Jeu de massacre (1967)
Directed by Alain Jessua

Film Review

One of the most significant developments over the past few decades is the extent to which our connection with the physical world has been eroded by increasing exposure to a virtual substitute.  We spend less and less of our time interacting with others and the world around us, and more time sitting in front of a computer or television screen, our attention monopolised by whatever distractions cyberspace or computer game designers can serve up for us.  Extrapolating forwards, it seems likely that there will be a time, not too far distant, when we will no longer be able to distinguish reality from a simulated alternative.  Indeed, the technology presently exists to allow individuals to lead entirely virtual lives, within a universe designed to their own specification.  What is now a real possibility was scarcely conceivable when Alain Jessua directed Jeu de massacre, a film that scarily anticipates the emergence of 'hyperreality' as a social phenomenon with incredibly far reaching consequences.

Prior to this, Jessua had garnered international acclaim with his provocative debut feature, La Vie à l'envers (1964), which shows a seemingly well-adjusted man withdrawing into himself and finding a greater sense of personal well-being as a result, whilst being judged insane by the world around him.  In Jeu de massacre, Jessua goes one step further in showing how flexible our perception of reality can be, and how easily it can be distorted by cultural influences, in this case the adventures of a comicbook hero.  Reality, as we perceive it, is not something solid and immutable like a block of concrete.  It is more like Plasticine, shaped and moulded for us by those within whom we place our trust.  Whenever we listen to a politician speak, watch a film or read a book, our view of reality is altered.  Hyperreality is an extreme case, when fantasy takes over and becomes indistinguishable from fact.

Jeu de massacre revolves around two dissimilar individuals who develop an unlikely symbiotic relationship - a burnt-out writer of lurid comicbooks (a weirdly unlikeable Jean-Pierre Cassel) and a playboy with a wildly overactive imagination (a likeably weird Michel Duchaussoy).  Together, they create a successful comic-strip character, Michel Dé, who starts out as a womanising bankrobber and ends up as a woman-hating psychotic killer.  Along the way, the playboy totally loses his grip on reality and starts to play out his alter ego's comicbook adventures for real.  Reality and fantasy become merged not only for the playboy, but also for the writer and his wife (sixties babe Claudine Auger), who are soon caught up in his insane exploits.  The crazy melange of real-life incident and comicbook fantasy is punctuated by some abrupt narrative breaks in which pop art graphics are flung onto the screen, accompanied by some suitably 'pop arty' music by avant-garde composer Jacques Loussier.

The result is a film that manages to be both hilariously zany and subtly disturbing, and the more you reflect on it afterwards the more disturbing it becomes.  The playboy featured in the film (Duchaussoy plays him as a cross between Austin Powers and Norman Bates - you love him and fear him in equal measure) represents an extreme case of someone who is particularly susceptible to hyperreality, owing to the fact that he is already cocooned from real life by his wealth and an over-protective mother (who is almost as bonkers as he is).  Even so, we can hardly avoid seeing something of ourselves in this spoiled fantasist - we share his need to escape from the mundanity of existence, to live a more interesting and exciting life.  Who wouldn't live out a comicbook fantasy, if given a chance?

When Jessua made this film, television, books and cinema were the primary means by which most people found escape.  Today, he have far more involving diversions - 3D films, computer games and other forms of hi-tech amusement offering sensory experiences just as gratifying as those to be found in the physical world.  Like the playboy in Jessua's film, we are all gradually surrendering our grip on reality as we succumb increasingly to the more satisfying synthetic alternative that is offered us.  How long will it be before every one of us loses contact with the real world and becomes the lead player in an individually customised virtual universe?  Who knows, it may already have happened...

Film Synopsis

The author of a series of comic books, Pierre Meyrand is suffering from a severe case of writer's block.  When he receives an invitation to the house of Bob Neuman, a great admirer of his work, in Switzerland he cautiously accepts, accompanied by his wife Jacqueline, who illustrates his books.  It turns out that Bob is a chronic mythomaniac who likes nothing better than to spin fantastic tales.  Bob's stories involve characters that bear more than a passing resemblance to those in Pierre's books and give the author ideas for his next work.  Things take a bizarre turn when Bob starts to follow Pierre's new book to the letter, and so a dangerous killer is unleashed on the town of Neuchatel...