Le Nez dans le ruisseau (2012)
Directed by Christophe Chevalier

Film Review

Best known for creating the popular French television series Louis Page, the writer Christophe Chevalier made his directing debut in 2008 with a musical documentary, Génération Electro.  This he followed up with a sparse but beguiling little film that was made to coincide with the tricentenary of the birth of Switzerland's most famous son, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.  Le Nez dans le ruisseau may be a modest work (so modest that it almost went unnoticed when it was released in 2012) but it has depth and charm and reminds us that Rousseau's ideas are as relevant today as ever they were.  Anyone familiar with Victor Hugo's novel Les Misèrables (or at least the stage musical that it inspired) will realise that the film's curious title derives from Gavroche's famous song: Je suis tombé par terre, C'est la faute à Voltaire, Le nez dans le ruisseau, C'est la faute à... [Rousseau].  

The three main characters in the film all have something of Rousseau's free-spirited temperament about them - a learned philosophy professor whose closest companion is a cat he calls Diderot (pause for comic effect), a nature-loving little boy who appears to be wise beyond his years and an individualistic TV reporter who has suddenly realised how vacuous and unfulfilled her life is.  Of these three, only one will emerge as a true disciple of Rousseau, the one who is least corrupted by civilisation and therefore has the greatest chance of living a full and happy life, guided not by reason, but by his natural instincts.  Rousseau was no great fan of civilisation and regarded it as something inherently bad, a belief that informed much of his thinking and allowed him to live a thoroughly egocentric but generally fulfilled life on the margins of society.  Chevalier's film poses an interesting question: is it possible today to follow this example or have we become so wedded to consumerism and other social norms that no one can ever live as freely and honestly as Rousseau did? 

Le nez dans le ruisseau may deal with profound themes revolving around Rousseauian notions of fulfilment and identity but it has the apparent simplicity of a child's fable, and therein lies much of its appeal.   Sami Frey and Liam Kim make an enchanting pair as the dusty old philosopher professor and the wild child who appears to be the living embodiment of Rousseau's theories.  The master-pupil relationship which is beautifully rendered by the film is subtly inverted when the supposed expert on Rousseau realises how much he can learn from the untainted younger mind, most notably a deeper awareness of the importance for human beings to remain in contact with the natural world.  The film may be imperfect in many respects (some of the acting is sub-soap opera standard and the score is hideously grand and intrusive) but it resonates with truth and meaning.  There could hardly be a more fitting cinematic tribute to one of the finest intellects of the 18th century, a man whose impact on western democracy and modern thought is incalculable.

Film Synopsis

Tasked with making a documentary to commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Marie, a television journalist, visits the Swiss town of Confignon which he once visited.  Here, she encounters a solitary ten-year-old boy named Tom who shows an uncanny understanding of Rousseau's ideas.  Intrigued, Marie contacts Professor Stohler, a world authority on Rousseau's life and work, and persuades him to interview Tom on camera.  At first reluctant to get involved, Stohler has a change of heart and is surprised to discover a kindred sprit in the precocious little boy...