“It’s so poetic”, Jean-Paul Rouve does the Vendée Globe from his garden in ‘La Vallée des fous’

A little air of Cannes in Les Sables d’Olonne. Jean-Paul Rouve and Xavier Beauvois came to present their latest film “The Valley of Fools”. A story linked to the Vendée Globe where Jean-Paul Rouve slips into the shoes of a man at the end of his rope who makes the crazy bet of doing this legendary race in his garden.

A swarm of journalists, spectators trying to catch a glimpse of a star, the azure blue sun. No, we are not climbing the steps of the Cannes festival, but rather descending the pontoons at the Vendée Globe village in Les Sables d’Olonne.

The actor Jean-Paul Rouve and the director Xavier Beauvois came to present a preview of “The Valley of Fools”. But before heading to the cinemas, a crowd bath under the Vendée sun for the film crew, who came in force, to enjoy a visit led by a smiling Jean Le Cam. King Jean shows them around his boat which will set off from the Vendée Globe on November 10.

A meeting that takes on a vacation feel, the actors have fun on the deck of the boat, get information, take selfies aboard this IMOCA which will soon be in the southern seas. They realize that they are part of a small part of this great adventure that is the Vendée Globe.

The main actor of the film is him, this solo and unassisted world tour. A world tour that amateur or experienced sailors can do from their sofa or garden with the Virtual Regatta. And that’s what the film is about.

Passionate about sailing, Jean-Paul is going through a difficult time. He accumulates debts and moves away from his family. Determined to take control of his life, he signed up for Virtual Regatta, the virtual Vendée Globe race. He puts himself in the conditions of a real skipper by isolating himself for 3 months on his boat in his garden… This trip, unlike any other, will allow him to reconnect with his family, but above all with himself.

If the initial scenario was to tell the adventure of the Vendée Globe at sea, the choice of the garden was an obligation or rather a relief for Jean-Paul Rouve: “At first, he wanted to shoot the real Vendée Globe. That was his subject, me going to the Vendée Globe. And when I told him I was seasick, he said I have to find a solution. And he had this idea of ​​putting it in the garden.“

Doing the Virtual Regatta on land, but in real conditions, an idea that immediately excited the actor.

It’s so poetic.

Jean-Paul Rouve

Actor

“When Xavier called me saying, I’m going to make a film, you’re going to do the Vendée Globe at the bottom of your garden. It’s great, it’s crazy. And like him, he is a filmmaker of reality, everything is real in the film. My character leaves on this boat really like a real skipper, with his food, with everything. He must not get off this boat, he is at the end of his garden.“

Even if the actor has already proven his talent to play more dramatic roles, notably in “the consent” of Vanessa Filho, he finds here the opportunity to reveal a more sensitive, crazier palette. With this role of an overwhelmed, alcoholic father who finds his lifeline in this somewhat crazy project, he proves to us that he is a great actor.

Here he shows his ability to improvise a “freak out” in front of his computer screen or a dance on the deck of the boat… And he likes it: “Xavier, that’s strong too, he asked Peter Doherty to already have the music, and so I had music that sounded like that. So I was in my world, and Xavier told me, do what you want.“

To embody Jean-Paul, this lost man who takes on the challenge of doing the Virtual Regatta in his boat, Jean-Paul Rouve had to play a soloist’s score. Indeed, in almost all of his scenes, the actor plays alone, in the boat, in front of a computer screen and it is quite a challenge. “After a while, I swear, you feel like you’re somewhere else, like you’re not with the rest of the team.“.

But his complicity with the director, Xavier Beauvois, allows him not to put himself in a bubble, cut off from the world, but on the contrary to be attentive and in harmony with him.

“The character is close to Xavier, and then I am close to Xavier (…) when it was motor… action… Xavier was further away because he couldn’t be on the boat, but I had the impression that he was with me, that there was real osmosis.“

Meeting Jean Le Cam or Michel Desjoyeaux was a great experience for the actor who does not hide his admiration for these skippers who go around the world.

But there is no risk that he will one day go to sea with them, “I’m sick on a boat, for me it’s a terrible handicap, because obviously I left with Jean on his boat, everyone would dream of being with Jean Le Cam on his boat, I don’t I wasn’t well, I was happy to be with him, but I have to admit, it’s not the place where I feel better.”

Xavier Beauvois is the director of “Of Men and Gods” or more recently of “Albatross”, but he is also passionate about sailing and in particular the Virtual Regatta. And that’s where the idea for the film came from.

“Me, I’m playful, basically, this will be my fifth Vendée Globe. And since there are a million people playing, I said to myself, what do those who win do? Because I get up at night and try to do everything right. I said to myself, well, if someone put themselves in the real conditions of a skipper, in real conditions, maybe they would have a better chance of winning. And then I had this idea.“

We feel in Xavier Beauvois a real admiration for these sailors who challenge the sea and the world: “the title is The Valley of Fools, all these people are crazy, doing what they do is crazy. They are aliens, everything is planned, everything is calculated, everything is thought out, everything is thought out, but there is an element of madness, otherwise they wouldn’t do it.”

Filming with Michel Desjoyeaux or Jean Le Cam was a dream for the Breton director: “having Michel Desjoyeaux, who won the Vendée Globe twice, and Jean Le Cam, they are myths for me, it’s as if a football fan had Zidane in his film“.

In “The Valley of Fools”, two sailors take part in the game of acting by playing their own roles: Jean Le Cam and Michel Desjoyeaux. The “professor”, the only skipper to have won two editions, takes great pleasure in playing a role that fits him like a glove: giving navigation advice. An experience that he describes not without a touch of irony.

“I participated in the development of the dialogues to the extent that, when there was Michel, three little points, it was go ahead, get over it. Either it’s Xavier, or it’s his assistant who comes to explain to you, here’s the context, the scene before, the scene after, then go ahead, say what you want to say.“

If Michel Desjoyeaux had fun acting, his favorite playground remains the sea: “Yes, it’s fun to do it, but it’s not my job, clearly. I’m more comfortable here, on the pontoon, than on a film set, that’s clear.“

The film “The Valley of Fools” was presented on Thursday, October 24 in preview at the Grand Palace of Sables d’Olonne. And for the occasion, the cinema pulled out all the stops with the presence on the square for welcome spectators to the replica of the boat from the film and all seven theaters showed the film.

But one session was special, a special screening for the Vendée Globe skippers and their families. The opportunity to collect their immediate impression as soon as they leave the room. Meeting with Paul Meilhat and Maxime Sorel, skippers and spectators…

An article by Murielle Dreux with Sophie Whal and Damien Revelau

►”The Valley of Fools” by Xavier Beauvois with Jean-Paul Rouve and Pierre Richard, national release on Wednesday November 13.

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