Les naufrages de la D17

Moullet probably remains the least known director of the generation of critics of the Cahiers du cinéma who started making films themselves. He is also the funniest - certainly for those among us who can appreciate his absurdist adventures and visual jokes. As more often with Moullet, the backdrop is a mountainous region - in this case the rugged plateaux to the north of the Gorges du Verdon over which the D17 winds. Tourists avoid the road - and rightly, because it is rarely if ever maintained. During the first week of the Gulf War (even if the film does look as if it was shot in the summer) an arrogant racing champion has a break down. A little further on, a film crew shooting a western goes on strike after missing lunch. Soldiers think they are on the track of an Iraqi invasion. We also see walkers, astronomers and a goatherd who seems to exert an irresistible attraction on all women. Moullet plays light-footedly with different genres: for the fans (of Moullet, in case you wondered) there is even a bloody gore scene. We also recognise the nature documentary, of course the car-race film, the military paranoia thriller - and certainly also the socially committed fable because, as befits this age of European unity and globalisation, it becomes apparent that all the characters primarily need financial support from the French state.