Editorial by Charles Pépin
“I want to tell you the story of anger. It is an anger that comes from afar, that comes from childhood and even more, from the childhood of parents, grandparents, an anger that comes from the river, when one is born in the wrong bank, in the wrong part of life, is a rage that comes from the world itself when it insists on its indifference, a rage that makes you want to shout, to take anyone and make him pay.
Anger is sometimes healthy, it shows that a standard has been exceeded, which shouldn’t have been, it shows that there is something that is not negotiable, but it is still attached, it gnaws, it is a love. when one dwells in it, it changes its name and becomes wrath. I want to tell you the story of anger, or rather, the story of a man. This is a man who, precisely, does not live in it.
A person who saves energy, desire, crying, lack, envy from anger, but does not live in the gray of this anger that has become anger.[…] He doesn’t have to be perfect either, more so, to be worthy of love. It is as if his loving eyes, staring at you, have the power to suddenly justify your foolish existence, to turn you away from indifference and futility. Samuel Benchetrit, director, playwright, actor, lyricist, writer, Samuel Benchetrit is the guest of Plato’s Under the Sun.”
28 min
What can love do against anger?
For Samuel Benchetrit, the power of love is powerful: “I have the impression that what love can do, in any case against anger, is comfort, anger imprisons love, it gives.”
When he was young, he was always angry. Charles Pépin asked him against what?
Samuel benchetrit: “Against many things. I don’t know. I find it easy. I wake up angry in the morning. And then I know, in contact with love, that I will not be kept. , that I will not hide the love, in any case, that throws us out of romantic situations, if we continue to be angry like that in the morning.
You always win by putting your anger aside. This is what Samuel Benchetrit said:
“Again, in other words, love heals. We always win in love, we still lose in war no matter what. Even if you go to court for example, we have already started this trial, we will lose even if we win , we lose In the mind of confrontation there is always a loss In love we always win.
Samuel Benchetrit also evokes the strength of love and tenderness in his works of art, be it films, songs or books.
“Dog” and “Come Back”, his last two books
Charles Pépin mentions his favorite book by Samuel Benchetrit, dogs. A man loses his job and gradually becomes a dog, according to Metamorphosis in Kafla and Truisms by Marie Darrieussecq. Dogs love unconditionally, never experiencing anger. The author explains it:
“This behavior of the dog, somewhere, for me, is a smart one. He is everything I have never had, sometimes in times of humiliation, separation, great sadness. Or let’s start by catching the first trains in anger which are the obvious ones, which are there. It’s easy, it’s very easy.”
His latest book, You come back, tells the story of a boy who moved, who left his father’s house. For Charles Pepin: “In this text, I see that we feel this kind of love, the rebound or in fact, there is no truth. There is something played there in this interpretation.” Samuel Benchetrit added: “It is quite crazy but almost no movement adventure, which is to say that the man, a lot of things happen to him, but between his apartment, his publisher, a retirement home, it’s also a book about the in-between.”
To enjoy this fascinating exchange between Samuel Benchetrit and Charles Pépin on fatherhood, the beauty of nature, the strength of art or even religious faith, listen to the episode in its entirety…
the room “Mom” by Samuel Benchetrit will be on tour from September and will soon be available for recording. His last two books, dogs (2015), and You come back (2018), both published in Grasset.
Recommendations from Charles Pépin
- In front of the beauty of natureAlexandre Lacroix, 2018, Allary editions
- The birth of a fatherAlexandre Lacroix, 2020, Allary editions
- Force majeureby Clément Rosset, 1983, Minuit editions
1h 26