In 2011, France’s most
controversial literary export since the Marquis de Sade went missing during a
promotional tour of his latest book, The
Map and the Territory. What ensued was a media frenzy that speculated
widely on Houellebecq’s whereabouts; a baton that writer and director Guillaume
Nicloux diligently picks up in his latest film.
For Nicloux’s money,
Houellebecq’s disappearance three years ago was not on account of a liaison
with al-Qaida, but instead the result of a brief, though enforced, stay at the
country home of Luc and his sensitive skinhead brothers. The film begins with
the diurnal experiences of the writer as he makes plans to redecorate his
kitchen and traverses the streets of Paris - cigarettes and well-documented
intolerance close at hand. In these moments of self-parody, Houellebecq comes
across as remarkably engaging, with the writer proving that he is very aware, and
more than willing to make light of, the unflattering picture that many people
have of him.
Houellebecq is presented as calm
if not a little complacent in his lifestyle, a picture which does not change
when Luc and his brothers arrive with a perforated metal box to take him away.
Rather than concerning itself with heightened emotion or melodrama, Nicloux’s
film takes a decidedly down-played look at abduction, with the writer, chain-smoking
and chained to a bed, remaining his idiosyncratic self throughout. Each member
of the family with which Houellebecq is lodging comes to admire him for his
deadpan manner and literary prowess. Some seek the author’s advice where others
look to flaunt their abilities in wrestling, bodybuilding or vehicular
maintenance. All the while, the atmosphere remains exceptionally cordial as
wine continues to flow and the writer, after turning down the option to browse
a selection of pornographic magazines, is granted a prostitute instead. In this
exceptional kidnapping, each of the abducted’s whims are pandered to and, in
fact, the writer’s only moment of frustration comes at Luc’s repeated refusal
to return his cigarette lighter to him.
