Modesty and Shame

In De la nature des mondes animés et de ceux qui y habitent (1994), poet André Roy likens actors who died of AIDS to specters that, long after their death, continue to haunt our screens, like living images of a world now lost. A similar impression arises from Modesty and Shame, the documentary in which renowned French writer Hervé Guibert portrays his own experience with AIDS. Filming himself in the final moments of his life, Guibert pushes the boundaries of his literary mission to its ultimate conclusion: revealing what is deemed unshowable.

Defying taboos, he displays his skeletal body, records himself on the toilet while sick, and even brings his camera to the operating table, insisting that it remain running while doctors work over him under general anesthesia. His aim was to later witness his own organs upon waking, but the lighting betrayed him. Through these acts, Guibert exposes above all the disease itself—the grotesque illness that society preferred not to see, now displayed as never before. His documentary effort reflects that of so many other patients who, aware of being excluded from representation, took up cameras, photographs, or pens to fight against another form of death: the social death that often accompanies illness.

In February 1991, Guibert completed his film, though its release was delayed due to its content. Modesty and Shame eventually aired on TF1 in January 1992, a little over a month after Guibert’s death, cementing him as an eternal, unashamed specter.

Alex Noël
Author and literature professor