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Dick Selon Spielberg CRITIQUES m JEAN-PIERRE DUFREIGNE . Dick selon Spielberg eraclite d'Éphèse, dit l'Obscur au motif qu'on ne connaît de sa pensée que des fragments qui malmènent délicieusement notre sens des réalités supposées, H affirme que la « nature des choses à coutume de se I dissimuler ». Autant dire que le faux-semblant est notre ! vérité. Mais aussi, que c'est dans des œuvres humaines ! jugées mineures que la vérité se niche et se protège | quand il s'agit d'art et de doute sur cet art. L'esprit ! humain aimant les classements, en chimie comme à l'école, il n'épargna pas les genres. La littérature et le ! cinéma son frère cadet liés par leur goût pour l'explo­ ration de la durée passèrent à cette moulinette : polars, • SF et fantastique furent des sous-genres, même si trois | pages au style en silex de Raymond Chandler, de i Philip K. Dick, l'hérétique spéculatif, ou de Stephen ; King, nous en apprennent sur le monde des années trente, cinquante, quatre-vingt, et sur ses répercussions | dans nos univers mentaux bien plus que bien des i romans de main stream (littérature « normale ») de ces | mêmes années. • Il en est de même pour le cinéma où le « film de genre » ; reprend ses droits même en France, terrain d'exception, ! champignonnière rêvée d'années de nombrilisme. Le ; Pacte des loups fut l'un des cinq succès à plus de 5 mil- [ lions d'entrées de 2001. On remarquera aussi que des I trois auteurs de genre cités plus haut, Chandler, Dick, King I (aux vertus littéraires inégales), des cinéastes tirèrent des œuvres de première grandeur : le Grand Sommeil, de \ Howard Hawks ; Blade Runner, de Ridley Scott ; Shining, ; de Stanley Kubrick. C'est Philip Kindred Dick qui nous i intéresse ici, car une des figures marquantes du « nou­ vel Hollywood » (on lira avec intérêt le livre que vient ^lï ciffiiMŒS. CRITIQUES de lui consacrer Peter Biskind au Cherche Midi [1]), Steven Spielberg, maître des images à gros budgets et à forte rentabilité, avec Jurassic Park, Rencontres du troi­ sième type, E.T. (de la SF), a sans doute réalisé, enfin, son chef-d'œuvre à partir d'une nouvelle de Dick de 1956 : Minority Report. Tout comme Ridley Scott, découvert avec ses Duellistes, ne fut reconnu qu'avec Blade Runner. Quant à Kubrick, son invocation est plu­ 1. Le Nouvel tôt celle d'un ange tutélaire. S'il n'y avait pas eu le succès Hollywood : Coppola, Lucas, planétaire de 2001 : l'Odyssée de l'espace, ces films de SF Scorcese, Spielberg... la à (très) gros budgets ne seraient pas nés. Ou bien eussent- révolution d'une génération, ils appartenus au rayon de la série B (cette seconde caté­ de PETER BISKIND, gorie est due au budget engagé, non au résultat) qui offrent, traduit de 1"anglais certes, des porcelaines rares. Blade Runner attendit de par Alexandra Peyre, 1968 à 1982 avant de naître ; Total Recall, de Verhoeven, Le Cherche Midi, 513 pages. 21 € une petite dizaine d'années. Ce rapport minoritaire (minority report) de la SF avec non seulement le succès (Matrix, blockbuster, est une daube infantile), mais aussi avec le grand cinéma est confirmé par le film de Spielberg même. Minority Report plonge dans la « nature des choses qui se dissi­ mule ». Et dans le monde de K. Dick, après Blade Runner et Total Recall, film moins aimé - et pourtant, quel meilleur éloge du « mauvais goût » ! Mais ces trois films plus ou moins connus, Planète hurlante (vraie série B venue de Screamers), de Christian Duguay, et le Français Confession d'un barjo, de Jérôme Boivin, adaptant Dick, le transformant (Total Recall, né d'une nouvelle d'une vingtaine de pages, dure deux heures), plongent immédiatement dans le seul univers éternel sans Big Bang, sans Big Crunch : l'univers mental. Là où se dissimule Dick, notre Heraclite l'Obscur dans les siècles des siècles. Minority Report donc. Après l'échec (esthétique) de A.I. Intelligence artificielle tourné en hommage à Kubrick qui mourut avant de le réaliser, et cet hommage glaça toute inspiration et toute liberté, Steven Spielberg se lance dans cette aventure qui aboutit au vrai succès cinématographique et pas seulement financier de sa CRITIQUES carrière. Dick l'a pénétré d'une de ces « invasions divines » comme l'auteur à'Ubik aimait l'écrire entre deux prises d'amphétamines. Inspiré en ce sens que Minority Report avec ses décors grandioses vaut sur­ tout par le combat dans l'âme d'un flic (le Deckart de Blade Runner n'est pas loin), d'un superflic croyant en une forme ultime de justice : arrêter le coupable avant que le crime ne soit commis, c'est-à-dire quand il est encore innocent... Et cela en se sentant moralement intact. La dualité schizophrène est patente mais inno­ cemment quotidienne. La section Precrime que dirige le détective Anderton (Tom Cruise) est la forme ultime de la tolérance zéro et de la politique sécuritaire qui, d'un côté, sont garantes de la liberté (la sécurité des personnes et des biens est un droit de l'homme) et, de l'autre, peuvent engendrer une société policière. Dick l'écrit en 1956, en pleine Guerre froide, Spielberg le filme après le 11 septembre 2001... Notre vision aussi est donc double depuis l'apparition de la « spéculative fic­ tion », signification dickienne du sigle SF. Car le shun- tage des neurones est plus important pour Philip K. que l'action proprement dite (avec fusées et autres brimborions qui n'en sont que décors obligés). L'histoire se déglingue, le temps est désarticulé, les mondes paral­ lèles se rejoignent là où il ne faut pas, on est peut-être mort alors qu'on continue de remplir sa fonction (sublime Ubik), mais toujours, toujours, l'homme et la femme sont seuls dans un univers qui n'est qu'une machination. Paranoïaques doutant de leur propre existence, ils se raccrochent aux fausses apparences (la sécurité, le boulot) et aux drogues. Anderton se drogue pour combattre le « crime » à venir et croire qu'il répare la société en la protégeant. Car le véritable héros dickien est le Réparateur. La machination univer­ selle étant une machinerie, toute panne met en péril le monde conscient. Et la machinerie parfaite de Precrime a, forcément, une faille. Une source d'erreurs de juge­ ment que son créateur Lamar (Max von Sydow) a camouflée... Où ? Une physicienne recyclée dans la culture CRITIQUES des plantes vénéneuses, un agent du FBI catholique, un ophtalmologiste clandestin et une adolescente « préco- gnitive » vont indiquer la route de la vérité à Anderton. Les crimes sont prévus, mieux, vus par ces « précogs », corps humains baignant dans un liquide amniotique artificiel et qui rêvent la réalité. Leurs images sont récu- | pérées sur un ordinateur, immense écran de verre où Anderton les choisit, les agrandit, les rejette, les scrute jusqu'à identifier le lieu et l'heure du crime. Ces séquences ! sont éblouissantes. Et les noms de la victime et du | ' criminel » sont gravés sur ce qui ne peut être faussé ; ou imité, des boules de bois aux nervures, à la texture ! forcément uniques puisque « vivantes ». La technologie mécanique n'est rien, celle des cerveaux des créatures qui « voient » est tout. Et Anderton se verra par leurs yeux tuer un homme qu'il ne connaît pas, dans 36 heures. C'est impossible. Mais vrai ? Le voilà obligé i de renier sa foi et de tenter de vaincre ce qu'il défend. | De changer de regard... Des milliers de capteurs identi­ fiant chaque individu par ses yeux, il s'en fait greffer \ d'autres (la scène est hallucinante et hallucinée) et, grâce i aux yeux d'un mort, va entrevoir la vérité dissimulée ! dans le cerveau d'une adolescente qui rêve les futurs. | On ne peut dévoiler tout. On peut regretter dix minutes I de fin rajoutée sur le triomphe de la famille américaine. | Mais on s'en fiche, le film s'est terminé avant, quand j Anderton semble vaincu ; quand il a découvert via sa | paranoïa d'homme poursuivi, tiré à vue par ses amis, ce qu'était vraiment son métier et le monde qu'il aidait à ; détruire en croyant le réparer Malédiction classique chez | les adaptateurs. Ridley Scott dut changer la fin de Blade i Runner, condamnée au bucolique. Depuis, il a pu resti- j tuer la sienne, à la Dick, une fin qui est la mise en dan- | ger d'un amour entre un humain et une androïde. Philip K. Dick est mort en 1982, à l'âge de 53 ans, le \ 2 mars ; en mai, sortait Blade Runner. Il ne vit jamais un Jean-Pierre \ film ufé de son œuvre. De cette ultime taquinerie divine, Dufreigne est i [\ eut pU bâtir une nouvelle selon une de ses pensées éditorialiste '•• - , , h TExpress, i préférées : la Paranoïa comme seul garant de l'identité, m .
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