LA GRANDE BOUFFE

In 1973 Marco Ferreri set a milestone in film history with La Grande Bouffe. In this French film we witness a prolonged feast of food and sex indulged in by four highly educated, socially successful friends. They have decided all they will do is eat good food. Together, and without stopping. Until they drop and death comes. They want to stop at the height of their pleasure, a peak of orgasmic ecstasy. With no further explanation. Without discussion. With no philosophical basis.

In 1973, the sky was still the limit. Europe had recovered from the Second World War, reconstruction was more or less complete. However, this brought with it a return to pre-war society. In the sixties, young people successfully rebelled against this. Work was started on a new and more just society and ‘the age of Aquarius’ was imminent. In that period of hope, Ferreri’s film fell like a bomb, because it presented a disillusioned prediction of the future that was soon borne out. It was the herald of a new generation that brought an end to every form of idealism and opted unreservedly for an unbridled neo-liberal capitalism. After the golden years of always more and always better, in 2008 the society based on this capitalist formula for success came to a creaking and wheezing standstill.

The elated high spirits with which the four men deliberately set out on the road to certain death bring us face to face with the question of what significance La Grande Bouffe might have at the present time. Is it the only way out in a world without a future? Or is it a mirror – not of humour but of horror – in which we, to quote Hamlet, can see what our nature is. In any case, the film and the play are about ‘being there or no longer being there’. And this is one choice we will certainly have to make.

TEKST NAAR LA GRANDE BOUFFE VAN RAFAEL AZCONA, FRANCIS BLANCHE, MARCO FERRERI REGIE JOHAN SIMONS BEWERKING TOM BLOKDIJK SPEL ELSIE DE BRAUW, JACOB DERWIG, AUS GREIDANUS JR., CHRIS NIETVELT, WIM OPBROUCK, STEVEN VAN WATERMEULEN DRAMATURGIE PAUL SLANGEN BEELDCONCEPT ANNA TILROE DECORONTWERP LUC GOEDERTIER, MARC SWAENEN LICHTONTWERP MARK VAN DENESSE VIDEO ONTWERP KARL KLOMP KOSTUUMONTWERP AN DE MOL OPNAMELEIDING MARC SWAENEN

PRODUCTION NTGent

CO-PRODUCTION Toneelgroep Amsterdam (NL)