Léa Seydoux: “France is modeled on my own nature”

Arte continues its Cannes cycle with this “kamikaze film” by Bruno Dumont.

If the 2024 Cannes Film Festival does not start until next week, precisely on Tuesday May 14, Arte has already started its cycle special highlight films from the Croisette. For a few days, Drive My Car is notably online, and from this evening, 11:50 p.m., place at Franceby Bruno Dumont.

For “this violent satire” of our society, released in cinemas in August 2021, the creator of Little Quinquin had called on Léa Seydoux. At the time, she was unable to go to the Cannes festival due to Covid, but just before leaving for Greece on the set of Crimes of the future, by David Cronenberg, the actress received us in a Parisian bistro near her home. Flashback.

This interview is taken from issue 521 of First, dating from the summer of 2021. You can also find our interview with Bruno Dumont, the director of France.

“I actually asked Bruno Dumont to shoot with him. It all started from a fairly simple and direct desire, that of filming with a great director. I discovered his cinema with his first films: The Life of Jesus, L'Humanité… What really started things off was a show on France Culture where he was a guest. He spoke of the sacred, of the way in which he managed to achieve it through his art. For me, the sacred is above all linked to the feeling of love. Being in love is a form of apotheosis of the sacred! The discovery of a work of art naturally allows you to be transcended. I feel this very strongly when seeing Bruno's films, in his way of revealing the power of a landscape, for example.

France also has its sacred part. This does not prevent a form of triviality. Things always exist with their exact opposite. A filmmaker can choose to focus on only one side of a character. Bruno takes everything, hence this richness and this intensity which emanate from these characters. France is modeled on my own nature, with nuances obviously. It's a game of distorting mirrors. Sometimes the ice breaks and it's the actress who looks at her director, sending him knowing glances.“

France: A violent satire carried by a suicide bomber Léa Seydoux (review)

“My first meeting with Bruno was very natural. Some directors can intimidate me, but not him, I immediately had the impression of understanding him and intrinsically grasping his desires. Generally speaking, I never oppose a director; my job is, on the contrary, to try to conform to his personality, his thoughts. The converse is not necessarily true; a filmmaker does not need to know in depth the person he or she is directing. The acting profession requires empathy, the fact of being turned towards others.

Bruno filmed me as he would look at a landscape, without too much emotion. It does not bother me. To play is to be entirely in the present. It's very first degree. Take the sequence where I'm driving the car and France breaks down. The camera films me from a low angle. I started by tensing my face. The tears came next. Movement precedes emotion. The game is physical, psychology doesn't really have its place. In life, we spend our time projecting or rehashing things, not in front of a camera. You have to be there. To be in the present is to be immortal.

Bruno had warned me from the start that he would direct me with earpieces like everyone else. I accepted even though it wasn't easy. When someone speaks into your ear, it alters your playing, prevents you from modulating your text. He loves the difference, and therefore the artificiality that it can cause. Many see only cynicism in France. However, this is not what entirely defines it. She is overcome by different feelings and sensations. She is by turns light-hearted, vain, tragic… The film tells the story of her path, her evolution. She leaves the system she is in, questions it and attempts adventure. Everything is exacerbated at Bruno Dumont. It does not offer realistic cinema. Purity is born from the exaggeration of reality.“