underground cinema

Les Gaspards

28 september 20:30 - 23:00

Les Gaspards 1974
Directed by Pierre Tchernia
94 minutes
In French with English subtitles

This obscure French film is a time-capsule that absolutely nails a certain defiant spirit that was super strong in France, but also here in Amsterdam back in the 1970s and 80s... a visionary rebelliousness that seems totally missing today. Perhaps the biggest crime we face today is the cutting off of history by technology and modernism—the so-called end of history, which deletes the past. Of course we shouldn't sit around dreaming of the past—but we can't get stuck in the dead-end ghetto of the present moment either! The fact is that history is breathing all around us, and we act as if we are in an isolation chamber. We should be using history as ammunition and inspiration.

To understand this film it's important to know a bit about the time it takes place–Paris 1975. The ancient capital of France was being destroyed by a modernisation scheme of city planners and big business. They were smashing the soul of the city, demolishing historical locations and ripping apart neighbourhoods where families had lived together for centuries and had created their own culture. The city was assailed by wrecking balls, bulldozers, construction cranes, and ear-shattering hydraulic drills everywhere. In other words, history and culture were being eliminated for the sake of a consumerist-tourist utopia. And since the film was shot while this change was happening, in a way it's also a documentary.

This absurdist comedy-fantasy movie focuses on Jean-Paul Rondin, a bookseller near the Pantheon, who is pissed off because next to his shop is a huge renovation project. One evening his daughter disappears... but not only her - entire packs of tourists are also mysteriously missing. Bicycles are vanishing along with precious objects from the museums and the best vintage wine from the cellars of a local business. Before you know it, a tourist bus has been spray-painted with a demand to the government—the tourists are being held hostage and will not be released until the urban planners stop the noise and destruction! Soon we discover that in the catacombs underneath Paris there is a community of rebels who are responsible. They have rejected the so-called progress above ground, and for them the underground is the last peaceful haven from all the chaotic madness... they have created a subterranean world where they can relish in literature, philosophy and activities free from commercialisation and finance.

Besides having a righteous message about kicking back against rampant gentrification, this surreal film also has a pretty incredible cast, including Philippe Noiret as rabble-rousing Gaspard de Montfermeil, leader of the “Gaspards” living underground, and chanson-singer Chantal Goya. But one could easily argue that the real star of the film is actually the catacombs themselves, and they are spellbinding. It's incredible that they were able to get permission to shoot a movie in them. I believe this is the only example of the catacombs being documented in all of cinema history.

The screenplay was snapped together by director Pierre Tchernia and comic book writer René Goscinny. A comedy with a fierce critique of power and of course, the story of this movie parallels the history of the Pinto in saving the neighbourhood from destructive gentrification.