Jacques Dubochet and committed art...

Cinema Wednesdays - Jonas Follonier

The documentary Nobel Citizen tells the story of how Jacques Dubochet's 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry changed - or didn't change - his life; we also learn a little more about his career and his activism. Let's be clear from the outset: this film is ideological. By choosing to paint an almost exclusively positive portrait of the scientist and his commitments, a director is not neutral. So much the better! Neutrality may be a well-established myth in Swiss politics, but it quickly loses credibility in the arts, where every artist makes choices about what he or she wants to say about the world.

That’s fitting, since the journalist isn’t spared from subjectivity either: like Pierre, Jean, and Jacques, he is a subject. Yet I, for one, was both moved and weary of this documentary. Moved by the person himself, by his relationship with his wife, and by the film’s highly expressive score. Weary, on the other hand, by the naivety of the cinematic perspective on the climate strikes and Greta Thunberg. There is no critical analysis of the idea that young people—a category with which I do not identify—are «making things happen.» No nuance is offered regarding the doomsday prophecies foretelling the imminent end of the world.

What makes such blindness possible among a people who are otherwise accustomed to weighing the pros and cons? Undoubtedly, it is the personality of Jacques Dubochet, who charms people «with his humor and his naturalness,» to quote Darius Rochebin. O tempora, o mores! We have the values we deserve. The values of our time are called «transparency,» «authenticity,» and «letting go.» Nevertheless, the film teaches us something that could well be interesting: civic engagement. Dubochet is a prime example in this regard. «Scientists must step out of their ivory towers!» he proclaims. May academics of all stripes take inspiration from this!

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Photo credit: © Agora Films