Benoît Poelvoorde had not read the script of Normal when he agreed to act in Olivier Babinet’s new film, which he didn’t know any better. His friend Gustave Kervern, who starred in the French filmmaker’s previous feature film, Fishsex (2020), had told him good things about Babinet. The Belgian actor answered yes, after a few glasses of whiskey, because he found him friendly and kind.
I have no trouble believing it. Olivier Babinet, with his calm voice and relaxed gait, seems like the archetype of a good guy. I first met him when I happened to be sitting next to him at the presentation of Normal at the Abitibi-Témiscamingue International Film Festival last October; then again in Mile End, Montreal, a few days later, for an interview in front of the Drawn & Quarterly bookstore, the publishing house of the comic book artist Joe Matt, who died the previous month, and whose work he would like to adapt.
« Benoît fonctionne au feeling. Il m’a beaucoup aidé avec sa grande expérience », dit Babinet de l’acteur de C’est arrivé près de chez vous et de Podium. Poelvoorde l’a notamment épaulé pendant le processus d’audition de celle qui joue sa fille dans Normale (à l’affiche ce vendredi), touchant film d’apprentissage à propos d’une adolescente de 15 ans (Justine Lacroix) chargée de veiller sur son père, diminué par la sclérose en plaques.
Benoît [Poelvoorde] doesn’t like to repeat, so we just did a reading with Justine [Lacroix]. He cried while he was rehearsing a scene with her. She won him over right away.
Filmmaker Olivier Babinet
Free adaptation of the piece The Hallway Monster by the Scotsman David Greig, Normal is a melancholic fable, like the character of William played by Poelvoorde, who has difficulty accepting his situation: he cannot work, isolates himself in fantasy video games and anesthetizes himself by smoking cannabis. Between the sources of irritation at school, the impulses of adolescence and the management of her father’s degenerative disease, Lucie escapes into writing a fanciful diary and invents an offbeat life for herself.
PHOTO FANNY DE GOUVILLE, PROVIDED BY K-FILMS AMERICA
Filmmaker Olivier Babinet
Lucie also tells stories to those around her: to justify an undone assignment, she convinces her teacher and classmates that she witnessed a suicide the day before. Real life catches up with her when a visit from a social worker threatens to upset the precarious balance of her daily life and send her to a foster home. She and her father will have to convince social services that their life “seems normal to the world,” summarizes Olivier Babinet.
“She’s the one telling the story. There’s a dimension that’s like a tale. What’s true and what has she changed? We don’t really know,” says the author-filmmaker.
Its production alternates between social realism and a more fragmented form, at times tying in with Lucie’s daydreams, who escapes into her stories.
“As a spectator, I really like it when the cinema takes me into a world that is not exactly reality. I experience reality every day!” says Olivier Babinet.
Hopes, emotions and idealism
Olivier Babinet, who has also directed music videos (Rita Mitsouko, in particular), has a gift for getting the best out of his young actors. He did it in the documentary Swagger (2016), a fascinating foray into the heart of adolescence in a deprived Parisian suburb, Aulnay-sous-Bois. In addition to his work as a director, he has often led fantasy cinema workshops with students.
I manage to establish a bond of trust with teenagers, by being an equal with them, without towering over them with an adult position. I have empathy for them. They end up trusting me. It’s a fascinating age, with a lot of nuances, that I love to capture.
Filmmaker Olivier Babinet
This is certainly the case in Normalwhich also features an androgynous character played by Joseph Rozé, who provokes Lucie’s emotion. There is something fundamental in adolescence in the construction of personality, recognizes Olivier Babinet.
“I never got over my teenage wounds, in a way!” laughs the 52-year-old filmmaker. “I even despair about it sometimes. At the same time, it’s a period that nourishes a lot of hopes, emotions, idealism.” And films…
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