#bourgoin

[detournementsmineurs]

Pierre Rochefort, Louise Bourgoin et le jeune Mathias Brézot dans "Un Beau Dimanche" de Nicole Garcia (2013), août 2025.

[local-boob]

What lies beneath: the secrets of France’s top serial killer expert

The long read: An intrepid expert with dozens of books to his name, Stéphane Bourgoin was a bestselling author, famous in France for having

"Bourgoin’s friends withdrew from him, and began to await, with a fair amount of dread, his unmasking. But his star continued to rise. 'What astounded me was not so much that he told tall tales, because I knew he was that way, but rather that everyone swallowed them whole,' the other friend said. 'It was the unseriousness, not to say the sheer idiocy, of the media.'

"The indulgence of the publishers, the newspapers, the television stations and even the police might have been more forgivable if Bourgoin’s work had been more insightful, offered more than morbid titillation, the first friend said. 'But there was never, ever, ever the slightest beginning of a hint of a shadow of analysis, of reflection,' he said. 'And today, people are saying, "He’s an impostor! He tricked us!" Well, folks, you yourselves should be mortified. And you should be thinking, "We really were idiots!" Because he wasn’t actually any good at all.'

"Though it has not traditionally been regarded as a condition unto itself, pathological lying has long been an object of psychiatric inquiry. In the literature, it is known as pseudologia fantastica. One commonly cited definition, from the early 20th century, describes it as 'falsification entirely disproportionate to any discernible end in view'. Helene Deutsch, an early psychoanalyst, described pathological lies as 'daydreams communicated as reality'. Pathological liar[s], or 'pseudologue[s]', [are] not con artist[s], in the sense that, whatever the consequences of [their] lies may be, [their] intent is not malice. The lying is an end in itself. Scholars disagree as to whether or not pseudologue[s] can be said to be responsible for [their] fantastical claims. Crucially, however, [they are] not delusional. When confronted with [their] inventions, the pathological liar is able to perceive, if not necessarily admit, their falsity. [They know they are] lying, though most of the time [they seem] able to put this knowledge completely out of mind.

Serial killers have been known to be among the most prolific pseudologues, and all serial killers lie about their crimes. Bourgoin was once asked, in a television report, about this propensity for deception. Elsewhere in the segment, he implied that he was in the midst of helping to solve a series of murders, and claimed that he had extracted 'confessions' from Schaefer, Toole and Kemper when he interviewed them. He was presented as a 'profiler'. Bourgoin was seated behind a large desk in a sombre room, and looked up earnestly at his interviewer, whom he addressed in a regretful tone. 'Very often, serial killers are extremely manipulative,' he said. 'Most of the time, whatever remorse they claim to have isn’t sincere. It’s part of their habit of lies. These are confirmed liars, since their earliest childhood.' I have watched this moment, and rewound and watched it again, a number of times. Often I think I detect a glimmer of recognition in Bourgoin’s eyes, but it is instantaneously suppressed, or shunted aside, giving way to a blank and slightly quizzical stare. More than anything, he appears to be astonished.'

[regolo54]

Islamic art

[detournementsmineurs]

“L'Atelier de Sarah Bernhardt" aquarelle et gouache de Marie-Désirée Bourgoin (1879) présenté à l'exposition “Sarah Bernhardt. Et la Femme Créa la Star” au Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, juillet 2023.

[detournementsmineurs]

Louise Bourgoin dans "Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec" de Luc Besson (2010) - adapté de la bande dessinée éponyme de Jacques Tardi (1976), octobre 2018.

[detournementsmineurs]

Louise Bourgoin dans "Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec" de Luc Besson (2010) - adapté de la bande dessinée éponyme de Jacques Tardi (1976), octobre 2018.

[regolo54]

BOU031 Geometric pattern

[detournementsmineurs]

"Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec" de Luc Besson (2010) - adapté de la bande dessinée éponyme de Jacques Tardi (1976) - avec Louise Bourgoin, Gilles Lellouche, Jean-Paul Rouve, Mathieu Amalric et Swann Arlaud, octobre 2018.