The series A posteriori le cinéma is intended to be an opportunity to celebrate the 7the Art by revisiting flagship titles that celebrate important anniversaries.
Actor Christian Bale dancing moonwalk just before committing an ax murder in the sanitized setting of a 1980s condo: this is perhaps the most cult anthology scene contained in the film American Psychoby Mary Harron. Bale and incarnate Patrick Bateman, a yuppie who descends into homicidal madness. Unless his crimes are just fantasies? Unveiled at the Sundance festival 25 years ago this month, this adaptation of the famously unadaptable novel by Bret Easton Ellis received a divided reception. The film’s reputation, which has become an inexhaustible source of memes on the Internet, has since grown considerably.
Incredibly violent, the book caused a scandal when it was published in 1991. Ellis puts culture under the knife yuppie from the Reagan era (pending the Trump era).
In the film, this makes for some memorable passages, like when Patrick Bateman and his male colleagues (Justin Théroux, Josh Lucas, Jared Leto) compare the refinement of their business cards, as if they were comparing the size of their phalluses.
For Bateman, the slightest annoyance is a reason to kill. This, while maintaining appearances, especially with his fiancée (Reese Witherspoon) and a detective (Willem Dafoe).
From 1992, producer Edward R. Pressman (Sisters / Blood sisters ; Badlands / The wild ride) bought the adaptation rights. Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt toured the project. David Cronenberg considered making…
From withdrawals to postponements, the years passed. In 1996, Pressman sent a script to Mary Harron, whose first film had just been a hit at Sundance: I Shot Andy Warholabout feminist activist Valerie Solanas, who attempted to assassinate the king of Pop Art.
Ambiguity and satire
Finding the script too conventional, Harron proposed writing a new one with her friend, actress-writer (and later director) Guinevere Turner. From the outset, they opted to maintain ambiguity as to the reality of the bloody crimes of the protagonist, who is seen, among other things, chasing a victim with a chainsaw, while he is completely naked.
Moreover, from the first minutes, when Bateman orders a drink in a nightclub and starts shouting insults at the waitress who has her back turned to him, we do not see him, but his reflection in the mirror from the bar. When she brings him his drink, the waitress displays an impassive face, although she cannot fail to have heard the insults. Unless, of course, Bateman only expressed his thoughts in his head.
“It’s like Bateman’s dream or vision,” Harron tells the magazine See in 2000.
Harron and Turner further toned down the novel’s violence, confining it to a handful of key scenes. Conversely, with a more radical bias, they increased the satirical charge and the black humor.
“Satire takes things to their most extreme dimensions, revealing truths about things, like restaurant culture, clothing culture, or business card culture in the 1980s,” summarizes Mary Harron at See.
In 2015, the co-writer-director specified in Rue Morgue : “We wanted to avoid making Patrick Bateman cooland I think that’s what a male director probably would have done: make it sexy et coolwhich would have been a big trap. Most young American actors would have wanted to make Bateman sexy et coolwhile Christian, Guinevere and I were all on the same wavelength. We wanted to make it a little absurd and pathetic. »
In a 2024 essay published by ColliderLuna Guthrie agrees: “When an incredibly rich and handsome young man gets angry over a business card, what else can you do but laugh at him? »
DiCaprio changes everything
For the record, the film actually almost underwent the “ sexy et cool » described by Harron. Indeed, in 1998, while the director was fighting to impose Christian Bale, the production learned that Leonardo DiCaprio, the most sought-after actor on the planet since Titanicwanted to star inAmerican Psycho.
-HAS VultureMary Harron confided in 2020: “I felt that he was really not a good choice. Ed [Pressman] said to me, “Please meet him,” but I didn’t want to. At the time, in all my naivety, I didn’t even understand that the studio had already decided to get rid of me. Because DiCaprio wanted a famous and important director. He had a short list of candidates, like Stanley Kubrick or Martin Scorsese. »
During the time DiCaprio was attached to the project, the film was reimagined.
“It’s become a “Jekyll and Hyde”. The idea being that Bateman is not only bad, but also has a good side. But they couldn’t agree on the rewrite and, in the meantime, Danny Boyle proposed The Beach [La plage] to Leo, and he decided to do that instead,” the filmmaker tells Vulture.
In the process, Oliver Stone, who was now to direct, instead left to shoot Any Given Sunday (Sunday heroes). Sheepish, the producers returned to Mary Harron.
However, the studio still wanted to know nothing about Christian Bale. The director therefore met Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who refused, to the great happiness of the former, who remained in contact with her only real choice, Bale.
Vince Vaughn liked the studio, but he had just played Norman Bates in the remake of Psycho (Psychosis), a flop. Along came Ewan McGregor, who declined out of friendship for Christian Bale, with whom he had just played in Velvet Goldmine (Velvet Rock).
Unwillingly, the studio hired Bale and paid him 50,000 US dollars (compared to the 20 million promised to DiCaprio). We know the rest: the actor transformed himself and delivered a performance of incredible intensity, which became his trademark.
In VultureHarron remembers the “skinny young Englishman” she auditioned: “At the time, I asked him, ‘Christian, have you ever been to a gym?’” He said no. And I said, “Maybe you should go to a gym, because Patrick Bateman works out.” Two weeks later, Christian was totally transformed. I had no idea how obsessive Christian is, nor did I realize what I had triggered with my offhand comment. »
Transcend the page
Peremptorily accused of misogyny even before its release, based on the novel, the film has since been considered to be quite the opposite.
In an essay entitled A Psychopath and the Female Gazecritic Marie Haws goes so far as to argue: “ [Lire le roman] is like sticking your head in a copy of the magazine GQ and leave it to rot there […] The film transcends the page and becomes something eminently greater: a rare exception. In short, the film observes a sociopath through the female gaze and, in doing so, is not afraid to undermine the violence so dear to men, instead focusing on the pathology behind Bateman’s behavior. The film lays bare the male ego, and reveals what lies beneath. »
For her part, Luna Guthrie concludes: “No matter how beautiful his watch, how embossed his business card, how blindingly white his sheets and underwear, Bateman lacks meaningful relationships and contributes nothing to the world. world, apart from money. True psychosis is expecting to find fulfillment in a life like that. »
Unlike the action of the film, there is nothing “fantasy” in this observation.
The movie American Psycho is available on VOD on most platforms.
