Mr. Bermutier

Maarten Vande Wiele adapts five short stories by Guy de Maupassant. In order to create an element running through the stories, he decided to give a character in one of the tales, Inspector Bermutier, a role in each of the other stories too. Bermutier switches between narrator, extra, hero and villain.

These evocative stories share a negative view of humanity: cowardice, egotism and a lack of empathy are the order of the day – an attitude that has become Vande Wiele’s trademark. With his approach, he has put his own stamp on De Maupassant’s imaginative short stories, making them his own.

In ‘Monsieur Bermutier’, Vande Wiele has moved away from his earlier graphic style, with the black planes and clean look giving way to playful watercolours, bright compositions and swirling lines. It is no easy task to transform De Maupassant’s dark mood into an extravaganza of colours, and yet Vande Wiele succeeds with aplomb.