Known for Adoration or even Inexorabledirector Fabrice du Welz has extensively documented the Dutroux affair in order to draw inspiration from it for his new fiction. “It is obvious that approaching such a case is impossible without a lot of exhaustive documentation work. I wanted to be as precise as possible. With my screenwriter, we worked in two stages. First on the point of view of the zealous gendarme , impulsive, idealistic, Paul Chartier It was a gateway to the affair Then, we read the 12,000 pages of the Dutroux file in order to develop the character of the policeman. East the small story which infiltrates the big story and the big story which makes the small story grow to simplify”he explained at the end of the film screened at the Ramdam during the day dedicated to Belgian cinema.
And Maldoror est presented as fiction, it is sometimes difficult for the public to interpret it as such as this story has had an impact on the experience of every spectator over thirty years old. “Where does your fiction end? That’s the question I ask myself, because there are many elements that are linked to reality. The documentation is certain”intervenes one of the festival-goers.
Fabrice du Welz: “Your question also came up during previous previews, because I believe that people see the film with the eyes of what they experienced during the affair. They seek to establish connections with the real facts. Some allowed me to create Paul Chartier If you take a step back, you see the fiction. In the same way, we chose not to contact the real parents of the victims in order to maintain freedom. that was not the subject, since the parents and the little girls are not shown at any time. That said, when we were at the presentation in Liège, I was told at the end of the debate that Gino and Carine Russo, Mélissa’s parents, were in the room. without telling anyone. I spoke with them for a long time and they understood the film. They told me that of all the fictions about this story, we were probably the closest to their reality. It still liberated me. of a weight”.
Opposing darkness to light
The director had the choice between two theses: that of the isolated pedophile or that of the network. He headed towards the second. “Why did we open the door to this pseudo-theory of conspiracy, of a network with political complicity? It revives something that we tried to close. It’s a kind of historical fantasy”asks another spectator. Fabrice du Welz’s response is clear. If he had followed the official thesis, “it would have been a disastrous feature film because there are so many shortcomings. To think that Dutroux is the alpha or the omega is delusional”. He is aware that justice has ruled, but there are de facto several people who interacted with each other. “There is Marc Dutroux, Michèle Martin (wife), Michel Lelièvre (co-author) or even Michel Nihoul (drug trafficker). Of course I go on the network side, because with my filmmaker’s eye and the elements of the thriller, it makes a better film”.
The director also wanted to contrast darkness with light by depicting (sometimes at length) the Italian community, the gendarme’s in-laws. A disturbing contrast for some given the subject. “During the preparation, I hung out a lot in Charleroi. I came across this Italian Catholic Mission in Marchienne-au-Pont. I was welcomed like a son by Angelo. I said to myself that we could shoot here and the members entered into the adventure and the marriage between Paul Chartier and his wife was conceived..
-A role that slowed down Belgian actors
The responsibility was such to take on the role of the child molester that several Belgian actors refused to play him or simply appear in this heavy project. Initially, it was Benoît Poelvoorde who was announced, but there was a backpedal for scheduling reasons. Sergi Lopez finally received the award from Marcel Dedieu. “As he is Catalan, he was quite far from the affair”. In the casting, we still find the locals, David Murgia (drug addict) and Sarah Grosjean (journalist).
The French faces are rather numerous, notably Mélanie Doutey (judge), Béatrice Dalle (mother of Paul Chartier), Jackie Berroyer (Jacky Dolman) and obviously the main actor, Anthony Bajon, spotted by the director in Prayer. “I had a slightly stupid preconception. I found it crazy that Fabrice offered me the role even though I was French, while knowing that the affair affected an entire nation. As I was born in 1994, I didn’t I didn’t know much about it, for example, about the police war, but the names resonated in my head. Several years passed between the filmmaker’s call and the moment of filming. . We went see Dutroux’s home before it is demolished in 2023”.
In theaters this Wednesday, the fiction aims to be a kind of calming, of catharsis and not a “crappy” film. This is why Fabrice du Welz reinvented the ending. “I think we still lost a lot as a nation. The Belgian people experienced it as a form of indignation. I wanted to restore integrity to my compatriots through the character of the policeman”.
