The 74-year-old filmmaker swears that he did not want to make an “autofiction” with “Le Grand Chariot”: the film nevertheless stages his own family in an almost transparent way and questions the idea of artistic heritage and success.
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“Success is cruel“, declared Tuesday, February 21 at the Berlinale the filmmaker Philippe Garrel, who is shooting his three children in his latest film, the most famous of which, his son Louis, actor and director favorite of the Caesars on Friday, February 24.
Louis Garrel, the eldest, plays under his own name, as does his half-sister Léna, while his other sister Esther has chosen to be called Martha in the film. They play the children of a puppeteer, a profession exercised by Philippe Garrel’s own father before becoming an actor. On the death of the puppeteer, each child will make his own artistic choices or not, Louis flying on his own and becoming a well-known actor while his sisters prefer to take over the family puppet theatre.
Family shoots
“It’s the fate of all artists to have luck or not on their side“, explained Philippe Garrel, questioned by AFP: “there are talented people who succeed, talented people who fail, untalented people who succeed and untalented people who fail“.”It’s not like work, art, that’s what’s great“, added the heir to the New Wave, who seems to sign a kind of artistic testament with this film.
“I would like you to be happy in front of my film, because I was happy on the set like never on a set, because I was with my children“, added the one who has already offered roles in the past to his relatives, and in particular Louis, in regular lovers (2005), on the period of May 68 which marked him a lot.
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