Vimala Pons and William Lebghil in the touching exploration of a pair of artists
End of day, weekend, end of year. In the distributor’s offices The beautiful rolea very cute and romantic comedy by Victor Rodenbach, Vimala Pons and William Lebghil provide the last interviews before the release of this film in theaters on December 18, 2024. Fatigue therefore, but also familiarity and sincerity, this enchanting authenticity that breaks out when the the banks of boring decorum are breaking.
And this is good END of something discussed in The beautiful role. The end of a couple of artists, Nora and Henri, who until then had been united in the profession of theater director and actor. The two feed on each other’s gaze, on their personal and professional desire, but everything changes when Henri finally finds a beautiful role in the cinema, far from the stage, Nora’s world.
The end of a love and a collaboration, and therefore an obligatory new beginning for both. Very personal film by its author, screenwriter and in a relationship with Pauline Bayle, actress and theater director, The beautiful role explores with extraordinary energy the laceration of a couple between two worlds, that of theater and cinema, skillfully mixing character painting and situational comedy.
An ideal casting
The beautiful role It cleverly exploits some codes of remarriage comedy in its writing and delivers a handful of notable scenes, but it’s mostly through the grace of its casting that it reaches some heights. The choice of his actors is always fundamental, e.g The beautiful role combines the best of its two main actors, Vimala Pons AND William Lebghil. That is, for her, a strong singularity, sure and dazzling, and for him a very seductive mystery, a sweet sensation of continuous bewilderment and yet of the desire for action. And faced with a sentimental and professional breakup that can obscure these colors as well as give others, both, in their characters, will rediscover themselves.
Impressive in pictures The beautiful rolethey are also when they meet them, enjoying the closeness to their roles, resorting to irony and jokes. Nora is in fact a director, as is Vimala Pons. Henri is an actor who aspires to another universe, to another representation, the one to which William Lebghil, often recruited for his comic talent, perhaps also aspires with recent, more dramatic and profound, well-known interpretations… Meeting without barriers and freewheeling with two artists in excellent form.
How would you present, in a nutshell, the story of The beautiful role ?
Vimala Pons : It’s the story of a couple…ah, I hate that word.
William Lebghil : “couple” ?
Vimala Pons : YES. I have the impression of seeing two pigeons shitting in a sewer… (laugh) It’s the story of one love after another! Is there love after love? When does love cease to exist? “Do you believe in love after love”? I also do it in English.
William Lebghil : Dear.
Vimala Pons : Very expensive.
William Lebghil : And nothing to do with Loir et Cher. By Michel Delpech.
Vimala Pons : This last valve is… (laugh)
William Lebghil : It is the story of the opportunity to become a complete being again, to be one. At the beginning of the film, this couple is a bit of a two-headed monster. So by separating this two-headed being there is the opportunity to evolve, to change and perhaps why not to rediscover oneself.
In this game of glances, of existences for the other, why does Henri no longer want to be looked at by Nora?
Vimala Pons : I’m fed up with myself too.
William Lebghil : But it’s not good or what?
Vimala Pons : I already want to have cosmetic surgery, get my ears done. Small ears transform a face.
William Lebghil : No, they’re fantastic!
Vimala Pons : Well… actually I understand very well that people are fed up with me, especially with Nora, because after all it’s not far from being the same thing….
William Lebghil : Yes, finally, it’s written, it’s all premeditated. Not that you had a choice.
Vimala Pons : I find it difficult to exploit others for the purposes of self-realization. There is a hierarchical relationship between a director and an actor. But actors write a lot, in the theater even more than in the cinema, where they can truly be pillars. So it’s more of a creative duo, and that’s what I said to myself for this film anyway. They decide together that they will go up Ivanovhe wants to play it. We don’t see it much in the film, but I imagined it a lot. Losing your actor… we heard the word “muse” a lot in the film’s promotion to describe Henri, and I disagree! It’s a word I don’t like…
William Lebghil : At most one bagpipe.
Vimala Pons : We’ll never get there. There I am producing answers and you deconstruct everything, but not in the current sense.
William Lebghil : Old fashioned.
Vimala Pons : Here you go, Jean Gabin with the pruning shears.
William Lebghil : Jean Gabin deconstructing a Morteau sausage. (laugh)
Vimala Pons : Something I don’t like about myself but I like about this character is the excess energy. It’s fun, but it’s tiring. And when I see William play, it’s really precious. He supported me and taught me many things, because he always builds something between us. There are many actors who have plans for their sequences, and I’m one of them so I include myself in this review, where you have an idea of what’s going to happen, you’re a little stressed so you don’t really listen to the other, you don’t listen the situation and you don’t listen to yourself, at this very moment. William does exactly the opposite. He listens to what is happening and reacts. Being an actor, I think, is more about reacting than responding. But it’s very difficult to pull off and I think William is a great actor.
William Lebghil : Come on, thanks, bye! (He pretends to leave)
William, do you confirm this agreement with Vimala, for this very first collaboration in a film?
William Lebghil : Finally we have Vimala. Because if we have different characters, we are probably very similar underneath. But for me this riot of energy fascinates and excites me. I think it’s great, because these are the places I would love to be. I think we always want to be what we are not. And our meeting, I say it sincerely, is a bit like going back to school. On the first day there are people, you see them and immediately understand that you want to play in the sandbox with them. And play like little dogs. Puppies. (Bark)
Vimala Pons : It was obvious from the tests.
William Lebghil : Also, Vimala has this ability to not filter, to say what she thinks without necessarily being afraid of hurting people.
Vimala Pons : It’s still brutal. A little bad.
William Lebghil : No, I think it’s sincere and there’s panache. It’s a franchise for getting things done. For example, there are work sessions where we’re all a little shy, and Vimala comes in and questions everything. It’s great because it brings freshness, material to move forward. There’s a moment in the film, and I think it’s great that we kept it, where there’s a line ofIvanov about active love. This phrase is one of the reasons why I accepted the role, it literally made me cry when I read it in the script.
But over the course of the versions this phrase disappeared. We crossed Platonov, Don Giovanni… And then a month before filming, we hadn’t seen each other since rehearsals, you remembered this sentence. You remembered it, the reason that pushed me to make the film. Even though we hadn’t consulted each other at all.
Vimala Pons : I immediately said: “I don’t want Don Giovanni”.
Don Giovanni it’s shit, it’s not about anything interesting, everyone was like, “ah man, she’s so annoying.”
William Lebghil : I was mostly afraid that you would break!
Vimala Pons : I thought “why did Victor change?” His first hunch was correct. What is Don Giovanni related to that? While Ivanov spoke in much more metaphorical terms about the film’s subjects.
What was it like working with Victor Rodenbach on these types of situations?
William Lebghil : Lots of discussion. Victor has an openness and ease, probably because he’s a screenwriter, he knows how to let go of something he’s written because we’ve had a conversation and gone in another direction. The script has evolved a lot, and it’s great because we avoid the trap, this is the impression I have, of the first film where we really want to shoot what we wrote, with the fear of finishing. Victor was the opposite, relaxed and attentive. He’s a genius, I love him.
Do you remember a particular sequence, a scene that you find particularly strong?
Vimala Pons : The forward tracking shot of the two of us during family dinner. It’s a beautiful production, with short shooting sequences, and I love the dialogue. I find that here we are at the pinnacle of acting.
William Lebghil : What is the climax?
Vimala Pons : It’s at the top. The art of acting is at its peak.
William Lebghil : So I’m not far from thinking the same thing.
Vimala Pons : I also like the sequence where he says “let me introduce myself, my name is Henri”, with Antonia and Jérémie, which I find funny, everything is very accurate. This sequence is very successful.
Source: Cine Serie
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