Posted at 7:00 a.m.
Patrice Leconte arrived in the metropolis without his suitcase (misplaced somewhere over the Atlantic) for the North American premiere of Maigret presented at the Fantasia festival, Tuesday. What he does with the enthusiasm of a young beginner. However, at 74 years old and with a long list of titles featuring sacred monsters of cinema (Belmondo, Rochefort, Noiret, Giraudeau, Marielle), the filmmaker could have taken advantage of the July sun…
“Why vacation? he lets go. I love my job. It’s an exhausting job, but wonderful! The day the spring is broken, I will stop. But not right away. »
Incidentally, he tells us that seven years have passed since his penultimate film… and that four projects have fallen through for funding reasons. “Even if a director and performers are known, it is not easy to find the money to shoot in France. I hope it won’t be seven years again before my next film… Because I’m going to have to do it with a walker! »
After his brilliant Mr Hirewith Michel Blanc, the director of hairdresser’s husband plunges for the second time into the world of Georges Simenon. This time, through Commissioner Jules Maigret, the most famous French investigator in literature (75 novels and around thirty short stories!). Popular comedy, drama, thriller, period films… Leconte makes films that are different from each other. By choice.
At the end of the 1970s, I quickly understood that if I was always digging the same furrow, that of comedy as with The BronzedI was going to go around in circles and get bored.
Patrice Leconte
Going from one universe to another allows me to keep my appetite, my curiosity intact; to stay on. The idea of never putting yourself in danger is terrible! Me, it motivates me to get out of my comfort zone, to be (a little) afraid of not being up to it. »
Maigret at the cinema
Why return to Simenon more than 30 years later Mr Hire, when there are already several adaptations of Maigret on screen? “Because I adore his novels and Maigret rocked my adolescence. And also, Jérôme Tonnerre, the co-screenwriter and dialogue writer, pointed out to me that in the cinema, unlike on TV, you have to go back to 1963 to see Maigret, in the guise of Jean Gabin, in a film, not in a series. . »
The director chose the novel Maigret and the dead girlpublished in 1954, for its central character, but also for all the secondary characters.
Simenon has always had a wonderful penchant for little people. He is interested in passers-by, in ordinary people, those people who are believed to have no history. However, when we linger on them, we discover incredible, extraordinary things in their lives!
Patrice Leconte
PHOTO PASCAL CHANTIER, PROVIDED BY AXIA FILMS
Gérard Depardieu and Bertrand Poncet, in Maigret
As the title suggests, Superintendent Maigret investigates a dead young girl. A minor found stabbed at night in the Square des Batignolles, without any papers or personal effects, but wearing a haute couture ball gown. In the film, Maigret is a little at the end of his rope, tired, he no longer has much interest. This girl reminds the taciturn Maigret of an old grief. “This young dead will give him back the taste for life”, illustrates Leconte.
The anonymous victim symbolizes all these other provincial girls who arrive in post-war Paris to realize their childhood dreams. In vain. “Paris is a mirror of larks, explains the filmmaker born in the capital. We arrive there believing that life will be wonderful. However, this is not the case at all. »
Depardieu on set
In 45 years of career, Patrice Leconte turns for the very first time with the interpreter of Cyrano. “Yes, I had never worked with Depardieu. It was not the desire that was missing. But a good opportunity had to arise. No one had yet thought of him to play Maigret, whereas Gérard is keen on Simenon. »
PHOTO STEPHANIE BRANCHU, PROVIDED BY AXIA FILMS
Gérard Depardieu and Patrice Leconte during the filming of Maigret
And then, how is he, Depardieu? Forget the horror stories and eccentricities surrounding the controversial comedian: Leconte has nothing but good things to say about him. “We had a lot of fun on set. Gérard likes to mess around between takes. It can be contradictory. He says that “deconcentrating helps him focus”. When he loves a project, he gives his all. »
It’s moving to frame this big dented carcass and stuffed with talent. Depardieu has a sense, an intuition of the scene, of the rhythm, of the silences, of the feelings. It’s amazing and overwhelming!
Patrice Leconte
After his last shot, at the end of the eight-week shoot, Depardieu spoke to the entire film crew, says Leconte: “Gérard was moved. He told us: “Thank you very much, because for a few years I was making films; thanks to you, I made movies.” »
The film Maigret hits theaters July 29 in Quebec.