robin pops up between two fireplaces, a crown of clothespins on her head. MARTHE ROBIN: Like Jesus! Who had to wear a crown of thorns before being crucified, like the mock king of Carnival! DASIUS, who’s recovered his head: But carnival is ephemeral! While Hassan-i Sabbâh declared the advent of the millennium! THE STROLLING MAN: Who? DASIUS: Head of the Assassins of Iran! In 1164, during the Ramadan, he declared the end of Koranic law. The forbidden was permitted. Dasius folds a sheet with Marthe Robin. DASIUS: Since God was in everyone’s heart, all forms of devotion were abolished. Those who obeyed the law were tortured and stoned to death. MARTHE ROBIN: Later, in Syria, the Assassins indulged in debauchery while calling themselves ‘pure’. Women wore men’s clothes, drank with men and incest was allowed. DASIUS: Eventually they were all assassinated and the Sharia law was restored. The Strolling Man is seated with Don Quixote on the moor in the fading light of sunset. They’re looking off into the distance. DON QUIXOTE: What do you see? THE STROLLING MAN: I see Assassins carrying a potbellied Christ, wearing a crown with light bulbs. Behind them, I see Tahitians with a pig covered with flowers, and Adamites rolling a huge scarlet barrel, Jivaros playing soccer with kings’ heads, goat headed demons carrying a bed… and on it Marthe Robin applying lipstick on her stigmata. Behind, some Anabaptists disguised as centaurs pull a fiery chariot with choirboys throwing TV sets, toasters, keys and gold coins… Behind them, donkeys pulling a chariot-bathtub in which a priest gives birth to frogs, Melanesians parading as if they were at BuckinghamPalace, and a band of cyclop-pirates playing huge drums. In the rear beheaded kings dance joyfully as if they were celebrating the end of the world. The young Strolling Man is seated on a rock in the deserted moor. He’s scribbling in a notebook. THE STROLLING MAN: Are you doing your homework? THE YOUNG STROLLING MAN: No, doing my homedesires. THE STROLLING MAN: And what if you don’t have any desire to read, write or do count? THE YOUNG STROLLING MAN: Then I won’t know how to read, write or count! THE STROLLING MAN: But it’s useful! THE YOUNG STROLLING MAN, annoyed: If I find it useful, I’ll learn! Coercion is a deadlock. If I obey you, I’m no longer desiring nor responsible. School teaches shame, fear, vanity and submissiveness. First we submit to parents, teachers, then to employers. I’d rather learn by myself. Bye. The child walks away, leaving the Strolling Man puzzled. A few steps away, the friend and Marthe Robin are sitting on the grass playing chess. THE FRIEND: Reminds me of Jacotot. THE STROLLING MAN: Jacotot? MARTHE ROBIN: A revolutionary exiled in Switzerland. He developed a teaching method involving no explanation. Teachers knew nothing and students had to fend for themselves… THE FRIEND: Like when children learn to speak: no one explains to them how! MARTHE ROBIN: An illiterate could teach another illiterate how to read… A group of autodidacts, perched on a boulder, are reading and learning. THE STROLLING MAN, lying naked on a bed: How about work? THE STROLLING WOMAN, sitting on top of him, as naked as he: Kalahari hunters-gatherers work only 2 hours a day to ensure all their needs… THE STROLLING MAN: The Bushmen? THE STROLLING WOMAN: Yes! They have lots of spare time. BOUGAINVILLE, in an armchair at the foot of the bed: Just like Tahitians! THE ADAMITE, who comes out of the bathroom, naked: Or the medieval Mendicant orders that refused to work! THE STROLLING WOMAN: A far cry from Marx and his universal mandatory work… The two Strolling Mans are playing Ping- Pong in a garden. THE STROLLING MAN: Did he advocate that? THE STROLLING WOMAN: Yes, in the Manifesto! The Strolling Mans (man and woman) are seated in a prairie. THE STROLLING MAN: Marx, Proudhon, Saint Simon, even Fourier praised work! It’s insane! But if we stop working, what do we do? THE STROLLING WOMAN: Focus on pleasure! THE FRIEND, who’s appeared by their side: Like the Familists! THE STROLLING MAN to himself: Here we go again… THE FRIEND: They encouraged idleness, spiritual love, freedom of the body… THE STROLLING WOMAN: When? THE FRIEND: 16th century… Some Familists are playing leapfrog in the prairie. THE STROLLING MAN: But if we abolish everything, what’ll we have left? THE FRIEND: Maybe nothing exists! And reality is nothing but theater… THE STROLLING WOMAN: Or maybe we’re living in a hen’s dream! The Strolling Man wanders around a shopping mall. We can see a cargo ship receding on the sea.