“It’s the films that regenerated me, not the prizes”: acting prize in Venice, Vincent Lindon is experiencing, from his forty years in cinema, a new youth. After the shock “Titane” (by Julia Ducournau, Palme d’or 2021), then a role that he loved to the point of going “crazy” as a customs officer in the series “D’argent et de sang”, the actor releases “Playing with Fire” on Wednesday.
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He plays a railway worker confronted with the radicalization of one of his sons (Benjamin Voisin), attracted by the violent far-right, while his brother (Stefan Crépon) pursues brilliant studies.
Nine years after his prize at Cannes for “The Law of the Market” (by Stéphane Brizé), Lindon joins the club of acclaimed actors in the two most prestigious festivals in the world, like Javier Bardem or Sean Penn. Return for AFP on this key moment.
You say you sometimes feel like “an imposter.” How did you feel receiving the award in Venice?
“I was overjoyed, overwhelmed, because it’s double (with Cannes), so it’s not nothing. I was overwhelmed and touched terribly by (the president of the jury) Isabelle Huppert because it is so un-French (to reward a compatriot). I was very happy for (the directors) Delphine and Muriel Coulin. It affects everyone in the main car, the actors, the directors and the producers. It’s joint work.”
What did you like about this shoot?
“I loved that there were two stories. For me, the most important thing is family. How can a father be helpless in front of one of his two children when they were raised the same way? They ate the same food, dressed the same, had the same mother, the same father. They heard the same discussions at the table. For me, this is the unconditionality of love. How do we manage to love two such different beings so much and in the same way?
-And the other story?
“The little story, but not nothing, is this radicalization. (…) It’s the lack of hope. When we are not busy, we lose everything, trust, love. The first small group that is interested in you, that considers you, we follow it. We will seek comfort that we have nowhere. We get enlisted. All this disturbed me and brought me back to my state as a son. When I see all the stupid things I’ve done and how my parents trusted me… In my role as a father too. My character is at fault because he does it too late. It is all the more upsetting as he tries to make up for lost time. It’s not making up for it.”
The film also resonates with our present…
“It’s a film that tells the story of how we see things. I was going to tell you that this is the state of France. But that’s the state of the world. The way we watch without reacting, with despair, a youth lacking hope and alienating themselves in the world of reaction, rather than the world of reflection. Now, there are 72 million journalists in France, 72 million police commissioners. We hardly read anymore, we react to something we read in three sentences on a social network! We are among the madmen.”
Culture has long believed that it has a role to play in the face of extremism. And today?
“The world of culture has become terribly gentrified and tilted. (Intellectuals) no longer communicate with each other. Everyone writes their book, their pamphlet… At the same time, it’s extremely difficult for them to address a generation whose culture is no longer the same, who are on social networks, with ready-made thoughts . I can’t stand being asked these questions anymore because others don’t answer them. Before, there were 900 artists involved! Painters, musicians, whatever you want. There are no more. But I’m not at all desperate. (…) I have terrible confidence in women and men. At some point, unconsciously, everyone will pass the word to each other. It won’t be bearable anymore and humans will stop all this.”
