In the sequel to Profils paysans: L’approche, viewers renew their acquaintance several years later with the inhabitants of the countryside from part one. It is also a confrontation the inhabitants have with themselves, with the time that drives them inevitably in a certain direction. Young people move to urban areas, the countryside population gets older and succession within traditional farming operations turns out to be a major problem. Depardon does not judge, he only observes and shows what is going on in the countryside without a raised finger. Life far from the oppressive yet protecting arms of the big city is too rudimentary for that. One of the farmers remarks that it’s not possible to keep up the hard fight every season without the necessary passion. It is clear that most of those portrayed would never fit into urban surroundings with all the complicated etiquette that determines the pecking order there. Before he started filming his Profils paysans trilogy, Depardon spent a long time searching the French countryside for suitable characters. They are not the smooth interview candidates with which most TV viewers are familiar. They are real, with all the rough edges that involves. In a world where people are becoming increasingly similar and authenticity is served up parboiled in the media, that is a pleasant discovery.
