MEN IN THEIR TIME
ALCOHOLISM I. A CONTEMPORARY ILLNESS
I don't know whether our era is unique.
I question sweeping generalisations about present-day society.
Still, that day in Montlhéry,
Asterix the Gaul would have been surprised.
MOTOR RACING TRACK
On that cement merry-go-round,
some two-wheeled high-speed racers
had invited us
to a strange ritual.
3, 2, 1, go!
Wearing helmets, boots and leather suits,
they worship speed.
They don't mind the noise.
My neighbour can't curse these young motorcyclists.
They don't circle the housing estate. They don't speed past his windows.
These speed-aholics have a dedicated space
to share their love of motorised vehicles.
I watched them go round. They looked happy.
I realised much later that this footage would help me introduce my topic.
Watching them speed by, we see
that technique is a dangerous slave whose revolt proportionally
matches its feats.
The more technique advances,
the more tension, precision and balance it requires
of its masters.
These young people are future champions or so I hope.
We call it Operation Young Tigers.
How old are they?
16 to 18.
How fast were you going?
We were going over 100 km/h.
- How fast do such bikes go? - 110 km/h.
- They are 50cc. - Do you still ride motorcycles?
I never stopped. I've been going for 41 years.
What is your current record?
- My maximum? - Yes.
My maximum speed?
Just now, I've...
I was well over 200 km/h.
I hear some have a drink before.
That's crazy.
Throughout my whole career, in 41 years,
- I haven't met a single champion... - To have an edge?
No, no, it's so... What we really need is restraint.
Do you agree? No alcohol before racing?
- Not a drop. - Why?
I never drink.
How do you feel on a motorcycle?
It's a thrill I can't find anywhere else.
Maybe in alcohol?
No, not at all.
And what about parties?
I don't really go to parties.
What do they drink at parties?
I don't know. Punch, I suppose.
But you don't go riding afterwards.
Do you want to be a champion?
If possible, yes.
A champion like who?
- Mr Monneret. - Does he impress you?
A little.
What about car races?
The feeling isn't as great when racing a car
compared to a motorcycle.
- What does your father do? - He races.
- What's his name? - Georges Monneret.
Monneret? Do you want to be a champion too?
- Yes. - What's a champion?
What's a champion?
Someone who wins races.
Do you think you'll win many of them?
Have you ever ridden the track in Montlhéry?
- I just did. - A whole lap?
Yes.
- A whole lap? - Yes.
Aren't these children odd?
They've already adjusted to our world.
Nothing fazes them.
Tomorrow, they'll operate electronic machines,
and maybe see the stars up close.
For you, motorcycling is a sport. Are you disciplined?
Do you smoke?
- No. - I don't.
- Do you drink? - No, never.
- No alcohol at all? - Never.
Not even with your buddies? Honestly?
- Sometimes, but... - Yes?
Normally, like everybody else.
Have you ever raced?
Yes.
What happens the day before? You go to bed early?
We usually repair the bike, depending on the race.
- You're all students. - No.
I'm an office clerk.
- You? - I'm a mechanic.
Do you ever worry about accidents?
- No. - Does it ever cross your mind?
Have you ever been afraid on a motorcycle?
- Yes. - Go on.
In your first race,
you get a strange feeling
in the turns.
What about a drink then? For Dutch courage?
Absolutely not.
- And you, Miss? - I don't think so.
It creates a false sense of safety, which leads to accidents.
Are you afraid on a bike?
- No, except if I'm riding on the back. - On the back.
M. Monneret, have you ever taken fright?
I have because I've been in unforeseen accidents,
mechanical ones.
All in all, in 41 years of competition,
I've only stayed in hospital for 2 days.
Is riding a motorcycle dangerous?
No. Man is dangerous.
Neither motorcycles nor cars are dangerous.
Man is dangerous. His lack of balance.
In my view, the road is where you find the most unbalanced people.
It isn't about cars or motorcycles being dangerous.
Some human beings aren't aware of their responsibility,
when driving family or someone else.
Is there a bend? Is it raining?
That's the problem: imbalance.
Do some boys have more talent?
Of course! That's for sure.
- What... - Let me say this.
Between a gifted, unbalanced racer and an ungifted, balanced one,
I prefer
the latter.
What qualities do you require?
Balance.
There are men who, indeed, have lost their balance.
They have plunged into darkness.
We wanted to get to know them,
to try and understand why.
They have sought refuge near trees.
They needed green blades of grass,
flowers,
space.
They have fled noise, speed,
hard days, pointless work,
a ruthless pace, harrowing questions, anguish,
solitude.
They needed a mirror to recognise themselves.
They found one in the Seine.
These men whose faces we won't see are fighting in semi-secrecy
an evil that has long beset them.
It had helped them to forget,
and to fill a huge void,
but it inevitably broke them.
M. Roucou, you met us at the park gate.
Where exactly are we?
This estate used to be a place of leisure.
It is called Château de Thun.
It spreads over 17 acres.
These men have courageously started to fight
our society's most common drug:
alcohol.
They could no longer do without it.
What about the men we saw in the garden?
That's quite a story.
The purpose of the estate has changed.
It is a treatment centre now.
We call it an aftercare facility.
We receive patients
who have gone through detox in a hospital.
They come here for convalescence.
They fight for themselves. Life had become unbearable.
Some, utterly desperate and cruelly impaired,
were on the verge of ruin.
But they also undergo treatment for their wives
and children.
The problem is worse for families.
That's where pain is most grievous.
Dr Fouquet, we are used to viewing alcoholism
as a vice.
People think patients have no willpower.
What's your definition of alcoholism?
Well... See...
Indeed, the first way to approach this issue
is to think that alcoholics suffer from a pathological lack of willpower.
You mentioned it earlier:
they are viewed as weak people who should behave differently.
However, doctors think that this is an actual illness,
albeit an unusual one.
It can first be defined
as losing the ability to abstain from alcohol.
This definition immediately introduces
the concept of losing your freedom.
If you have lost the freedom to behave normally
towards the outside world or alcohol,
it is already pathological.
You just go shopping, with no intention of having a drink,
and you're drawn into a café.
You don't need that many problems.
You go out for 5 min, meet a friend, have a drink.
Sometimes, there's not even a friend.
You play one, two games of dominoes, then a game of cards,
suddenly you glance at your watch and drinks have piled up.
Furthermore, not only is it an illness
because you lose your freedom,
but also because it affects body and mind.
You're doped up, drugged. You don't react the same anymore.
When I went to Bicêtre, I could neither see nor read.
You get all worked up.
You lose track of your actions.
Alcoholism can cause cirrhosis, polyneuritis,
i.e. walking difficulties.
There are also serious digestive, sleep,
mood and personality disorders.
And also, on the intellectual level,
some sort of intellectual weakening, a decline.
This can go very far, to encephalopathy,
a condition close to dementia.
How long does it take to become an alcoholic?
That's a tough one.
You can become an alcoholic at a young age.
Or you may need 10, 15, 20
or 30 years of intoxication.
Often you hear that so-and-so reached 90 years of age
and was still drinking.
- What do you think? - I wouldn't be so sure about it.
If they drank 4 litres
daily up to the age of 90, I would be surprised.
You can become an alcoholic
because you've been drinking continuously
a daily dose of over one litre of wine, for example.
You start when you're 18 and by the time you're 45 or 55,
you might be an alcoholic.
This form of alcoholism is very common in France,
and the toxic factor is very important.
Slowly, progressively,
very steadily, these people poison themselves.
At one point, they start suffering from major disorders.
Another rather common form of alcoholism in France
affects mainly young people,
teenagers or young adults
who are usually worried,
anxious, phobic, timid, shy,
who don't feel comfortable in their own skin.
Sometimes they encounter alcohol,
and enter into a pathological relationship with it,
because it feels like some kind of medicine to them.
If you're away from your family
or if your family isn't even worth mentioning,
what do you do?
You don't stay in the rain.
You look for shelter. You enter a café.
What did it mean to you?
To me, the café was like a safe haven.
I've been on the road since I was 14. Never had a family, nothing.
You do acknowledge that alcohol has virtues though.
Of course, it has.
- I hope you've had wine. - I have.
And that you've enjoyed it.
I wanted this company to hire me. I'd had my eye on them for 5-6 years.
I didn't get drunk but I was feeling it.
They hired me. I stayed there for 5 years.
Impossible without alcohol.
To function better or to tell them to go hell...
Exactly.
What about female alcoholics?
There are fewer of them.
We don't have enough statistics at the moment,
but it looks as if the number of female alcoholics is rising.
But it remains a male privilege, if I may say so.
What about class?
Again, I believe we harbour misconceptions here.
All classes, any of them,
can be affected by alcoholism.
Alcoholism isn't solely a working class problem
or the consequence of social drinking.
That's precisely why we think that it's an illness.
Whatever class you belong to
you can become an alcoholic.
Some doctors say that whisky is good for your arteries.
- Oh, that... - What's your opinion?
Let's be careful.
Whisky, just like any other alcoholic beverage,
is a vasodilator.
And so, advertising has seized this opportunity
to say that if you have coronaritis or other heart troubles,
drink whisky.
Visit your cardiologist or GP instead.
They'll certainly give you a better treatment.
Whisky is no medicine.
Definitely not.
They say that vino won us the war,
that wine makes men strong, generous, manly, etc.
They are just petty marketing slogans.
On a building site,
a guy needs to do like the others and have wine too.
If he doesn't drink, they won't accept him.
At first, he hesitates.
Then one day, he joins them.
The older guys say:
"Not feeling well today? Have a drink, you'll feel better."
We weren't really proud about getting the ship's boy tipsy.
He didn't need as much as we did, that's for sure.
We had a good laugh then.
Those cafés are always well placed.
A day's work has worn you out.
You've arrived at a port of call.
A café is always right there.
Up until the late 18th century,
alcohol was rare,
expensive, hard to produce and keep.
Distribution was hard too.
But for the past 150 years,
the big difference is that alcohol is everywhere.
You can find it wherever you are, whenever you want.
This fundamental, economic and social phenomenon
is at the root of the problem that is alcoholism.
Alcohol exists,
it always has.
Very few countries enforce prohibition. A few still do.
Very few.
Man may always need some kind of poison.
Just don't choose this one.
IN THE SERIES HOSTED BY PIERRE LOUIS GAUTHIER
ASSISTED BY BERNARD BOUTHIER
A PROGRAMME BY MICHEL AND CLAUDE NICOLETTI
WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF DOCTOR FOUQUET
GEORGES MONNERET
AND M. ROUCOU, DIRECTOR OF THE THUN REHABILITATION CENTRE
FILM FOOTAGE: MARC TERZIEFF - FRANÇOIS VIEUXGUÉ
SOUND: CHRISTIAN HACKSPILL
MIXING: JEAN CLAUDE MARCHETTI
SCRIPT: BRIGITTE AUFFRAY
EDITING: SIMONE DUBRON
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: PATRICE GAUTHIER
DIRECTOR: BERNARD PLANQUE
Subtitles: Élisabeth Fuchs