Bret Easton Ellis' novel "American Psycho" turns 30.
After being adapted for the cinema, a series should see the light of day.
Passionate about this cult work, the writer Frédéric Beigbeder told, Wednesday on Europe 1, how it marked the novels of the following decades, starting with his own.
INTERVIEW
It is a cult book that has marked an entire generation.
American Psycho
, the novel by Bret Easton Ellis, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
The novel was adapted for film in 2000, with an unforgettable Christian Bale as golden boy and psychopath Jason Bateman, and production company Lionsgate has just announced a serial adaptation.
Fascinated by this novel, which he describes as "reading from which we do not come out unscathed", the writer Frédéric Beigbeder was the guest of Europe 1 on Wednesday.
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"Cynicism and nihilism"
"I like antiheroes, I like shocking books," says Frédéric Beigbeder, who summarizes
American Psycho as
"a reflection on capitalism, on the society of appearances, on our artificial desires and on the madness of this world" .
The work of Bret Easton Ellis also contributed, in 1991, to give birth to "a writing, a new form", a style which, according to him, influenced the decades which followed.
In
American Psycho
, Patrick Bateman, a completely self-centered, narcissistic young Golden Boy from Wall Street obsessed with his body, his costumes and his social status, turns into a completely sadistic psychopathic killer.
"He's a troubled obsessive and I think he's a character who has remained and whose cynicism and nihilism have really influenced a lot of series, films and novels," continues Frédéric Beigbeder.
"Myself, like others, I was obviously very, very stylistically traumatized by the coldness of Bret Easton Ellis."
"Beauty is not necessarily something benevolent"
As for the film adaptation, Frédéric Beigbeder considers
American Psycho
, by Mary Harron, as "a film which one looks with delight, on condition of knowing well that it is a caricature, a satire whose goal is to shake the spectator" .
Quoting Baudelaire, the writer recalls that "the beautiful is always bizarre".
Also, Frédéric Beigbeder underlines the beauty of the film while regretting that we no longer understand, today, that beauty "is not necessarily something benevolent".
A series should see the light of day
While an
American Psycho
series
should see the light of day, as announced by the production company Lionsgate, Frédéric Beigbeder is delighted, believing that the character of Patrick Bateman can be declined in different scenes.
"I guess it will take place in the 1980s", he continues, "to imagine that today the world is not like that".
Drawing a parallel between Patrick Bateman and the character of Jordan Belfort, in
The Wolf of Wall Street
, Frédéric Beigbeder imagines that a Leonardo DiCaprio, a Bradley Cooper or a Ryan Gosling could perfectly match to embody the title role in the series. "Very handsome guys and at the same time capable of irony and self-mockery".