a meditative odyssey
 

PostED on 12.10.2025

In 2007, screenwriter and director Sean Penn released his most emblematic film.

© Paramount Vantage - River Road Films - Art Linson Production / DR
Into the Wild (2007)

Leaving civilisation behind to seek freedom in the midst of nature, with only his backpack for company, is the crazy gamble made by Chris McCandless, the protagonist of Into the Wild. The twenty-two-year-old changes his name and cuts all ties with his family. New life, new identity. He embarks on a kind of social suicide mission, with a single goal: to be free, no matter what the cost.

Adapted from Jon Krakauer's book Into the Wild (1996), based on a true story, Sean Penn's fourth feature is a gripping visceral and philosophical saga, a heart-pounding cinematographic ride. The intense lighting by French cinematographer Éric Gautier transforms this visual and sensory œuvre into a reflection on the power of contemplation of staggeringly wild natural landscapes that point to both introspection and danger.

From Arizona to California, all the way to Alaska via South Dakota and Colorado, the protagonist crosses paths with strangers, obstinately standing his ground, turning Into the Wild into an experience lived inwardly, yet reaching outward. 

We encounter the America of outsiders and hippie communities, which we will see again, for example, in Chloé Zhao's Nomadland (2020). Into the Wild also unfolds as a poetic work, enriched by many literary quotations and a deeply human soundtrack, composed by Eddie Vedder and Michael Brook.

Emile Hirsch, playing McCandless, has his body undergo an extreme transformation, a radical commitment to incarnate this non-conformist young man, constantly seeking solitude and perpetually on the run, in an eternal quest for utopian bliss.

 Fanny Bellocq

Exceptional screening - Into the Wild
Introduced by Sean Penn
Sunday, 12 October at 3  pm at the Halle Tony Garnier

In 2007, screenwriter and director Sean Penn released his most emblematic film.