La Vie après la mort

“I met Jean Lambert one year after my arrival in Bénouville, in 1992… Before we met, I used to see his house, his farm, and wondered who could be living in such a mess, amidst such neglect. I had prowled around a lot before approaching him, for months. The day I decided to go and see him on the pretext of buying milk, I cycled from Bénouville with my empty milk bottles. On the way, the police stopped me to ask where I was going. What a coincidence! Just when I already had the feeling that I was doing something shady: having prowled around and fantasised about this place and this man whom I didn’t even know… Jean Lambert gave me the milk, pointing out that there were other farms closer to where I lived. The most difficult step had been taken….I went back to have dinner with him once a week. I’d arrive around 7pm and leave around two or three in the morning, always on my bike, often drunk….Later, I suggested that we make a film. He found the idea amusing, even though he mistrusted cinema. ‘You’re wasting your time, poetry is the only good thing.’ He died in April, the year of the eclipse… I finished the film I’d begun with him, without him.” Pierre Creton (Cultiver, habiter, filmer, conversations de Pierre Creton avec Cyril Neyrat, éditions Independencia, 2010)