Le dictionnaire Eustache: Antoine de Baecque directs comprehensive reference on cult filmmaker

Antoine de Baecque, author of the definitive Godard biography and editor of acclaimed dictionaries on Truffaut and Pialat, now directs this new reference work on Jean Eustache, with fifteen contributors. The volume underscores Eustache's marginal yet influential status in French cinema, a filmmaker who committed suicide and whose works remain difficult to access, fueling a cult following. Notably, Jean-Jacques Schuhl, a confidant and inspiration to Eustache, declined to participate in the book, preferring to preserve an aura of mystery, though he appears in the entry for the letter 'S' between 'scandale' and 'sentimental'. De Baecque contributes a text on Eustache's 'Rocky' T-shirt. A significant error occurs: Philippe Azoury mistakenly attributes a poem to Schuhl that is actually by Jacques Rigaut, a fellow suicide and marginal figure. Rigaut's name appears twice with different spellings—'Rigaud' on page 163 and 'Rigaut' on page 283—traversing the book like a bullet, embodying the 'nothingness' dear to Eustache. The poem is titled 'Brevet d'existence'.