Papillon: The Mysterious Survival Story of Henri Charrière [12+]
Henri Charrière was born in 1906 in the south of France. At the age of 17, he went to serve in the French Navy, but soon after he hated the service and left it at the first opportunity. Henri entered the path of crime and became known by the nickname Papillon which means Moth, because he had a butterfly tattoo on his chest. Later Charrière was convicted on 26 October 1931 of the murder of a pimp named Roland Le Petit, a charge that he strenuously denied. He was sentenced to life in prison and ten years of hard labour. After a brief imprisonment at the transit prison of Beaulieu in Caen, France, he was transported in 1933 to the prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni on the Maroni River, in the penal settlement of mainland French Guiana. Generally, at that time the French authorities sent to hard labor on such a long voyage exclusively political prisoners, who posed a real threat not only to society, but also to the state. However, why Charrière ended up in Guiana is truly a mystery. As you can see in a film and in a book, Henry Charriere had no intentions of staying confined - and the sequence of daring prison escapes that would ultimately make him famous was about to begin. Henry broke out of Ile Royale for the first time after three years in captivity. However several escape attempts were doomed to fail. When Charriere moved on once again, French authorities finally caught up to him again. After "regaining his sanity", Charriere requested to be transferred to Devil's Island. Authorities were happy to oblige because Devil's Island was said to be inescapable. The island didn't have much security, because it didn't need to. Undaunted, however, Henry wanted to way out. He'd already survived living in the jungle, and he figured that he could do it again. In preliminary preparation for his escape, Charriere observed that the waves rolled in a particular succession. Every seventh wave appeared much larger and stronger than the others, and the seventh wave might be enough to push him far away from the island and into the deep ocean. After several experiments with weighted down sacks of coconuts, he named the seventh wave Lisette after the little girl he risked his life to save. Charriere convinced Sylvain, a fellow convict, to accompany him on his escape. He and Sylvain spent four days and three nights adrift in the sea, floating on coconut-filled bags and surviving on grated coconut pulp. Sylvain prematurely left his raft and sank into mud-flat's quicksands, disappearing as the waves washed over his softening.....trap; he was a mere three hundred yards from the mainland. Henry waited until the waves pushed his raft to solid shoreline. Having reached the mainland, Charriere came in contact with elder Chinese known as Cuic Cuic, made known to him before he escaped Devil's Island by Cuic Cuic's brother, Chang. Charriere joined Cuic Cuic in his refuge, and together (also in the company of a one-armed friend) they escaped by boat to Georgetown. In 1945, he landed in Venezuela where he settled down, married, and even earned citizenship, allowing the next chapter of his life to begin. After the releasing of the book, in 1969, He was subsequently treated as a minor celebrity, even being invited frequently to appear on local television programmes. Of course, the book was a massive success in France and even not only, because there never have been like that yet. Despite some blunders, it contains a kind of collective image and romanticizes the prisoners of that time who arrived in the overseas territories of France. The book and movie both present Devil's Island as having rocky cliffs, when, in fact, although the entire island is rocky, it gently slopes into the surrounding sea. A French justice ministry report said Charrière's book included episodes that were imagined or involved others and "should be divided by at least 10 to get near the truth". Most of critics agree to each other that Charrière, having a wealth of experience with prisoners, simply borrowed their stories for his book. At that time, Charrière characterized 85 % of his book was true. He finally returned to France, visiting Paris in conjunction with the publication of his memoir Papillon. The book sold over 1.5 million copies in France, prompting a French minister to attribute "the moral decline of France" to miniskirts and Papillon. In 1970, the French Justice System issued a pardon to Charrière for his 1931 murder conviction. On 29 July 1973, Charrière died of throat cancer in Madrid, Spain. #shortdocumentary #survivalstory #papillon 0:00 Who is Papillon? 1:38 Henri Charrière and French Guiana 2:56 Life in prison and escape attempts 5:30 Another version in his bio 6:38 Papillon book release and popularity
Henri Charrière was born in 1906 in the south of France. At the age of 17, he went to serve in the French Navy, but soon after he hated the service and left it at the first opportunity. Henri entered the path of crime and became known by the nickname Papillon which means Moth, because he had a butterfly tattoo on his chest. Later Charrière was convicted on 26 October 1931 of the murder of a pimp named Roland Le Petit, a charge that he strenuously denied. He was sentenced to life in prison and ten years of hard labour. After a brief imprisonment at the transit prison of Beaulieu in Caen, France, he was transported in 1933 to the prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni on the Maroni River, in the penal settlement of mainland French Guiana. Generally, at that time the French authorities sent to hard labor on such a long voyage exclusively political prisoners, who posed a real threat not only to society, but also to the state. However, why Charrière ended up in Guiana is truly a mystery. As you can see in a film and in a book, Henry Charriere had no intentions of staying confined - and the sequence of daring prison escapes that would ultimately make him famous was about to begin. Henry broke out of Ile Royale for the first time after three years in captivity. However several escape attempts were doomed to fail. When Charriere moved on once again, French authorities finally caught up to him again. After "regaining his sanity", Charriere requested to be transferred to Devil's Island. Authorities were happy to oblige because Devil's Island was said to be inescapable. The island didn't have much security, because it didn't need to. Undaunted, however, Henry wanted to way out. He'd already survived living in the jungle, and he figured that he could do it again. In preliminary preparation for his escape, Charriere observed that the waves rolled in a particular succession. Every seventh wave appeared much larger and stronger than the others, and the seventh wave might be enough to push him far away from the island and into the deep ocean. After several experiments with weighted down sacks of coconuts, he named the seventh wave Lisette after the little girl he risked his life to save. Charriere convinced Sylvain, a fellow convict, to accompany him on his escape. He and Sylvain spent four days and three nights adrift in the sea, floating on coconut-filled bags and surviving on grated coconut pulp. Sylvain prematurely left his raft and sank into mud-flat's quicksands, disappearing as the waves washed over his softening.....trap; he was a mere three hundred yards from the mainland. Henry waited until the waves pushed his raft to solid shoreline. Having reached the mainland, Charriere came in contact with elder Chinese known as Cuic Cuic, made known to him before he escaped Devil's Island by Cuic Cuic's brother, Chang. Charriere joined Cuic Cuic in his refuge, and together (also in the company of a one-armed friend) they escaped by boat to Georgetown. In 1945, he landed in Venezuela where he settled down, married, and even earned citizenship, allowing the next chapter of his life to begin. After the releasing of the book, in 1969, He was subsequently treated as a minor celebrity, even being invited frequently to appear on local television programmes. Of course, the book was a massive success in France and even not only, because there never have been like that yet. Despite some blunders, it contains a kind of collective image and romanticizes the prisoners of that time who arrived in the overseas territories of France. The book and movie both present Devil's Island as having rocky cliffs, when, in fact, although the entire island is rocky, it gently slopes into the surrounding sea. A French justice ministry report said Charrière's book included episodes that were imagined or involved others and "should be divided by at least 10 to get near the truth". Most of critics agree to each other that Charrière, having a wealth of experience with prisoners, simply borrowed their stories for his book. At that time, Charrière characterized 85 % of his book was true. He finally returned to France, visiting Paris in conjunction with the publication of his memoir Papillon. The book sold over 1.5 million copies in France, prompting a French minister to attribute "the moral decline of France" to miniskirts and Papillon. In 1970, the French Justice System issued a pardon to Charrière for his 1931 murder conviction. On 29 July 1973, Charrière died of throat cancer in Madrid, Spain. #shortdocumentary #survivalstory #papillon 0:00 Who is Papillon? 1:38 Henri Charrière and French Guiana 2:56 Life in prison and escape attempts 5:30 Another version in his bio 6:38 Papillon book release and popularity