Trivia

It was selected to be screened in the Horizons section of the 71st Venice International Film Festival.

The starting point was a true event reported in the papers about a man, a France Télécom worker, at the end of his rope. He intended to commit suicide but, instead, spent four or five months wandering the mountains.

"Michel was on the newspaper front pages when he published his poems," says Kervern when I ask how and why the bestseller author was cast. "We immediately realised he was the best person, with his fragility and magnetism of presence, to stand in front of a camera for 90 minutes and hold the attention."

"I could identify with the character. I led a life like that myself for 40 years before I became a writer. I see myself easily in Paul's predicament. To me becoming a writer was an escape, a safety route out of that life." said Houellebecq about the script and character.

Houellebecq was indisputably the enabler of a more contemporary motif in the movie. The hero's cycling shirt is emblazoned with the brand name "Bic". Since the shirt is seldom off the screen, I ask if this is an accident? Or is it the longest and most sustained piece of product placement in film history? "Bic paid us nothing," Kervern instantly responds. "We needed a bright shirt so that the hero would stand out from the landscape. But the company refused to let us use it because the film is about a man wishing to commit suicide. Then Michel came to our help." tells Delépine. And Houellebecq add: "I remembered that the widow of the Baron who founded the Bic company liked my work. So I took a pen and wrote a letter. She persuaded the factory to give three Bic shirts, all alike, for me to wear."