“The Man with a Thousand Faces”: Filmmaker Sonia Kronlund in the Footsteps of the XXL Fabulator

The meaning of “the world” – should not be missed

For twenty years, Sonia Kronlund’s name has been associated with the French cultural program “Les Pieds sur terre”, which broadcasts a report without commentary from Monday to Friday during lunch. For twenty years, the producer has introduced each episode with his patient and deep voice, as if emerging from the depths of the ether.

Following the announcement of his new documentary, his avid listeners will be able to ask themselves: What makes the many fascinating subjects and characters captured in them worth considering?

the beginning A man of a thousand faces, which was first a book, gives us some answers: the journalist says that his love life began with encounters with mythic and manipulative lovers. Moreover, his first documentary, Nothing is a tree (2017), followed Salim Shaheen, an Afghan actor-producer-director and unforgettable confabulator who enriched every minute of his life with little lies. A man of a thousand facesIt will be the dark side of the force, the story of a confabulator that doesn’t escalate anything but does a lot of damage all around.

Sonia Kronlund spent five years investigating the man we call “Ricardo,” an extraordinary conman who seduced countless women around the world, each time under a different identity. He calls himself Ricardo, Alexander, Daniel or Richard. He is a doctor, a police officer, a photographer, an engineer. They say that he is Brazilian, Portuguese or Argentinian. Gifted with a dizzying gift, the man managed to maintain several serious relationships at the same time, from Poland to Brazil, via France.

Masochism in love

Sonia Kronlund found Ricardo’s victim. Some openly testify, others are played by actors (it is impossible, moreover, to distinguish the true from the false): women, more naive than others, who were in love, sometimes engaged, and never suspected that they shared their lives. A man who had many companions and identities and, above all, was able to unmask himself. One of them remembers that Ricardo was angry with him for never coming to visit the workplace – if only he had agreed!

A man of a thousand faces He was able to give the testimony in front of the camera and the faces of the saddened victims in a tone distinguished by gravity. Instead, the film works on a form that, thanks to constant humor and distance, gives it a restorative dimension: with the lawyer we discuss the risks posed by the spread of Ricardo’s face (unwise, Sonia Kronlund finally shows it). The women witness in the postcard Paris between lovers kissing, finally free of any romantic illusions.