“A Place for Pierrot”: The Fight of a Sister and Her Autistic Brother

THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – WHY NOT

Reprimanded for her slump at work, the heroine of A Place for Pierrot, a lawyer in a Parisian firm, confesses to her boss that she has an autistic older brother and that she has to take care of him. The superior suddenly becomes sympathetic but also annoyed that she didn't tell him sooner; he's not a bully after all, he inquires. He continues: "But is he a Rain Man type?" In his defense, Barry Levinson's film, starring Dustin Hoffman (1988), has long provided the only mythological kit available on autistic syndrome, which we now understand has a broad prism.

While old social, identity, or psychological categories are appearing in multiple variations and hybridizations, fictions are trying to catch them on the fly. Autism is no exception, notably with the surprise triumph of Un p'tit truc en plus , by Artus (2024).

So, Camille (Marie Gillain), a divorced and overwhelmed lawyer, decides to remove her brother Pierrot (Grégory Gadebois) from the specialized residence that is overwhelming him with pills, and to welcome him into her apartment while she finds him a new place. The situation drags on. Her teenage daughter is starting to get tired, her ex-husband (Vincent Elbaz) is getting worried. A faithful (and too perfect) friend (Patrick Mille) tells her about a farm on the Opal Coast (Pas-de-Calais), by the sea, which employs autistic people in its fields. We give it a try.

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