Paradis pour tous (1982)

Alain Durieux is depressed. He consults Dr. Valois, who prescribes a new therapy developed through his research: “flashing.” In short, it involves “cutting the nerve of emotion.” Durieux comes back to life, to an Edenic existence in which he no longer perceives the slightest gloom. A monster has been born, around whom misfortune circles. We soon learn that there are enough “flashed” people to form a community, and their radiant happiness makes others envious. The number of applicants is now immense. Valois realizes the horror of his invention. Cowardly, and unwilling to disavow himself, he chooses to flash himself too. It is a form of suicide, since Dr. Valois knows the disastrous effects of his treatment. Durieux’s wife, Jeanne, is due to be flashed next, but at first she refuses: “I don’t want to be happy.” After suffering a serious fall down the stairs when Jeanne pushes him away, Durieux never leaves his ultra-sophisticated wheelchair, but takes even greater pleasure in their three-person household, in a state of total bliss, his mind emptied of all anxiety, doubt, and sensitivity. At the request of the injured and paralyzed Alain, Jeanne finally agrees to let Pierre look after her and, by extension, agrees to be flashed. Dr. Valois accepts the honors, including the Légion d’honneur, while his paralyzed test subject Alain receives the National Order of Merit. Valois does not reveal that Pierre has become an insensitive monster, while the monkeys serving as subjects in his experiments suddenly turn aggressive. Few are aware of the disaster.