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.
