In Emmanuelle Bercot’s new feature film, Benoît Magimel plays the role of a forty-something suffering from a dazzling and incurable cancer. The prospect of going diving in these dark areas did not smile to him at first, but the actor had the feeling that he could not turn his back on such a great role, moreover proposed by a friend. Maintenance.
At the Cannes Film Festival, where In his lifetime was presented out of competition, the emotion was very strong. This was evidently due to the nature of the film and the subject it addresses – the untimely death of a man in his prime – but also to the fact that this presentation marked Catherine’s return. Deneuve. Interpreter of the mother of the protagonist, the actress made one of her first public outings there after health problems which, in November 2019, had forced the stop of the filming of the feature film, a few months before the pandemic. The great icon of French cinema was then the victim of a vascular accident which, very fortunately, left no after-effects.
Even though they had crossed paths 25 years ago, the time for a brief streak in The thieves, by André Téchiné, Benoît Magimel and Catherine Deneuve really met on the set of Heads up, one of Emmanuelle Bercot’s previous feature films. Inspired by this experience, the filmmaker then wrote the screenplay for In his lifetime expressly for both actors.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY TVA FILMS
Benoît Magimel and doctor Gabriel Sara in In his lifetime by Emmanuelle Bercot.
“I believe that Emmanuelle felt that there was a kind of evidence between Catherine and me”, explains Benoît Magimel during a videoconference interview with Press. It would have been difficult to act in a film like this without the presence between us of a real affection, a real tenderness. Seems like over time I need this. Working with people I love becomes even more important. With Catherine, something a little inexplicable is happening. It’s like that, it’s there. I love him deeply. ”
A very assumed melody
Turned on edge, in a spirit of very assumed melodrama, In his lifetime evokes the last year of the life of Benjamin, an actor in his forties, “failed” according to his saying, who nevertheless evolves in his field by teaching future actors. We are also witnessing all the stages leading to the acceptance of illness and death, including for the mother of this man, ready to do anything to change the inevitable trajectory of this sad fate.
Upset on reading the script, Benoît Magimel did not feel the right to say no to a friend who, moreover, wrote this story tailor-made for him. He was, however, very aware of the emotional charge that emanated from this role.
PHOTO VALERY HACHE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Bercot and Benoît Magimel during the screening of In his lifetime at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was shown out of competition there.
“If it had been bad and badly written, we could still have discussed it, but there, this script was of great beauty and incredible depth. It was impossible to decline such an invitation. ”
“Having said that,” he continues, “I wondered if this film came into my life as a premonition. As I don’t believe in chance, I told myself that something was going to happen to me, that I was bound to get sick. It was also not missing since, a week later, I had pain everywhere. It is very curious. In his lifetime came at a time when I started to wonder. After 40 years, we wonder about our health, we pay more attention. We also see death gradually starting to be a part of our life because we lose loved ones. ”
A bad for a good
By force of circumstances, the actor was forced to stay in the mood for a long time, because the filming was finally spread over a whole year.
“It was bad for good because it allowed me to live the same time that Benjamin is going through in the film. You can’t play that kind of role if you don’t pull it towards you. To draw on the outside world and to feed on documentaries is useless. ”
This break also allowed Benoît Magimel to better understand the approach of Doctor Gabriel Sara, the third main character of In his lifetime. Oncologist in New York, this specialist borrows in his practice a method based on benevolence, the pleasure of life, and which, above all, advocates an honest bond with the patient, from whom no truth is hidden. Not finding a French actor matching the character’s description, Emmanuelle Bercot asked the doctor, who has never acted in her life, to play her own role in her film.
“I was not at all in agreement with Doctor Sara and his method at the beginning, entrusts the actor. I wasn’t sure I had the moral strength to hear the truth and face it. Honestly, the first part of the shoot was not very pleasant. It was even painful, to tell the truth. When we all got together eight months later at the resumption, I had completely changed my outlook and everything was relaxed. It was as if I had gone through the same stages as the character: anger, denial, surrender, acceptance. An actor does not always follow the same trajectory as the character he plays, but here it was necessary. ”
A luminous dimension
In fact, it was only at the end of the shooting that Benoît Magimel was able to take the measure of the fundamentally alive character of this story which, paradoxically, directly addresses the theme of our mortality.
“It’s the kind of drama that makes you cry a lot, but which also gives us an extraordinary breath of life,” assures the actor. When Emmanuelle spoke of the luminous dimension of her screenplay, I did not however see at all what she was talking about at the beginning. It wasn’t until months later that I understood what she meant and said. We can see it as a philosophical tale where we can find some answers to the terror we all feel in the face of disease and death. It can be scary, of course, but if you have the courage to take the plunge, I believe that this film can bring something very saving. It’s a hymn to life! ”
In his lifetime hits theaters on December 3.