Léa Seydoux: “I hope Beauty and the Beast will fill our lack of magic and wonder”
On this holiday, NRJ12 is betting on the spectacular French film by Christophe Gans.
On the occasion of the rebroadcast of The beauty and the Beast, First search through his archives. When it was released in early 2014, the editorial staff had interviewed the entire team. Here is an excerpt from our meeting with Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel.
Premiere: Vincent, you’ve been trying to make a film with Christophe Gans for a while, haven’t you?
Vincent Cassel : Yes. After The Pact of the Wolves (2001)we launched several projects that all fell apart for various reasons, script or otherwise. Bob Morane, Ghosts, The Swedish Cavalier – this one, I still hope it will materialize. For The beauty and the Beast, it was obvious that Christophe was interested in it. He is comfortable in the register of storytelling in costumes, magic and masters special effects. There is something “Miyazakian” in his treatment of history. The film is populated by spirits, small animals, giants.
Christophe Gans: “Vincent Cassel is the only guy in France who can play a decadent prince and a beast”
Léa, this film represents an important step in your career insofar as you haven’t practiced this popular cinema much yet. Is this something that motivated you?
Léa Seydoux : It was above all the opportunity to play Belle that appealed to me, it was a childhood dream. When I was little, the only problem I had with Cocteau’s film was that I didn’t totally identify with Belle. Josette Day was 32, she was a little old for the role… I hope to be able to become a model for today’s little girls.
vincent : I too would like to be a role model for little girls. (Laugh.)
Vincent Cassel: “On Beauty and the Beast, it was difficult to judge my power of seduction”
Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, The Wizard of Oz… Tales are making a strong comeback in the cinema and in the contemporary imagination. Do you have an explanation for this phenomenon?
Leah : It’s the crisis, we need to dream.
vincent : There is also the fact that the evolution of technologies today makes it possible to “re-read” these tales in a completely unbridled way.
Leah : The most attractive thing about Christophe’s approach is that his film is neither a prequel, nor a spin-off, nor anything like that. The result promises to be very spectacular, but he especially wanted to keep the original simplicity of the story. These days, with the exception of a few cartoons, I find that there is a lack of truly magical and marvelous films. Me, I am for magic and the marvelous and I hope that Beauty and the Beast will come to fill this void.
Interview Frederic Foubert
Extract :
Beauty and the Beast reaches levels never seen in French cinema (review)
