2023-11-07 07:44:39
Director Nasser Bakhti followed the Valais sociologist during the last four years of his life. His documentary “Crettaz, and how violent hope is” reveals in small touches the more fragile and little-known aspects of the thanatologist.
Son of a farmer, charismatic tribune and keen observer of society, Bernard Crettaz has become, over the years, an expert in end-of-life rites and customs. The sociologist and ethnologist’s uninhibited approach had broken the taboo around death, particularly during his years as a curator at the Geneva Museum of Ethnography.
“Today in the cradle, tomorrow in the grave”
Beyond the easily spoken scholar who died a year ago, there is a man steeped in doubts and heartbreak, which the film reveals. Director Nasser Bakhti follows the sociologist, over several years, at the time when Bernard Crettaz must this time prepare his own disappearance.
>> To see: subject of 7:30 p.m. devoted to the documentary film on Bernard Crettaz:
A documentary film looks back on the journey of Bernard Crettaz, sociologist and ethnologist expert in end-of-life rites and customs / 7:30 p.m. / 2 min. / Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
“The fact that filming lasted several years allowed Bernard Crettaz to open up and confide gradually. Thanks to this, we were able to sketch some traits of Bernard that people didn’t know. I I also saw that he had very painful things inside him,” director Nasser Bakhti told RTS.
An obstacle course
The road has been long and arduous for Bernard Crettaz. Born into a peasant family in Val d’Anniviers (VS), his parents intended him for the priesthood. First heartbreak when he leaves the seminary. And second when he chooses to emancipate himself by leaving for the city to study. He will also play an active role in the revolts of May 1968.
In the autumn of his life, Bernard Crettaz evokes his faith, his doubts, but also the mountains and Switzerland, a country he loves but which he does not always understand. Without forgetting the first “mortal cafés” that he created and where we meet to talk about anxieties, suffering, and also anger in the face of the Grim Reaper.
As the filming progresses, forgotten aspects come to light, Bernard Crettaz is stirred, reveals Nasser Bakhti: “I think he discovered things without saying them in front of the camera which perhaps helped him, I hope , to take stock, as he says, in a calm manner.”
In any case, the death specialist succeeded in his exit. He died as he had wished, in a quick and painless death at the age of 84. The age he predicted several times in the film.
TV topic: Mathieu Lombard
Web adaptation: Sarah Clément
“Crettaz, and how violent hope is”, a documentary by Nasser Bakhti. Screenings take place until November 14 in different theaters in French-speaking Switzerland.
1699343677
#Bernard #Crettaz #famous #Monsieur #Mort #spotlight #posthumous #documentary #rts.ch