The French newspaper Libé(ration) is submitting some participants to the 2025 Cannes film festival to a questionnaire akin to Proust’s literary questionnaire and I found myself hard-pressed to answer, as it took a few on-line searches to fit the questions. Obviously the answers are of little interest and definitely not going to appear in Libé!
La première image ?
Hard to remember, rally, since (paradoxically) we were hardly ever going out to see films in the cinema of the small Norman town where we lived when I was a kid (and with no TV at home). Once in a (long) while a projectionist would come to our primary school so it may be Moby Dick (1956) or Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the Sea were among the first films I saw. As well as The Grapes of Wrath on a neighbour’s television, down the street. I actually remember most vividly a time when we all went to this local cinema for a family film (possibly Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus) and I got terrified by the teaser for an incoming film about vampires!
Le chef-d’œuvre dont tout le monde vous parle et que vous n’avez jamais vu ?
An incredible number of masterpieces, in fact, like Les 400 coups or La Haine to stick to the French production—and neither I have watched Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, but I am uncertain it qualifies as a masterpiece. Which reflects my lack of cinematographic culture, getting worse in the recent years where I only listen to the film critic show on the French public radio, France Inter. I tried to catch up during COVID, but somehow got distracted by series. Partly because watching on-line older, more classical movies, is often a challenge. (I managed to bag Tirez sur le Pianiste last year.)
Un film secret qui en sait long sur vous ?
If… a 1968 vitriolesque depiction of boarding schools, with A Clockwork Orange‘s Malcom McDowell. Reflecting my mood about said schools at the time I saw it.
La bande originale qui vous trotte dans la tête ?
The music of Blade Runner by Vangelis is just fitting the movie so well. Albeit not something I would keep in my head for days. If I skip films involving music one way or another like 8 Miles, The Blues Brothers, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, or Desperately Seeking Susan, the (not original) soundtracks of, to name just a few, Trainspotting, Shrek and The Hobbit (Misty Mountains) certainly stayed there for a while!
Un film où il ferait bon vivre ? Ou un film qui fait aimer les gens ?
Votre palme d’or favorite (ou un film qui ne l’a pas eue et c’est un scandale !)
Votre vie devient un biopic. Qui dans votre rôle ? Et qui derrière la caméra ?
Le monstre ou le psychopathe de cinéma dont vous vous sentez le plus proche ?
Alien! I mean, why did they have to come and bother it?! And, in a less serious mood, The Monster (with no name, poor thing!, not even for his Abe Normal’s brain…) in Young Frankenstein. [Answer that I share with Isabelle Huppert, as I realised after writing this! And she also mentions Blade Runner, albeit as the masterpiece she did not watch.]
La scène qui vous fait pleurer à tous les coups ?
The finale of (John Huston’s) The Dead. And Tokue’s death in Sweet Bean (あん). And many others! Plus, while this is not the question per se, I have fainted during a few films, like The Last Temptation of Christ (and not because the protesters at the entrance of the Ithaca cinema!) and The Martian (during a flight to Boston). But would not necessarily faint again were I to watch them a second time.
Le film le plus drôle de tous les temps ?
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, no doubt! [Shared with Mylène Farmer, a posteriori.]A un-Monthy-esque seconder would be Almodovar’s Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios. Or Tampopo, as I have not watched either in years.
Quelle réplique peut résumer votre humeur du moment ?
I felt like running (Forest Gump) [which was a missed masterpiece for Kazuo Ishiguro, another interviewee!].
La dernière image ?
The final scene of Casablanca, with this forever obscure quote Here’s looking at you, kid.
As I had never watched an Alien film in its entirety, while having glimpsed some portions from my neighbours’ screens on many a long distance flight, I decided to indulge into the series over the Xmas break, which was sort of relevant since both stories are about an alien species parasiting a human body to grow their children… (Aliens 3 actually offers a further religious thread as the population of the convict planet Fiorina 161 is made of Christian-like sociopaths.) The first and most famous film, Alien (1979), is certainly the most interesting in that it looks quite its age, from old fashion space vessels and equipment, to [vim type!] green light pre GUI computer interface reminding me of my first Apple II, to everyone smoking in the space ship. While the scenario is on the light side, although the underlying theme of a super-adaptive, super-aggressive and super-intelligent alien species is most compelling,…
