Known for his “Little Prince”, the writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was also a pilot and explorer. The rescue of his friend Guillaumet, who disappeared in the Andes, inspired director Pablo Agüero. With Louis Garrel in the title role, “Saint-Ex” has been on view since December 11.
“I knew we had to choose the key moment, the moment when Antoine de Saint-Exupéry becomes himself, the moment when he forged himself as a pilot and as a writer,” says director Pablo Agüero in the Vertigo show on December 9. “And it was during the search for his missing friend Guillaumet that he found the sources of inspiration for ‘The Little Prince’, which he wrote ten years later.”
If almost everyone knows Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) as the author of “The Little Prince”, we generally know less that the French writer was a true adventurer, whether as a reporter, explorer or still a pilot for Aéropostale, a French mail delivery airline founded in 1927.
A pioneer of aviation, he created with his friend Henri Guillaumet (1902-1940), “the first air mail lines which went to the end of Patagonia crossing the Andes”, explains the Argentine director. Thefts which, at the time, were a feat and sometimes even madness.
>> Listen to the interview with Pablo Agüero and Louis Garrel about the film “Saint-Ex”:
But one day in June 1930, Guillaumet was caught in a snowstorm and crashed at 3,250 meters in the Andes. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry decides to go looking for him, despite the little chance of finding his friend alive and the risks inherent in such an expedition.
A philosophical tale
This adventure, the Argentinian director Pablo Agüero, who knows this region well, decided to tell it in his film “Saint-Ex”, in the cast of which we find Louis Garrel (Saint-Exupéry), Vincent Cassel (Henri Guillaumet) and Diane Kruger (Noëlle Guillaumet).
A feature film which combines widely documented historical facts and fiction, it is certainly an adventure film, but which the director has also designed as a philosophical tale. “There’s something completely improbable about this rescue. When they find themselves on this mountain, they don’t know if they’re going to survive. And then, they’re going to discover people living up there in impossible conditions, like this little shepherd who lives alone with his sheep at -20 degrees and it is this shift that gives this aspect of a universal philosophical tale.
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The power of dreams
“Saint-Ex” also amazes with its singular and dreamlike aesthetic with its silver and golden colors, its lights and its decorations. The director, who spent six months in the Andes and Patagonia to shoot images then used in the studio, refutes the idea that this aesthetic which could appear DIY is a consequence of studio filming. “It’s not a consequence. We invented a manufacturing method to achieve this aesthetic,” he explains.
With a desire to move away from biopics, his film gives pride of place to dreams both in form and content. “Saint-Exupéry represents for me the power of the dream, in the sense that the dream is not denied. It is a real power of conquest, of surpassing oneself and of political commitment. In general, we say that dreaming is to be clumsy and out of touch with reality, but to be out of touch with reality is to forge a new reality and that is what Saint-Exupéry represents for me.
Then to conclude: “I tried to make a film which shows us that someone can first dream. And because he dreams, he can ultimately be more powerful than his friend who is virile and a good pilot. And that’s a real strength.”
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Web adaptation: Andréanne Quartier-la-Tente
“Saint Ex” by Pablo Agüero, with Louis Garrel, Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger. To be seen in French-speaking cinemas since December 11, 2024.
