SABATIER

of DELOEUIL Christian

FRANCE, 1987, 00:07:00

Production : CRRAV (Région Nord/Pas-de-Calais), IF Productions
Genre : Documentary, Social documentary
Keyword : Industry, Mine, Testimony

Summary :
SABATIER. A director of the company gave his name to that coalmine, which is located near Raismes, a few miles away from Valenciennes, in the eastern part of the coal field of the Nord-Pas de Calais region. The mine was closed about ten years ago. What is left of it today ? Some fairly spoiled buildings, when you look at them closely, on which nature patiently grows back. If you care to enter the bank of the mine, you may visit several buildings, from the guard’s house, which is overgrown with ivy, to the sieve, changing-room (called « hangmen’s room ») and showers. But the most fascinating part is the large and bright mill, with its mining machines, control levers and dials. Everything is still there. When you come out, you get an urge to run around the pithead frames as if they were the Eiffel Tower or the towers of Notre-Dame. You steps resonate on the rusty metal staircase, and you end up high above the surrounding setting : the forest of Raismes-Saint-Amand is very close. All this is very different from the cliché of the « Black Land », as the coal field is usually called. Right next to you, you have the wheels with spokes on which the ropes of the cages used to wind. It all seems like they are suddenly going to move and arouse the mine from its sleep. The sun goes down. The light is beautiful. The film invites us to see the site with this particular viewpoint. The film is also enriched by the focus on sound : the realistic rendering of natural sounds and of the rumbling of the nearby town, both of which imperceptibly merge as the day goes by, and the fictitious rendering of the sounds of the mine, which reappear at the most significant spots of our route. That first point of view confronts that of Alphonse, a retired miner, who worked for almost 40 years right here, and fills the place with his memories and emotions. And then it confronts that of the young, who consume what is left, in the mine, of a past that doesn’t speak to them, and who destroy the place for fun. One day, the flame of the blowlamp and the explosive bolts will get rid of Sabatier forever. (Christian DELOEUIL)

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