In The successorMarc-André Grondin bursts onto the screen in an anxiety-provoking and surprising film that mixes genres. The Press met the actor Reasonable doubtto discuss Xavier Legrand’s feature film in which he surpasses himself.
Marc-André Grondin, who will be 40 next March, already has an impressive track record: around thirty films and around fifteen series. Starring in Xavier Legrand’s second feature film (To the hilt), the actor explores obscure and borderline areas. “I have always tried to arrive where I was not expected,” says the actor, adding that he mainly thrives on crushes.
Dans Le successeur (une coproduction Québec, France et Belgique), il incarne Ellias, le directeur artistique d’une célèbre maison de haute couture parisienne. En pleine ascension dans le milieu de la mode, Ellias apprend que son père, qu’il ne voit plus depuis plusieurs années, vient de mourir d’une crise cardiaque. Il se rend au Québec pour régler la succession, en croyant rester deux ou trois jours. Mais Ellias va découvrir qu’il a hérité de bien pire que du cœur fragile de son père…
C’est une vraie proposition cinématographique. Le film malmène avec plaisir le public. C’est un film hybride qui déjoue les codes.
Marc-André Grondin, comédien
En effet, Le successeur mélange les genres : film noir, suspense, parabole tragique, thriller anxiogène, nouveau cinéma d’épouvante… D’une scène à l’autre, le public ne sait pas où le récit va le transporter.
État d’abandon
Le comédien a plongé dans « un état d’abandon total » durant le tournage. « J’ai fait complètement confiance à Xavier [Legrand], to his vision of his work. Xavier is first and foremost an actor and he directs us very well. The filmmaker knows precisely what he wants. Sometimes it takes two takes, other times, 18… before you get there. But when he has his [bonne] taken, that’s exactly what he had in mind. »
PROVIDED BY ENTRACT FILMS
Yves Jacques and Marc-André Grondin in The successorthe new film by Xavier Legrand
Marc-André Grondin plays in almost three quarters of the film. He bursts the screen in several scenes where he is alone. The cast also includes Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Vincent Leclerc, Louis Champagne and Yves Jacques. The latter plays for the first time with Grondin.
“What I find great is that we all play with our Quebec accent! Which is daring for a co-production with France and Belgium,” remarks Yves Jacques, who lived in Paris and, like Grondin, has often worked across the Atlantic.
“I have known Xavier for around fifteen years. He saw me play in theater and cinema in France, continues the veteran actor. During the pandemic, he texted me to tell me he was writing a role for me. I was happy when I saw that he offered me a role as a good father, a nice guy. Because in general, I am made to play tortured characters, whereas in life, I am the complete opposite of that. »
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Xavier Legrand, director of the film The successor
Demanding filming
For his screenplay, Legrand, also a man of the theater, was inspired by the classics of Greek tragedy, such as Euripides, Sophocles and Aeschylus; and also historical dramas by Shakespeare. Authors who drew on mythology to write their stories. “The minute the movie starts, there’s no turning back. Ellias gets sucked in and he goes all the way to the bottom. It’s fatal,” summarizes Grondin.
He is asked why his character reacts so blindly, to put it mildly:
I accepted the story without questioning it. We are in a Greek tragedy. You don’t read Oedipus thinking about what you would have done in his place or if you would have called the police… In the end, the result is the same.
Marc-André Grondin, actor
The director also associates the character of Ellias with a tragic figure, like Oedipus or Orestes. A modern Oedipus who returns to his native Repentigny and sinks into an infernal spiral. His attempt to repair the legacy of the father he never loved leads to disaster. The weight of patriarchy is very overwhelming in The successor.
Grondin adds that shooting the film was “pleasurable… but demanding.” “We filmed at night in a cramped house in Repentigny, in the gray of late winter. »
Kindness as a legacy
Ellias is trying to save his career, his reputation and this glamorous life he made in Europe. But his family heritage will catch up with him.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Marc-André Grondin
Five weeks ago, Grondin had a little girl with actress Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse, a third child for the actor CRAZY. However, the film also makes him think of the legacy of his own father, the late animator Denis Grondin. “My father loved making people happy. Since his death [en 2017], I see how much he was appreciated by everyone. People who knew him come to talk to me about him, and I see in their eyes that they appreciated him very much. »
“I also try to reproduce, in my life and at work, this kindness,” he continues. To maintain good relationships with the teams on set. Beyond the success of a film or not, my pleasure in doing this job comes through passing on my father’s values. »
And not to fall into the inevitability of human tragedy.
In theaters February 2