You are the co-writer of To Life with the director of the film, Rodolphe Lauga. How did its story begin?
Guillaume Canet: “First there was a desire to perform action scenes, to perform stunts yourself, to follow in the footsteps of Jean-Paul Belmondo. Besides, The Professional is one of the major inspirations of To Life : we find the same archetype of hero who finds himself alone against everyone… And then there was the meeting with Thibault Leveque, who is a former member of the GIGN, who went from a hectic life to that of Monsieur Tout-le -world following an injury. From there, we laid the foundations of To Life. »
How did you prepare for this role of Franck Lazarev, which is very physical?
“I devoted six months to physical preparation. From the start with Rodolphe, we wanted to work as close as possible to the GIGN teams. They accepted us very kindly. At the end of the training, one of their leaders even said that I was able to join the group. Which is obviously wrong, but I was proud of it! (laughs) »
“Every death during an operation is considered a failure”
The film spends a lot of time presenting the mindset of GIGN and its members. For what ?
“It’s thanks to our meeting during physical preparation. We discovered extremely interesting, calm and thoughtful individuals, who developed a real group spirit, whether in intervention or even in everyday life, with their companions. They also have a striking philosophy, which is that life is worth more than anything. Each death during an operation is considered a failure, obviously for them, but also for those arrested. It was important to give substance to our characters. »
Let’s get back to the action scenes. You performed almost all of the stunts: what was the hardest in the end?
“To overcome my vertigo!” (laughs) While I practice extreme sports, like paragliding, I have a real fear of heights. In training with the GIGN, when I got stuck on a rappel, people made fun of me, and rightly so. Eventually, I was able to overcome this fear. Even if I must admit that during the filming on the Sacré-Cœur, when I was stuck for a while 40 meters above the ground, I was not doing well! (laughs).”
“They thought we were crazy”
Precisely, the film has scenes in emblematic French places, the Sacré-Cœur, the roofs of Paris or even the gardens of the Château de Versailles. Wasn’t it too complicated?
“I was lucky to have made the film with Rodolphe. We are friends, and we have known each other for more than twenty years and we have automatisms that help to overcome difficulties. At the Palace of Versailles alone, people thought we were crazy because we only had one day of filming, and it normally took three. But we managed to keep the deadline without rushing the job. That’s the most important thing. »
Duration: 1 hour 35 minutes
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Critique :
A successful modernization of the formula
When Guillaume Canet asserts that To Life is strongly inspired by Professional by Georges Lautner with Jean-Paul Belmondo, it is clear that it is with good reason: similar starting point (the former soldier, here a member of the GIGN, who finds himself linked to a conspiracy against his will), same stunts at the old one (here a scene of paragliding in the gardens of the Château de Versailles)… But we are in 2025, and To Life achieves a certain modernization of the formula, in particular by developing its secondary characters, whether it is Stéphane Caillard, who is more than a “simple damsel in distress”, Nassim Lyes, or the couple formed by Zita Hanrot and Alexis Manenti.
Because after a thunderous start, To Life will take a lot of time to develop its story, the plot against the hero, but also all the context around the GIGN. Other action films also take the time to set their context (released discreetly at the end of the year on Amazon Prime video, the Australian film Life after Fighting takes more than an hour to tell its story before ending in a long scene of non-stop tatanes in the face), but the rhythm of To Life may surprise or even disappoint. But the sincere involvement of Guillaume Canet allows us to get past this, because he succeeds in embodying a credible hero in all circumstances.
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