Par Frédéric Patard Published on May 3, 2025 at 6:56 am
It is marked in full in the cinema program of the week of The Channel Press. At the Odéon de Cherbourg, between Ice Age 2 et Mission impossible 3is also scheduled Paul in his life 1.
A chosen life
Paul in his lifethis is the documentary that Rémi Mauger and Guy Milledrogues, journalists at France 3 Normandie/Caen made on Paul Bedel, Auderville peasant, Always living with her two sisters, Françoise and Marie-Jeanne, in their house in the hamlet of La Roche.
The Bedel siblings lives and works as in the 1950s. A quietly assumed choice, where we take the time to watch and listen, to feel and respect things and people. And on the other side of the camera, the two journalists also take the time to listen to Paul and respect him.
Paul in his life was first broadcast on France 3 Normandy, then started the festival tour dedicated to documentaries, where he made a tobacco. HAS Biarritzat the International Audiovisual Program Festival, Paul in his life even won a Silver. We see the documentary projected in other pieces of the world than the Hague: in New Zealandau Mexico or in Namibia !
Tom Cruise, François Fillon, Michel Barnier
It could have stopped there. Except that the authors of Paul in his life believe that their documentary can take the plunge, And go from the small to the big screen. And that is why on May 3, 2006, at the Odéon de Cherbourg, Paul Bedel finds himself stuck Between the critters of Ice Age And Tom Cruise …
But the latter only has to get hold. Because after a week, Paul in his life the Réuni A thousand spectators just for Cherbourg. And the documentary is also projected in a dozen other rooms throughout Normandyas well as Cinema at Place Saint-Michel in Paris, In the middle of the Latin district!
In total, when Paul in his life is withdrawn from the programming, he exceeded the 90,000 admissions in France (12,000 only in Cherbourg, Tom Cruise was disgusted…): for a documentary passing through the cinema, it is An exceptional score!
Libération Make the honors of his last page, devoted to portraits, to the peasant of the Hague, while The Garden-Party of the 2007 Élysée, We wonder: but who are the two gentlemen in a costume-tie who chat with Paul Bedel? Damn, but it is of course François Fillon, Prime Minister, and Michel Barnier, then Minister of Agriculture …
Standing ovations
The rest? Tom Cruise has a free field again, there will be no Paul in his life 2. Paul Bedel does the job by participating in the projection evenings of his film, whether Valognes or at Condé-sur-Noireau. Each time, when you announce its presence, the room is full, the projection ends with a standing ovation and the questions are linked to agriculture, the Hague, Progress, Life … The responses fuse with common sense and without language of wood:
“We cannot go against evolution, in all areas, but we must be careful with nature, there are things that have gone too far”.
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Paul then returns to his house in La Roche, continues to receive a letter from Ministerand size the bout of fat without reluctant with the curious stops at his barrier. Not changed for a penny by “celebrity”. Paul Bedel died in 2018.
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Testimony: Rémi Mauger
“Someone who embodied something”
Author of Paul in his life with his Cameraman Guy Milledrogues, Rémi Mauger remembers a set of grace.
“I have been talking about Paul for some time now. But it was when I was told that he was going soon stop operating your farm that I decided. I felt that a page was going to turn and that there was A story to tell. With Guy Milledrogues, my cameraman, as soon as we passed the door of La Roche Maison, a climate of trust has established Between Paul and us. Maybe because Guy and I were also from a rural environment, Guy du Val de Saire, and me de la Hague, I don’t know.
But Paul immediately understood what we wanted to do, He was aware that a world was leavingand he wanted to testify. And I, looking at his head, shaking her hand, or rather the pogne, I knew that we were holding someone, who embodied something.
On a me 35 filming daysspread over 14 months. We followed the seasons And so, the work of the fields: the sowing, the harvests … When his herd left, of course, we were there. Several times, after a shooting sequence, Guy said to me: “That’s millet” Because he had just captured scenes and timeless gestures.
The passage from TV to the cinema was wanted. TV is good, But people quickly forget the things they have seen. In the cinema on the other hand, it remains. And I’m glad Paul stays in the memory of spectators. When he saw the film – and his two sisters with – He was very happy and proud. He was also a little cabotin, but without going so far as to pretend. When he was going to present the film in a room, he very simply thanked the people for being present, still surprised that we are interested in him. He said:
“I thought my life was used to make us live, and now I see that she is talking to the world.”
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