Only the Earth Is Eternal: The Spiritual Testament of a Montana Child

It’s always difficult to talk about a writer. Whether in the cinema, in a book, or, as here, in a documentary, the very essence of a person cannot be completely reported.

And yet: with Only the Earth is Eternal, François Busnel and Adrien Soland have succeeded in this bet. If the two directors insist: It’s not a movie about Jim Harrison, but with Jim Harrison. Here we are embarked for nearly two hours in the heart of America and its inspiration. Back to basics for the writer, sensitive to biodiversity and the Amerindian conception of nature.

From left to right: Olivier Daviaud, Mathias Malzieu, Adrien Soland and François Busnel, during the preview in Paris on March 22, 2022 (ActuaLitté, CC SA BY)

Died in 2016, at the age of 78, Jim Harrison leaves behind an immense literary and spiritual legacy. Significant fact: he was writing a poem. What better than this information to understand who this man was, author ofA good day to die or of Autumn Legends ?

A man returns home to the heart of the great outdoors. He recounts his life, which he burned at both ends and which reveals another History of America. Through this spiritual and joyful testament, he invites us to get back to basics and live in harmony with nature. This man is one of the greatest writers… His name is Jim Harrison.

François Busnel, host of La Grande Librairie on France 5, today reveals his deep affection for the United States, already demonstrated with the creation of the quarterly America. Alongside Adrien Soland, he crosses America, offering sumptuous images of Michigan, Nebraska, Montana. Nothing less than a movie screen was needed to “tell” Harrison, this child from Montana with a chiselled face.

So direct, so sincere, “Big Jim” sees his life impacted by several accidents: his eye gouged out, child or even the car accident that will take away his father and his sister. He then takes refuge in spirituality, in Native American culture – of which he keeps the memory through a coyote skull offered to him by a Native American.

It is after several years of solicitation that François Busnel and Adrien Soland manage to convince him to film him, in the heart of his refuge, Paradise Valley. Jim Harrison didn’t want to be the center of attention. ” This is the problem for us journalists: we cling to the legend, to the biography, instead of describing the truth of a man. presents François Busnel. And to quote Native American poet Simon J. Ortiz “There are no truths, only stories. »

The excellent music is by Olivier Daviaud and Mathias Malzieu. Original, short compositions, to leave an immense place to the wind, to nature, to the sound of the river and to the hoarse breath of Jim Harrison, decidedly a great lover of cigarettes. A true testament, the film almost illuminates its last moments: the author died before the end of filming, forcing the production team to ” tinker to hold it together “. And it fits: the wit, the nostalgia of this old man who sees his friends gradually disappearing are reflected on the big screen. Humor, too: he likes women, likes to paint their posteriors, even if, by his own admission, it wasn’t very pretty.

The room laughs, regularly. Especially after this long nickname given by an Ojbwe tribe in the region: “ The one-who-leaves-on-long-and-dark-paths-and-whose-we-hope-he-can-return “. From true poetry, according to him, to the regularly reclusive characters of society.

READ: A letter to Montana: Dear Jim Harrison…

More than a comical Harrison, Busnel and Soland portray Busnel and Soland as a political “Big Jim”. Deep wrinkles, face weathered by work in the fields, but not manly, he deplores the social divide in the United States. Rather than a feminist, Harrison admits to being feminine, rebelling against the macho Ernest Hemingway.

” This total commitment by Jim to the film allowed for a number of slapstick sequences as the film is clearly the spiritual testament of a man in the twilight of his life. “Concluded François Busnel on France Inter. Such a beautiful testament, therefore, to see in dark rooms from this Wednesday, March 23.