The Press at the 81st Venice Film Festival | A Good Father Despite Everything

French actor Vincent Lindon shines in Play with firea sober social drama by sisters Delphine and Muriel Coulin, in competition at the Venice Film Festival, where he plays a railway worker raising his two sons alone.

(Venice) Adaptation of What you need at nightLaurent Petitmangin’s first novel published in 2020 and winner of the Fémina des lycéens prize, Play with fire addresses the fears felt by filmmakers Delphine and Muriel Coulin (17 girls, Samba) facing the future of French society.

“One of the best starting points for a film is to deal with your greatest fears,” explained Delphine Coulin at a press conference. “My greatest fear is not recognizing my son, my sister, my country if they went to the extreme right. So everything was brought together in the novel, we couldn’t miss this coincidence.”

“We share everything, from the writing to today,” revealed Muriel Coulin. “We don’t have a specialty. Cinema is collective, especially for us. When the actors arrive in the project, we welcome the living.”

A widower for several years, a railway worker in a small village in Lorraine, Pierre (Vincent Lindon) has always made sure that his sons lacked nothing. While the youngest, Louis (Stefan Crepon, recently seen in Making ofby Cédric Kahn), is preparing to continue his studies in Paris, the eldest, Fus (Benjamin Voisin, who played Lucien de Rubempré in Lost Illusionsby Xavier Giannoli), a football fanatic who has lost faith in the future, has recently been hanging out with a far-right gang. A left-winger, Pierre is having a hard time handling the situation.

“All over the planet, we see the rise of fascism,” continued Delphine Coulin. “If there was only one reason to adhere to it, the solution to remedy it would be very simple. There is a whole range of family, social, economic, political reasons that push people to turn to violent solutions. We did not want it to be a caricature.”

“We tried to have neither an attitude of rejection nor an attitude of overhang towards the character,” added Muriel Coulin. “We chose to approach the rise of fascism in a small social unit, a family. The film does not say what to think, but how to think.”

More questions than answers

Associated with committed cinema, social dramas, having played sometimes humble workers, sometimes big bosses with the same brilliance, Vincent Lindon confided that he does not think about the subject when he chooses to take on a role, but about the quality of the writing.

“With a subject like this, the script has to be well-written, otherwise you’re not doing the cause any favors,” Lindon said. “The sisters’ approach is distinguished, nuanced; it’s intelligently written. Their film doesn’t dictate.”

“What really struck me was seeing that my generation, which was on guard against far-right ideology, could fall into it, crumble. The two brothers embody two opposing positions. The film raises more questions than it provides answers,” said Stefan Crepon.

“What I found most interesting is that these are not young people who are in precarious situations. Everything is perfect for him, happiness is there, in this family. Things are not just black and white,” added Benjamin Voisin.

In addition to the extreme right, Vincent Lindon recalled that Play with fire also talks about fatherhood: “Pierre is a man who feels responsible for this son who is becoming radicalized. The two sons were raised in the same way, but your character is your destiny. The father is unconditionally in love with his two children; what I found interesting is that he is both responsible and not only responsible for his sons.”

Considering that the filmmakers gave him a “tremendous gift” by offering him this role of father, Vincent Lindon wanted to salute the young actors who play opposite him in Play with firecalling them “two future movie stars.”

“This film is a lifesaver because it allowed me to pass on my craft to a new generation of actors that I admire enormously; it’s good to hand over power,” said the 65-year-old actor. “It was also great for the three of us to be filmed by the two sisters; they were like a mother divided in two who protected us.”