Profils Paysans: l' approche

Using a fixed camera, Raymond Depardon filmed a number of French farmers in their stables and at their kitchen tables. He had known some of them for years, but the bashful peasants had always barred him from their houses. Now they have all ‘retired’, but are unable to say goodbye to the farming life, if only because there are fewer and fewer young countrymen willing to take over their farms. The proverbial simplicity of the farmer’s life is negated by Depardon, who uses sober images to register the troubles of the farmers and their wives – supporting these with facts in a voice-over. An 85-year-old farmer’s wife from Les Cévennes tries to do business with her distant neighbour in the Occidental dialect and an old farmer from Haute-Loire still personally negotiates the price of his cattle. An eye operation throws a spanner in the works, and this only the beginning of his physical decline. Depardon starts out as a stranger penetrating the farmers’ secluded lives, but by the end of the first episode of his documentary, he is part of their world, even being allowed to attend a funeral. The end credits read: To be continued...