“There is no more universal language than a fist in the mouth!”

Jean-Claude Van Damme. It is also that the role of the gardener refers to my father, who was a florist. And I, I really like nature, so that I liked this aspect of the role, that of a peaceful type, in love with plants and butterflies. During the shooting, I also improvised a tirade on nature, on the reasons why I liked to keep myself away from people. And all of this is combined with action scenes.

In the same ironic register, Michaël Youn said to the gardener at one point that you seem to be in the film: “You are not Sylvester Stallone!” »» Was it a model at the start of your career?

When I started martial arts, around 9 or 10 years old, my reference was Bruce Lee. Then came Sylvester Stallone. These types have given me the desire, which should not be confused with jealousy. I was lucky to arrive at the right time in the cinema. When producer Menahem Golan hired me for the film All blows are allowed In 1988, it was as if I had trained for the role since my childhood! And luck often makes all the difference – how many people shining in the shadows will never shine in the light?

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“When the film comes out directly on the platforms, the whole world has entered it in its living room”

You knew the time when the films were first released in the cinema. It happens now, as for The gardenerthat they first go out on television via platforms. How do you judge this development?

Nowadays, indoor outings require great films because it is very expensive. The necessary promotion is in the tens of millions of dollars, operators take half the amount of tickets, etc. Then come the derived products and the passage on the platforms. When the film comes out directly on platforms, the whole world accesss it in its living room and, in the case of my films, understands the same thing: there is no language more universal than a fist in the mouth!

The gardener Is it a simple entertainment or does he also say something about politics?

In my opinion, real policy is even worse than in the film. You remember Belmondo in The professional by Georges Lautner? When you know political secrets, you sometimes finish with a bullet in the back.

We know you very attentive to the march of the world. What do you remember from the time we live?

We are witnessing a great sharing of territories. Many antagonistic countries will be forced to ally for questions of economic survival. Imagine a restaurant with ten tables and five or six people each. In the future, I see only one table with five or six people around, better seated in front of a better stocked table. But before that, you have to move the tables and do the dishes. Which could have happened before the election of Joe Biden about the war in Ukraine: there was a means of arriving at an agreement which would have focused on less territory at the price of fewer deaths.

I have been talking to you from Thailand where many young Russians and young Ukrainians have emigrated to escape war. And, of course Trump's project to annex Canada is problematic – but we must not forget, from a security point of view, that Canada is 80 kilometers from the Russian border, the same distance as Between Brussels and Knokke-le-Zoute.

As our interview started, you looked at the images of the terrible fires in California. What does this show inspire in nature lover?

I had predicted what happens for the right reason that my films made me travel all over the world and that I could therefore see, a few years away, the evolution of the situation on the whole planet. What I plan now is a rapprochement of phenomena like El Niño, and there, we will see beautiful, like rain or snow in places where it is supposed to rain or snow. And I am not even worried, because it is inevitable. Global disorder is set up. It will happen like a stop of the heart, everything seems to go and suddenly, you can no longer breathe, it's over. The current destruction of coral everywhere is the destruction of an alga that transforms CO2 into oxygen.

“I am thinking of Alain Delon, withdrawn in his castle, not by detestation of humanity, but because he had seen everything, well known”

Could your future life look like that of the gardener in the film? A man away from the world …

Absolutely. I think of Alain Delon, withdrawn in his castle, not by detestation of humanity, but because he had seen everything, well known. What other French actor has marked China or Japan so much? Bardot maybe. Some took it for an idiot, but it was wrong. In any case, she is much smarter than many people of my knowledge. Not to mention that she was a great actress. And I like his way of speaking clearly and simply.

Let's go back to the film. In small touches, the portrait of the gardener, former special forces, becomes more complex. He knows how to take care of a young child, he evokes through his mother's case, the violence against women and he even walks away by bike at the end of the film! Are you like him a mixture of old-fashioned man and new man?

Brel said that man was a nomad, that he always wanted to see what is beyond the mountain. The woman wants a nest for the child she has. The man wants to leave but the woman asks him to build walls. So he puts his luggage and built the walls. Then the woman asks for a roof to protect herself from the rain. The man again placed his luggage and builds the roof. Comes the day he became too tired to leave. I am a guy who has to move, I cannot stay in the same place. At 16, I had already left to live in Algerian villages. The earth is round, I always wanted to go see what was happening on the other side of the ball.