The Origin of the Film, Between Cinema and Philosophy

The origin of the film, between cinema and philosophy

The creation of Burning out started with the encounter of the philosopher Pascal Chabot and the director Jérôme le Maire. Chabot’s book Global burn-out had just been published by Presses Universitaires de France. Le Maire, through his film projects, carried on expressing his passion for humans in changing contexts. For a year, they shared ideas, enriching their discussion through exchanges with the authors studied in the book and visits to organizations to find the best way to penetrate into the world of work.

Their intention has never been to adapt the book: philosophy cannot be adapted, and the cinematographic work is not a means of translation. But the concepts were there: the acceleration of time; the power of the utilitarian mentality that conquered more and more areas, including medicine; the question of recognition; the need to foresee solutions to prevent burn-out. It was necessary to give life to these concepts through film images, to bring them at the level of affect. The first creative step for the director was to seize the core of the book. Through the filter of his sensibility and his imagination, he worked at bringing ideas to the visual world. The metaphor that best expresses this passage from book to film is biological. As for stem cells, it is a matter of making the initial cell totipotent, that is, capable of expressing everything, and allowing it to develop in its own way and in another direction.

Jérôme le Maire was present, in the early afternoon of May 2013, when Pascal Chabot gave a lecture on burn-out in front of the anaesthesia-reanimation department of the Saint-Louis hospital, at Marie-Christine Becq’s request. The room was full; it was hot. Dressed in white or green, nurses and doctors let the words resonate with their daily lives. Called by their pagers, they went out to see a patient, then returned, plunging back into the discussion. The atmosphere was loaded and intense. The experience of work, its grandeur and its difficulty, sought to express itself. It was not about concepts or philosophical ideas anymore, but it was about human beings, in the profound truth of their commitment. Witnessing this, Jerome le Mairedecided to anchor his film in the heart of the hospital.

Pascal Chabot and Jérôme le Maire

Pascal Chabot is a philosopher. He teaches at Ihecs (Brussels). He wrote several books published by PUF: After Progress (2008), The Seven Stages of Philosophy (2011), Global Burn-Out (2013), The Age of Transitions (2015) and ChatBot the Robot (2016). With the director François Lagarde, he co-wrote the film Simondon du désert (2012).

The book Global burn-out has been translated into Italian, Korean and English (ed. Bloomsbury).