‘Voilà exactement ce qui me passionne, ce que je veux: savoir d’où vient la spiritualité de l’homme, la reconstruire, en revivre les étapes car je soupçonne le pouvoir que peut donner cette connaissanse – et je suis à la recherche de pouvoirs’.1
This post is the continuation of: François Augiéras (I).
Montignac
Montignac is a small town on the Vézère (formerly know as Montignac-sur-Vézère), but since 2020 officially know as Montignac-Lascaux (after the famous pre-historic caves of Lascaux which became synonymous with the town). The town library was named Bibliothèque François Augiéras in 2008. Augiéras, not only stayed in Montignac, he actually stayed in hospice of the former convent des Clarisses (Poor Clares), that was converted into the library in 1985. As part of the remembrance year a small exposition featured original manuscripts, book editions, archival materials and the contents of his travel bag.
Also in Montignac, a ciné-débat was organized around the avant-première of the documentary film Sous le ciel d'Augiéras2 and a screening of François Augiéras, un essai d’occupation3. The forum included the documentary film’s director Nathalie Vannereau, Paul Placet (biographer and friend of Augiéras), Philippe Lacadée (author of the book: François Augiéras : l'homme solitaire et la voie du réel) and Jean-Bernard Pasquet (representing the Office de la Culture de Domme).
During the discussion Mr. Pasquet was asked about the conspicuous absence of the Dordogne Department from the organization of the commemorative year. Was the department afraid or unwilling to be associated with Augiéras, and if so, did it have to do with his alleged homosexuality or love of boys? Mr. Pasquet, maybe surprisingly, did not think it had much to do with that. It seemed, according to him, to have had more to do with the marshal Pétain association. In his work Augiéras has written fondly about the (early) cultural politics of his collaborator regime.
Augiéras was, in the early years of the war, one of the ‘40 million Pétainistes’ in France4, that was not his crime. In 1938 he saw an anti-german propaganda film that awakened an interest in the german Neo-paganist thinking. The film showed youngsters in the forest, lighting bonfires, singing at the occasion of the summer solstice. The film scandalized these practices, towards the end showing a priest being manhandled, and the crucifix he holds-up in his defense scattering on the floor…
The display exited the young Augiéras and ignited a deeper interest Germanist culture and cosmic forces. He initially ignored the crimes committed by the Nazi Germany, but distanced himself as soon as they became visible. ‘I was no fool; very quickly I understood that nazisme was discrediting the german philosophy, Nietsche, Schopenhauer, that I loved’5. Augiéras joint Pétain’s youth movements and wrote about the gatherings;
‘At nightfall there were songs and dances. A thousand bagpipes accompanied our games under the stars in the light of a hundred fires. … Later, holding hands, young men and young women, formed a large circle almost as vast as the sky. … In the soft night, in front of the Milky Way, the stars and the constellations, we circled for a long time like a nebula … The scouts of France had refused to participate in this circle, in this return to primordial unity. “This is paganism”; they said in a low voice. Paganism! It was singing in my ears. Europe, finally rid of Jesus, did it find its soul on the foothills of the vast mountains of Auvergne, in the time of the Marshal?
Without ever adhering to the Pétain regime… archaic, partisan, idyllic, magical at first, it became odious and ended shamefully … It's a disappointment for me, a pain. … I attended all the Youth Movements; Pétain was ‘the father of all young people’; as I did not have a father this made me have one, symbolically; I respected that man, who was now mistaken himself.
The neo-paganism too, was over: the time of forests and stars... All that remains of this curious time of the Marshal is an obstinate tendency to vagrancy, which worries me, not because I disapprove of it, but because it is currently unemployed’.6
It made me think about scenes in the OSS 117 spy spoof: ‘Rio ne répond plus…’7 Set in the 1960’s, french secret agent 117 (cent-dix-sept, played by Jean Dujardin) goes to Brazil to chase after a microfilm containing all the names of former french nazi collaborators. “It must be very short, that list” remarks 117, “Did General de Gaulle not say that all of France was resisting?”. His boss replies; “He said it. He said it…” And at the end of the movie, mission accomplished, there is another small scene in the office. 117 Asks; “One little thing bothers me”, “- Yes”, “It's next to nothing but… It seemed to me your name is on the list of collaborators”, “- Yes, I was told that. My my my! What period! What period! What period! All of that is the past. France must forget to move forward”. 117 concludes; “Probably yes. I am reassured”.
Not buying-in to De Gaulle’s myth of the resistance remains dangerous... In Algeria however, after inheriting the Buffalo Bordje from his uncle, Augiéras joins the ‘resistance’ (against french withdrawal, and implicitly De Gaulle). February 1963 he is even called-up as a witness in ‘l’affairre du Petit Clamart’, the assassination attempt on De Gaulle (famous subject of the film: The Day of the Jackal). So, there maybe some potential complications to avoid ...
Artist José Carrera was one of the persons interviewed for the documentary film. He met Augiéras in the revalidation home of Fougieras. He tells of his excitement to meet ‘a real artist and writer’, and how it was Augiéras who thought him to sketch and paint (base of his lifelong career). He repeatedly had asked to read Augiéras’ books, after a long time he finally got a copy, with to his frustration all ‘bad’ language blacked-out. Words, sentences, entire paragraphs that Augiéras had judged unsuitable for him as a youngster.
Mr. Pasquet told of the apprehensions of the Domme town council, not only to participate in the anniversary, but name a street in Augiéras’ honor. To avoid surprises he traced all dubious characters and events in his book8. It took quite an effort to find the boy that had been the inspiration for Khrisna. Unaware of the book, the man read the copy send to him, and did remember the weird person he had had conversations with as a child. Khrisna was very likely based on him, but no, no worries, most of the story was fiction.
His friend and biographer, Paul Placet, well placed to judge, has always said that Augiéras was not homosexual. According to the painter Jean-Joseph Sanfourche, close to Augiéras: ‘He was a lover of beauty, of youth, of childhood which carries within it all the hopes, all the questions. I don't believe in this homosexuality at all. He was probably the man of all loves.’9 So in a way a deception, was the ‘l’enfant terrible of the Périgord’, maybe not so terrible?
‘ .. from mask to mask, with the ulterior motive of exhausting all my doubles until I meet one day alone, face to face, unmasked, before my eternal soul...’10
This story continues here: François Augiéras (III).
‘This is exactly what excites me, what I want: to know where the spirituality of man comes from, to reconstruct it, to relive its stages because I suspect the power that this knowledge can give - and I am in search of powers’.
Placet P., 2006. François Augiéras, un barbare en Occident. La Différence, Collection MINOS. ISBN: 2-7291-1593-5.
Vannereau H., 2021. Sous le ciel d'Augiéras. (documentary film) Rhizome.
Sinde S., 1998. François Augiéras, un essai d’occupation. (documentary film) GREC - Groupe de Recherche et d'Essais Cinématographiques.
Amouroux H., 1977. Quarante millions de Pétainistes, Juin 1940 – Juin 1941. La grande histoire des Français sous l’occupation, II. ISBN 2-7242-2312-8
Augiéras F., 2018 (1968). Une adolescence au temps du Maréchal, et de multiples aventures. Bartillat, Omnia Poche. ISBN 978-284100-643-4
‘A la tombée de la nuit il y eut des chants, des danses. Mille pipeaux accompagnèrent nos jeux sous les étoiles dans la leur de cent feux. … Plus tard, nous tenant par la main, jeunes gens et jeunes filles, nous formâment un grand cercle presque aussi vaste que le ciel. … Dans la nuit douce, devant la Voie Lactée, les astres et les constellations, nous tournâmes longtemps comme une nébuleuse … Les scouts de France avaient refusé de participer àcette ronde, à ce retour à l’unité primordiale. C’est du paganisme, disaient-ils, à mi-voix. Du paganisme! Cela chantait à mes oreilles. L’Europe, enfin débarrassée de Jésus, retrouvait-elle son âme sur les premiers contreforts des vastes monts d’Auvergne, au temps du Maréchal?
Sans adhérer jamais au régime de Pétain … Archaïque, partnaliste, idyllique, magique au début, il devient odieux, finisse honteusement … C’est une déception pour moi, une souffrance. … J’ai fréquenté tous les Mouvements de Jeunesse; Pétain était ‘père de tous les jeunes’; comme je n’ai pas eu de père cela m’en faisait un, symbolique; je le respectais cet homme-là, qui maintenant se trompe.
Le néo-paganisme aussi, c’est terminé: le temps des forêt et des astres… Il ne me reste de cette curieuse époque du Maréchal qu’une obstinée tendance au vagabondage, qui m’inquiète, non parce que je la réprouve, mais parce qu’elle est actuellement sans emploi.’
Augiéras F., 2018 (1968). Une adolescence au temps du Maréchal, et de multiples aventures. Bartillat, Omnia Poche. ISBN 978-284100-643-4
Hazanavicius M., 2009. OSS117. Rio ne répond plus. (film) Gaumont.
The scene where 117 visits the favelas of Rio de Janeiro with Israeli Mossad agent Dolorès Koulechov is a real gem;
“-This city is absolutely beautiful…
- Life is not easy for the people here. This is the essence of dictatorships.
- A dictatorship, there you go. You are sympathetic Dolores, but not fine in politics. Do you know what a dictatorship is? A dictatorship is when people are communists. For starter. They are cold in gray hats and shoes with zippers. That is a dictatorship Dolores.
- Agreed, and what is the name of a country that has a military president with great powers, a secret police, a single television station, and all information is controlled by the state?
- I call it ‘France’, miss. And not just any, the France of General de Gaulle”.
Augiéras F., 2006 (1990). Domme ou l’Essai d’Occupation. Grasset, Les Cahiers Rouges. ISBN 978-2-246-55082-2
Cluny C-M et Placet P., 2001. Augiéras le peintre. La Différence, Collection Les irréguliers. ISBN 978-2-7291-1342-1.
‘… de masque en masque, avec l’arrière-pensée d’épuiser tous mes doubles jusqu’à me rencontrer un jour seul, face à face, démasqué, devant mon âme éternelle ...’
Augiéras F., 2018 (1968). Une adolescence au temps du Maréchal, et de multiples aventures. Bartillat, Omnia Poche. ISBN 978-284100-643-4