L’esprit libre (The free spirit)

A documentary about Alain Daniélou directed by Joël Farges

Thirty years after his death, this documentary pays tribute to the figure of Alain Daniélou and his journey through the world and its cultures.

‘It’s been thirty years since you left us, and yet you’re still here, and so present that I’ve retraced your steps: Benares, Venice, Zagarolo… And as I pick up the thread of my memories, I realise that you remained a free spirit all your life. As a sickly child, you found your freedom in dancing and singing. At the age of 16, you declared yourself homosexual, much to the anger of your mother, who threw you out. In 1932, at the age of 24, with your friend Raymond Burnier, who was 20, in a Ford coupé towing a caravan, you set off for Benares, the heart of the Hindu world. And you stayed for almost 20 years, penetrating the teeming world of Shaivite Hinduism’ (Joël Farges).

‘30 years ago, one of the most singular personalities of the last century passed away at Lonay. The brother of a cardinal, he became a Hindu. Although not a university graduate, he joined the Indology Department of the French Institute at Pondicherry and the Benares Hindu University. As a young man, he studied singing and composition in Paris. He then turned to an Indian string instrument, the vînâ. As head of the Institute of Comparative Musicology in Berlin and Venice, he travelled throughout Asia recording traditional music on a Nagra belonging to his friend Stefan Kudelski. Making no secret of his homosexuality, he shared his life with a Swiss photographer from Lausanne, Raymond Burnier. While several of his books, such as Shiva et Dionysus (1979), were landmark works, some of his positions, particularly on reincarnation, and his adherence to radical Hinduism provoked violent controversy. A free spirit, Daniélou never followed anything but his own path’ (Jean Pierre Pastori).

Trailer

Documentary