“Le Horla”: Guy de Maupassant revisited

Damien has just moved in with his wife and their little girl in an apartment on the banks of the Cher when he starts to hear strange noises which seem to emanate from the walls and wake him up at night. Graphic designer, he teleworks for a Parisian agency, but exhausted by his insomnia, he struggles to meet his deadlines. On edge, he increasingly perceives his environment as hostile and convinces himself that a malevolent presence is lurking in the building.

Does Damien have hallucinations? Is he paranoid or really the victim of a supernatural entity? Director Marion Desseigne Ravel, who co-signed the screenplay with Olivier de Plas and Olivier Fox, skilfully casts doubt. Maupassant’s short story, from which this TV film is freely inspired, did the same, presenting itself as the confessions of a man harassed by an invisible being, a helpless witness to the wavering of his reason.

Inhabited decorations

Largely autobiographical, this gripping story, precursor of fantastic literature in France, is here transposed to our time. The physical and mental confinement of the character seems to painfully echo the recent experience of confinements.

The staging, neat, distills anguish by small touches. Damien’s concern is often due to a few things (an overturned vase, a stealthy shadow, the insistent gaze of a neighbour, etc.) and comes up against the disbelief of those close to him, first and foremost his companion, a scientist at the Cartesian mind.

Accentuated by a very elaborate soundtrack, the suffocating atmosphere is also born from the work on the sets, from the architectural strangeness of the round tower where Damien lives, but also from the walls of his apartment which literally tighten on him. Bastien Bouillon, awarded at the Césars 2023 for best male hope for La Nuit du 12, confirms his talent in the skin of this man caught in the spiral of madness. His hallucinated gaze, his distress, do not leave anyone indifferent.

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