film

part 4

Who wants to go to Earth? UNTOLD STORY Who wants to go to Earth?

Impossible, you think that they still have cars ?

OF THE BEAUTIFUL PLANET

(Who wants to go) To Narbos?

Excuse me, sir, could you tell me which country we are in here?

But… you are in France.

One of the most talented French filmmakers of the present, Ms. Coline Serreau, has always been inclined to address social issues in her successful and engaging works. Her famous 1985 comedy film, “Three Men and a Cradle,” won three prestigious César Awards, including one for Best Writing by Ms. Serreau. It shed a hilarious yet heartwarming light on fatherhood.

“La Belle Verte” (The Green Beautiful), was also written and directed by Coline Serreau, who also starred in this 1996 movie with French actor Vincent Lindon. The film encouraged viewers to question the conventions of human society on Earth, by looking from the eyes of beings from another planet. According to this filmmaker, art should serve the purpose of improving people’s lives.

I was very touched by your movie “Saint Jack, Mecca.” And often you show in your movie… you really have a benevolent look on people; and you often show their evolution, their transformation toward the good. And that’s exactly one of those examples. And why exactly did you choose this title?

Saint Jack, Mecca?

Yes.

Because these are big pilgrimages and it is also a way to say: We have different opinions, different climates, different varieties of plants and animals on this planet and it’s true that it is good that we are very different from one another. But in the end, the profound aspirations are the same; for humans in any case.

And even, I would nearly say, also for plants and animals. So the idea to leave the house, to walk, to make a journey to try to understand something of life, that has always existed in every civilization, in all cultures. The great myths and the great events that punctuate a life, have always been the same in all the big religions.

There is the pilgrimage, there is the fast in all religions. There are the great rites of passage. And it was a way to say, let’s stop fighting with each other. Because we have in fact the same rites.

Yes, and on that path exactly, it’s the story of brothers and sisters.

Yes, of brothers and a sister who quarrel like cat and dog, who haven’t surpassed adulthood at all, nor childhood, and who will, during this path, will try to surpass it, in any case to understand at least that they can get on, that they have the same roots, they have the same… it is a path of difficult reconciliation.

We have to mention to the viewers that there is also great humor in your movies; that one laughs a happy laugh, a laugh that is full of love. There is a way to look at people with love.

There is also another film, “Chaos.” This one is a little different. And this heroine... she transforms herself. She still stands up and changes completely...

Yes. “Chaos” really is a triple transformation. I think that everyone has something very good in them, but it has been destroyed or altered, one way or the other. And what I find interesting is precisely when things revolutionize and change. So, he changes, his wife also changes. as she becomes aware that she must look after this girl, she is also aware that she can't just be oblivious to anything else.

I think there are moments of awakening; something that resonated in her and made her understand that in doing that, she is also helping herself. And so, she focuses on her own life, her relationship with her son, her husband that she loves. And obviously, the girl who has been very harsh, very tough after what she has been through, is also changing.

There is another very good movie entitled “The Green Beautiful” that you made, already more than 15 years ago I think. we have to say that you have been and still are a great precursor in many things. You have a vision of our society – people talk about it today – but 15 years ago you were the only one to talk about it and point out what was wrong and what was absurd.

It is true that during that time... It is funny because while I was doing it, I was so sure. I mean not sure of myself – because I am always in doubt and when we create we question everything all the time, every day. But I mean, I was in a state of profound conviction that what I was doing was right; that I was saying the right thing. It really was a very profound conviction because it takes three years of one's lifetime to make a movie.

It is physically very, very difficult. If you really don't have this intimate and profound conviction that it is worth it, frankly it is not worth doing it. And so, I had this conviction; and when the movie was released, people did not see what was in it…

And so, it was very difficult for me at that time. But eventually it caught up. I mean, now people probably talk about that movie more than any other movie. He was a bit premature but now he is developing well.

Who wants to go to Earth?

“The Green Beautiful” paints a peaceful world on another planet, where the people live in a more advanced stage than their counterparts on Earth, that is, in simplicity and harmony with nature. Telepathic and egalitarian, they are a vegetarian people who cultivate and share their crops. It is understandable that no one from this planet wants to visit the less evolved Earth. However, Mila, played by Coline Serreau, volunteers to visit.

So what should we do?

As usual, we don’t go there?

Excuse me, but I want to go there.

Are you absolutely insane?

Professor Max Varron, head of this service.

Oh, you are carnivorous?!

NOW IN THREE LANGUAGES

Here it is, sir. My name is Mila. I come from another planet. I need your help.

And you will explain this to police.

Who is the Police.

DREAMING

No, it’s the banknotes which are worth something. Paper bills.

You think that they still have this money?!

No.

Everything that was harmful for life, we didn’t buy anymore, or threw away. Already, 15 years ago, you said you were coming from another planet, more evolved. And you say, “How is it possible? How come they still use money and are carnivores and personal interests come first…?

Yes. As they say, we need money. We even need money for food. We have to eat. So we shouldn't buy food. What is that? In fact this seems obvious. We shouldn't buy food; eating is a right. Clean air, clean water; this is a right; it is a right that was taken away from us.

The land is free as well. What I mean is that the earth gives freely. I will take one of the best examples: seeds – besides, the whole ancient farming, which is perennial, productive, and which nourishes and cures us, is free. That is, there is nothing to buy. Everything here circulates and nourishes us. And so, we become once again as noble as the animals and plants that do not need to buy their food.

A seed would give us thousands of other seeds. And now they created a system where one seed gives us nothing. And that is what we are forced to eat, and what makes us sick. And on top of that, it limits the completely natural generosity of the earth. How did Noah manage? He planted a grain of wheat. And then he had ten, a hundred, a thousand and it spread. That is how we have survived.

In April 2010, Ms. Coline Serreau’s newest film was released: “Local Solutions for a Global Disorder.” It took her deepest concerns, shared by a growing number of people worldwide, regarding the problems of modern-day food production as well as the solutions.

We are not in an infinite world, we are in an finite world. But we are constructing an agriculture in an infinite way. “Let’s go!” The petroleum will soon be exhausted. And the soil, well that’s really finished. The soils are dead. We live in virtual deserts.

The minute you remove the petroleum, you remove the fertilizers, the pesticides and everything which feeds the tractors and the tractors, there are no more soils, there is nothing anymore; it’s like plastic. It’s exactly like that floor there. It will give nothing; it will give nothing anymore.

And I still wanted to ask you – having seen your remarkable movies, and which I really encourage everyone to see – where does your optimism come from?

Yes. Because humor helps. And I am optimistic because why should we be pessimistic? We can be conscious but pessimistic... I do not know! Because I like this world still.

Yes. And you believe in human beings?

Yes of course, I believe in human being. otherwise I wouldn't have had children. And as mothers, we are inevitably even more sensitive because as we bring children into the world, we want them to live. We gave birth to them, we brought them up and we pushed them into this world. And we did not do this so that they would find themselves in a world which is only bad. In fact, we can change things. Always.

For more information about Coline Serreau, please visit

Gracious viewers, thank you for your pleasant company on today’s Enlightening Entertainment. Please join us again as our interview with the gifted French filmmaker Ms. Coline Serreau continues tomorrow, Wednesday, November 3. Now, Words of Wisdom is coming up next, after Noteworthy News. May moments of happiness be showered upon you and your cherished ones.