The son of Irene Jacob is the new star of French cinema

At 22, he already accumulated the Marcello Mastroianni Prize for the best young hope, a silver shell of the San Sebastian Festival, two nominations at César and a selection of the lights of the international press. Since then, all eyes have been riveted on Paul Kircher, a young prodigy of French cinema. An actor all the more scrutinized as he bursts the screen in Their children after themfrom Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, in theaters since December 4.

“It has never been a project”

Born on December 30, 2001 of comedian parents – his mother Irène Jacob won the female interpretation prize at the Cannes Festival for Véronique's double life (1991), and his father Jérôme Kircher was appointed four times to the Molières -, little Paul Kircher regularly follows them on tour. But do not cultivate the same ambitions as the latter. “Playing has always been important to me, but it has never been a project,” he said to Madame Figaro November 23. When I was younger, I experienced pleasure in being on stage, giving small concerts, it was there. ”

Read too
Itinerary of two spoiled children: the brothers Paul and Samuel Kircher, appointed in the same category in César

Before adding: “My parents obviously showed me lots of films, but I have not kept many memories, except perhaps Charlie Chaplin or Louis de Funès that I adored, child.” Adolescence, Paul Kircher lives it as “a quest for identity, a construction in progress”. “We don't really know what we want, we have dreams of our heads, like my character who wants to go to Texas …”, he explained to Madame Figaroabout his character in the film of the Boukherma brothers.

And the young man to continue: “With Their children after themI immediately saw an opportunity to work on the body again, the physical evolution of a character. It was great to explore what it is to be 14 in this superb story, both tragic and funny. ” In real life, Paul Kircher arouses, for his part, the hilarity of his comrades. “I like to make myself ridiculous to make people laugh,” he said recently at Figaro . Hence the premonitory remarks of one of his class friends: “You, in ten years, will make TV.” Paul Kircher will not wait so long.

During his free time, the latter first took courses in a school of current music in Paris. “I sang in different rock groups that did not always have a name, except one: French Breakfast,” he said in the Monde . The heading of the majority signs that of its cinematographic awakening. At 18, he discovered films like “The night belongs to us, by James Gray, with Joaquin Phoenix, or At the end of the race, by Sidney Lumet, with River Phoenix ” – and begins to” build up a mental cinema library “.

Captain Marleau

After high school, Paul Kircher joined an economy and geography course. A period during which he also left for Erasmus in Trieste – the opportunity, he says, to “reinvent himself”. Back in Paris, he enrolled in theater courses at the Abbesses Manufacture. In 2019, he was approached to shoot in romantic comedy Did you sin? Then appears in an episode of the series Captain Marleau.

A year later, he met the casting director of High school studenta feature film signed Christophe Honoré. At the end of three months of auditions, Paul Kircher is selected from more than 300 candidates. And the director is full of praise for his new recruit. “It is quite complicated at that age: often, when you meet young actors, they are more comfortable in depth but much less in energy, joy,” he analyzes.

Before adding: “Paul is a great actor. I don't know if the cinema will be up to what it can offer to the cinema. He is an actor with overwhelming sensitivity. ” In The high school studentPaul Kircher embodies a young man who has just lost his father and finds comfort with his brother (Vincent Lacoste) and his mother (Juliette Binoche). An intense experience, following which the actor goes to work two months on a farm in Iceland, and is boxing.

The Paul Kircher method

The same year, Paul Kircher won what will become one of the roles of his life. That of Emile, a teenager in his skin, who turns into a wild beast in The animal kingdomfrom Thomas Cailley. The latter goes in search of her mother, herself transformed, alongside her father (Romain Duris). In 2023 and 2024, Paul Kircher was appointed in the Best Male Hope of César category for his performances in the two feature films. The second year, the name of his brother Samuel, 19, appears by his side in this category, for his performance in his first film Last summer.

The two brothers leave, certainly, empty -handed. But they mark the history of the ceremony. As for Paul Kircher, he later won the Marcello Mastroianni Prize during the Venice Mostra, for his performance in Their children after them. An actor whose shooting partner, Ludivine Sagnier, salutes meticulousness. She thus describes a young man “attached to details”, working “in a very subtle and conscientious way”. A method that has borne fruit, since it will soon be found in the drama Meteors et The arrival of the futurea dramatic comedy signed Cédric Klapisch.