Claudio Pazienza
Belgium, France | 2002 | 53 min
Language : French
Taking our money troubles as his starting point, the author conducts an enquiry based on a cascade of visual puns. If the lamb is worth the money, then the latter is a sacrifice. Where does one put the money? In Claudio’s mother’s handbag. The little coin does not stay there, sacrificial lamb in a family of working men where the fatted calf is not killed every day. This fact seems to escape Professor de Boissieu, an economist, seen being questioned by the director on a split screen, to make very clear that one belongs to one camp or the other: those who can amass wealth and those who have only their bodies to sell. For the latter, Professor Auriti, a provincial utopian, has invented a popular local currency and prints bank notes which are valid only in one town in Italy… spending money, getting into debt, producing children. This film is not reasonable. At the end, the philosopher Jean-Paul Curnier puts his finger on a key point: without debt, there are no social ties. In these days of austerity by diktat, that’s good to hear.
Laurent Roth
Translation BMP Translations
