Niels Schneider plays a Belle Époque thug in ‘Apaches’

Niels Schneider is a French-Canadian actor. He followed in his father’s footsteps by accompanying him to see shows he directed. The theater also welcomed him during his first steps with roles in plays by Feydeau and Kafka. Quickly, the big screen became interested in him and in 2010, his role in Imaginary lovers by Xavier Dolan with Monia Chokri will propel him to the front of the stage. In 2016, it is the consecration with the film Black Diamond by Arthur Harari for which he received the César for best male hope.

This Wednesday, March 29, 2023, he is showing the film apache by Romain Quirot with Alice Isaaz.

franceinfo: In apache, we are in 1900. Paris is in the hands of ultra-violent gangs who reign terror from Belleville to Montmartre. They are called the Apaches and you are one of them, Jesus. It feels good to play Peaky Blinders modern times?

Niels Schneider: We are not used to this cinema in France. I really love French cinema, a cinema that is more restrained, more restrained. But I also like the more excessive cinema, colorful, where we have fun, where there is no seriousness. And it’s true that I really wanted to follow Romain Quirot because he had an ambition for cinema that was out of the ordinary and that seeks to shift the codes a little bit and shift the lines of French cinema.

We are in 1900, it is during the Belle Époque and it is at this time that the French will discover the Apaches with the shows of Buffalo Bill. There is a real attachment, a real fascination in the end, even for violence. Is that also this film, is it a look at this society?

The Apaches were young people who fascinated everyone. They didn’t want to have the life of their parents, to end up in the factory like them, and they hated the bourgeois, hated the cop, hated work.

Niels Schneider

at franceinfo

The newspapers were terrified, but they created the legend of the Apaches. They had their own haircut, a particular language, they spoke their slang, they had created weapons too. They were known to be lawless and liked to party a lot, they only thought about having fun.

There is a lot of sensitivity, finally, in what they hid through what they consumed, this absinthe. There is also a look at the children of the time. How were you as a child?

Me, I was really in my world. I think I was a very dreamy and hypersensitive child. And then, as a teenager, I liked to be on the streets of my neighborhood all the time, in Montreal. Otherwise, I daydreamed a lot in class.

Was it obvious to choose the profession of actor?

No way. It came later. It really came at 16. When I went on stage for the first time, it really seemed obvious to me. I said to myself at that moment that all the moments that were off stage were only moments of waiting after all.

In this film, the starting point is the death of a brother. You have experienced this loss yourself. Does it ultimately become a strength? Doesn’t it come as a guide?

For me, it was and it’s true that my brother’s death is a tragedy. This is something that absolutely destroyed me.

I think we also build our happiness on a good deal of despair and unhappiness.

Niels Schneider

at franceinfo

Me, I built myself a lot on that and it was finally by wanting to get closer to this brother that I found my way.

You started with theatre. The cinema followed very quickly with Everything is perfect by Yves Christian Fournier (2008). You have also become one of Xavier Dolan’s favorite actors. Was it obvious the cinema?

My dad didn’t make movies at all. It was not my world at all. I lived in Montreal. It was an environment that seemed inaccessible so I didn’t allow myself at all to dream of making films. It really came later when I met Quebec director Yves Christian Fournier for the first time. And then then with Dolan. Nothing seemed impossible for him. He really created his chance when he made the first two films that I shot with him, I killed my mother And Imaginary lovers. He made them with very little money. We did it with friends and all of a sudden, the field of possibilities really opened up and widened.

What is strong, moreover, is when you watch all the films for which you have shot. There is always a family story behind it all. The family is the base, is it your pillar?

It’s true that the family is very important to me and after that, the roles that we give you, that we offer you. You never know if it’s the actors that attract the roles or if it’s the roles that attract the actors. I don’t know how to answer this question.

What does this profession of actor bring you?

It brings me a lot of things. It allows me to know myself a little more, to realize that I am a little larger, a little more than what I thought I was. It allows me to keep a link with childhood. Meetings, travels, it allows me a lot of things. I am extremely privileged to do this job.