Written and directed by Guillaume Nicloux
France, 2013
On September 16, 2011, the family and friends of French novelist Michel Houellebecq lost contact with him. Houellebecq went missing for several days, long enough for the French media to get a hold of the story (and speculate that al-Qaeda was involved, as Houellebecq has a history of making anti-Islamic statements). After his reappearance, Houellebecq never revealed what happened during the days that he was missing – and even with the making of the new film The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq, he still hasn’t revealed anything, because the single dominant trait about the movie is that it nothing within it should be taken seriously.
Houellebecq plays himself, and that, coupled with the documentary-style camerawork, might fool viewers into thinking that something semi-real is going on here. Nothing could be further from the truth. Houellebecq is a provocateur by trade – his Wikipedia entry includes phrases such as “nihilist classic” and “a deeply repugnant read” – and there are few acts more provoking than giving credit to a conspiracy theory. In truth, everyone not named Houellebecq is a fictional character played by an actor. The “kidnappers” pull off their crime with so little competence that if any of this were real, a half-dozen people would have been tried and convicted on a half-dozen crimes apiece.
Instead of reality, director Guillaume Nicloux seems to be making a near-parody of a documentary, turning Houellebecq’s “captivity” into an absurdist meditation on the meaning of life and various other existential topics. The dialogue is pregnant with meaning both obvious and mysterious, as when Houellebecq sees his kidnappers’ faces and knows their names, but doesn’t fears that they’ll kill him because “maybe I’ve lived long enough.” A surprisingly intense literary discussion breaks out, but not over the themes or quality of a Houellebecq book; it’s about whether or not a specific event happens in that book. The kidnappers allow Houellebecq such freedom that it almost seems as if the novelist is staying of his own volition, perhaps because he enjoys the company.
Beyond that, there are some strange issues with the kidnapping itself. Someone appears to be pulling the strings on the whole affair, calling the kidnappers and giving orders, but not even the kidnappers know who it is. They speculate that it might even be Houellebecq himself making a ploy for attention, further underlining his status as provocateur. There are negotiations with a lawyer about freeing the hostage, but Houellebecq has no connection with them and doesn’t even know if a ransom has been requested; he allows his family and representatives to worry about such things. The symbolism could not be more clear: fame itself had “kidnapped” Michel Houellebecq even if no human being did.
Thus, every scene in this film is fraught with meaning on some level or another, but that meaning is limited by the actors who have to deliver it. Director Guillaume Nicloux can’t avoid the fact that Michel Houellebecq is not a professional actor and shouldn’t try to be one. His affect-free mumble is humorous at first, especially as he uses it in deadpan discussions of life-or-death topics with his dangerous-looking kidnappers, but eventually it becomes dull and hypnotic. This is an easy film to fall asleep to, even if one finds the philosophical discussion interesting throughout.
The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq is a challenge, a movie that plays around in a toybox full of important social and philosophical issues. But the same might be said for the texts of Waiting for Godot or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and there’s a reason those works are better off being seen on a stage than read in a book. The world of cinema needs all of the challenging films that it can find, and then some, but this one should have been performed more professionally.
— Mark Young