Jean-Jacques Beineix: "I never did anything to love me"

It could be an injured chicken. With coronary heart and physique burns. A big chicken that has recognized the summits, so excessive, in majesty, within the sky of French cinema. On the time, we have been speaking in regards to the three B's: Beineix, Besson, Blier. New soiled children of the seventh artwork, imaginary agitators. Besides that the primary of the three traded with a curse however he didn't comprehend it. He went like a mad horse, rushed, reared up. Sharp mouth of insurgent à la Dewaere. Touched by a grace that hid his recreation. This wild omnipotence, already fed by jealousy and capital annoyance, stored him a canine from his canine.

Forty years later, this morning on the finish of January, the animal is there, in entrance of us, in an elegant brasserie in Place Blanche (Paris IX). It's his neighborhood. He lives simply behind, on this little planet of Batignolles the place he has spent his life jostling, blows struck and cashed. He’s there and he’s weary. He hardly smiles. "Because the climate is sweet," says our photographer, "I recommend that we exit to take the photographs. Jean-Jacques accepts. After "the Moon within the gutter", a bit of solar within the chilly water of a damaged soul can’t be refused. He goes out with out his jacket or cap. It seems like a lion with no mane who will go across the observe.

Flashback. Just a few days earlier, within the small every day scree of the literary press companies, a ebook instantly captured consideration. The quilt is in black and white. It represents the highest of a slide accompanied by its shadow, descending a sand dune riddled with wild grass. "Toboggan" is the title.

If it isn’t a black novel, it’s that of a darkish and sinking soul. The primary character was a superb filmmaker. He’s now undoubtedly bruised by the departure of the lady, his muse. Too unlivable. Entangled within the lack of ability to be printed. His misplaced love comes again to him in a wave of salt. Particularly because the stunning parade on the arm of a New York nightclub. "How might she go from a man like him to a man like that." "Toboggan": the novel of a misplaced love, of an iron turned and turned over within the wound. An extended slide that may by no means announce something good once more.

Sorrow feeds the work

"I’m at all times very intrigued by folks steeped in expertise, who take a look, a creativity, however who determine to cease creating," says editor Elsa Lafon. That is what fascinated me about him. This paralysis has grown over time and prevents her from practising her artwork. "

Cinephile, fan of Beineix, Elsa has been affected person. “Ten years in the past, I learn his solutions to a questionnaire in a magazine. He introduced that he was contemplating a novel. Beineix's gold, on the time, we have been particularly ready for the second quantity of his autobiography. Within the first, the filmmaker recounted his trajectory as a director by means of the prism of those three adventures steeped in gentle and torment that have been "Diva", "the Moon within the gutter" and "37 ° 2 within the morning".

Elsa jumped on her telephone and by no means left the case. Neither the person, damaged by a breakup in love. "He couldn't recover from it. He was in nice ache. It is vitally subjective on my half, however I’ve at all times thought that the sorrows of affection of males are stronger than these of ladies. I don't know if it's okay to say it, she breathes, but when he hesitated a lot, it may also have been for concern of hitting her new accomplice. "

Of her protégé, she praises humor, intelligence, and says properly that he "doesn’t know easy methods to be anybody apart from himself". And so as to add: "He’s somebody who just isn’t in an appearing recreation and, what touches me probably the most in his ebook, is sincerity. He is aware of very properly that his character is extraordinarily unfriendly. "

Featured, alongside Jean-Hugues Anglade, of "Mortal Switch", launched on screens in 2001, Hélène de Fougerolles continues to trade on social networks with the one who, by providing him this function, gave the younger actress the sensation of residing "an accomplishment".

"He was very demanding," she summarizes. But additionally very emotional whereas making an attempt to cover it. There was a shift in cinema that has made a distinction. And that a director should settle for sure situations as we speak. Soften. Jean-Jacques has most likely not taken that flip. It's laborious to know that somebody with a lot expertise can not communicate up. "

Again from the photograph shoot, Beineix not touches his chilly espresso and pours himself a glass of water. In "Toboggan", his character caught up by well being issues is not entitled to espresso. “I’m the sum of quite a lot of errors and complicated life adventures. I by no means did something to like me. It turns into sophisticated as we speak to make a movie for me as a result of I’m a maverick ”.

He by no means wished to make concessions. “I refused quite a lot of issues. The great thing about the gesture doesn’t curiosity the large corporations. They need prime contractors. You actually should have exploits to be on the An inventory. The one the place you’re instructed: Do what you need. "

Midday miracle, Beineix smiles. He talks about his label of "lone wolf". " I don’t exit. I hate fiestas. I keep at residence. I like books. Nature. I'm a man from Batignolles, Epinettes district (Editor's observe: Paris XVII). I by no means bought out. I’m very homebody. It's solely cinema that has taken me all over the world. "

He’s his worst enemy

When he talks about his golden age when he performed rebellious princes on curler skates in Hollywood, it's the identical melody that this pianist in love with Satie sounds. “Each morning I went to Santa Monica, I hiked the coast highway, and after solely I might go to work. It doesn't shine in Hollywood events. "In everybody's eyes, I remained a wierd Frenchman when it’s so straightforward to fulfill folks in Hollywood. You see, I’m my worst enemy. "

“Once I consider him, observes the journalist Bruno Cras, who is aware of the energumene properly, I’ve the immense impression of a large number, of a misunderstanding. He jogs my memory of the title of the movie by Luigi Comencini, "the Ununderstood". Criticism has at all times been revengeful with him. After which there was this drama, the loss of life of Yves Montand on the set of "IP5", following a cardiac arrest. “On the time, we stated: It was the person who killed Montand. It actually broke him. Ultimately, he solely made six movies. Even when he’ll undoubtedly stay within the historical past of cinema, it’s a bit as if he had missed his profession. "

About this stroke of destiny, Beineix goes again to the rendezvous of reminiscences. “Initially, I had written the movie for Jean-Pierre Marielle, but it surely was not free. Immediately, Montand received. I’ve at all times beloved Montand. "

On the set, it was high quality that day. “IP5 is an orphan movie… However no, the movie that actually broke me is the Moon within the gutter. All the pieces I lived there, the way in which it occurred, the settling of scores, the entire extra … There have been days when it was scary. You understand, the film enterprise just isn’t Ten % (Editor's observe: the collection on France 2 initiated by Dominique Besnehard). It’s a lot worse. It’s hellish with cruelty. "

An actual daredevil

Beineix has not at all times been withdrawn from the world. “I did quite a lot of dangerous issues like mountaineering. I wished to be a mountain information. He was a sailor too. The boat crusing in "Toboggan" seems like hers. “Within the Bay of Biscay, we have been critically castagnated. I’ll always remember how, one evening, after having overcome my concern, I felt a rare type of pleasure. "

To not point out automobile racing. “I used to be on Simca 2000. It was high quality! At evening, I went to a man who labored at Matra and we adjusted the automobile. I used to be doing highway exams at three within the morning. Insane stuff! I’ve been very fortunate. I noticed a automobile go over me in gliding flight. I spun at 200 an hour on the Dunlop curve. I escaped unscathed. Not solely have we completed, however we’ve received ”.

On this hectic life, this insurance coverage son who by no means knew easy methods to make the correct turns together with his father – "there’s something that we by no means resolved, he was a straight man, I used to be a boy, we didn’t meet lastly, I needed to disappoint him quite a bit, I manhandled him ”- stored his solely“ outward signal of virility ”: a motorcycle. He would have tried the satan together with his racing automobile, too, however he returned from Canada with a canine. However doggies usually are not motorbike appropriate.

There’s something that no person is aware of. Beineix's heroes, his landmarks, his inextinguishable lanterns, are the postman Cheval and the ceramist Bernard Palissy. One carried stones all day lengthy, the opposite burned his furnishings. Two "cracked", he says, decided to go to the tip of their artwork. “Mission first. Jean-Jacques continues to be dreaming of missions, and on the sly. "However somebody must take it by the hand," says Elsa Lafon.