PROFILES

The most famous member of the Comédie-Française, currently appearing on stage in Les Damnés*, has just finished shooting his second feature film, Maryline. He talked to us about Cézanne, the role he considers his best to date.

It's a fact little known except to experts: Paul Cézanne and Émile Zola were childhood friends in Aix-en-Provence and remained close for much of their lives. The dramatic intensity of their friendship, almost like a love affair, is the core of Danièle Thompson's Cézanne et Moi (released on 21 September), in which Guillaume Gallienne plays Cézanne alongside Guillaume Canet's Zola. Based on real facts, the film focuses on the difficulties the two men had in trying to maintain their friendship while pursuing their destinies as writer and painter.

Epic
“Danièle Thompson saw me as Zola, but I didn't. I felt I had played that type of character before, as Pierre Bergé in Jalil Lespert's Yves Saint Laurent – the person who can step back, who has some wisdom, and who can put up with the attacks of a manic-depressive – because if Cézanne were alive today he would certainly be diagnosed as such (laughs). This time I wanted to play the manic-depressive! The screenplay was magnificent. Danièle had turned herself into an art historian for several years. She decided not to do a classic biopic but instead to tell the story of a unique friendship between two creatives who met as adolescents but who, as adults, didn't manage to maintain their deep connection.”

Landscapes
“I liked this tremendously complex character straight away. He was rough, abrasive and quick-tempered but upright and free. What interested him was not a territory but landscapes: painting not trees but the wind. He's not sure of himself but he's sure of his art. Unlike his friend Émile who quickly became famous, Cézanne never knew success during his lifetime. One moved towards realism, the other towards abstraction. It's not surprising that their paths separated.”

Humility
“I knew very little of Cézanne's work. Seven or eight months before shooting, Danièle had me meet a friend of hers, Marseille painter Gérard Traquandi, who helped me relate to a canvas and a subject, showed me how to hold a brush and position myself in front of an easel... We went to the Musée d'Orsay together to see how Cézanne's painting evolved. Looking at one of his early works I said “It's no good, is it?” and Gérard said, “You're right, but you can already see his humility.” Another time I was in Gérard's studio and as he watched me paint he said, “You have one flaw, you try to fill in too fast.” He was talking about my painting and I thought he was talking about my acting!” (laughs).

Feeling
“Of course it was very important to make my character credible and depict him as well as possible. On the preparation side I worked at length with Dominique Colladant on the makeup and Catherine Leterrier on the costumes, but I didn't want to get too much into fact-finding for that. I wanted to get into the story through Danièle's eyes. That's almost always how it is, I look for the feeling rather than factual accuracy.”

Waverings
“Cézanne was riddled with doubt, but he was opinionated. For me, if I no longer doubted I would quit acting straight away. A thing I love in this film is when Cézanne at last manages to put the final touch to one of his canvases after so much wavering. He's overjoyed. In our day we do so many things at once, talking on the phone while eating, reading while watching TV, we never stop multitasking but, ultimately, what for? The film tells us that too – how much time you need to create something.”

Being
“It's hard to put it into words but with this role I have the feeling, or the impression, that since then something solid has fallen into place for me. On the set, Danièle gave me a beautiful gift by not systematically cutting a scene but leaving the camera running. So I was doing, doing, doing, and after a while there was no longer anything to do, I only had to be. There were a few moments of grace that I remember still. It's something one doesn't say, but I think I have never acted so well in my life.”