«SIt would be like asking Brad Pitt what he thinks about blonde hair. Obviously I’m ok with him! He laughs heartily Vincent Lindonamused by the somewhat surreal comparison. A question about it was enough to inspire him Us and themin theaters February 27which represents only the latest in a long series of militant films (Welcome, The law of the market, Titan): “Does the artist necessarily have a social responsibility?”.
Awarded in Venice
«What happens to my fellow citizens interests me, has always interested me: news events, collective events, literary and artistic currents… And, in any case, everything is politics: how you dress, how you speak, the places you frequent» explains the French actor, who – after swimming coaches, security guards, firefighters – this time he plays a railway worker, a widower destabilized by the discovery that one of his two sons is active in violent far-right groups.The performance earned him the Volpi Cup at the 2024 Venice Film Festival and was the occasion for an emotional speech: «Unfortunately my tics (invisible when acting, ed) have left” he apologised, continuing by thanking his children Suzanne and Marcel, his partner (Cécile Duffau, founder of the non-profit Un Rien C’est Tout), and the directors, sisters Delphine and Muriel Coulin.
Vincent Lindon awarded for “Us and Them” with the Volpi Cup at the 2024 Venice Film Festival (photo Getty Images).
“Fatherhood”
The film addresses many pressing issues. Which one resonated with you the most?
The relationship between the “big history”, the one with a capital S, and the “small history”. And what is the connection between the two, since the dawn of time? Fatherhood! I was interested in the approach chosen by the screenplay: how far can the relationship between people who love each other and who, at a certain point, have opposing ideological beliefs last? And how can two brothers who were educated in the same way, ate the same things, slept in the same room, go in opposite directions?
Vincent Lindon and the cherries
Yes, how can they? In Italy we have a saying: the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree…
In France we have a similar one, “l’arbre ne tombe jamais loin du tronc”, but I don’t agree: if that were the case, the world couldn’t evolve. If a cherry tree is rotten, then the cherries that fall are rotten and have no chance of becoming a beautiful tree. Which, however, happens: a boy who was raised by nefarious parents can become a champion of good. It can demonstrate courage, pride, goodness, humanity.
Which of the two sons would you have recognized yourself in at twenty, the “perfect” one or the one who derails?
Ideally I would have been the rebel, concretely I would have ended up being the one in line. For transgression you need to have a thread of recklessness, and I’m fearful… Let me explain better: I’m not afraid of people, I’m not afraid of sincerity. What scares me is what I can’t handle. Drugs, for example.
The original title of Us and them And: Jouer avec le feu, Playing with fire.
You have to know how to stop, and it’s difficult. Like on the stock market: the market grows and grows, you realize that you should sell, you hope that tomorrow it will increase further… And tomorrow? It comes down!
How did you prepare for the role?
I didn’t prepare. My life is an uninterrupted preparation: I watch, I listen, I spend my time in cafes, on the street. I observe people for hours, listen to the radio, read the newspapers: I am perpetually awake, with my antennas erect. There is an expression in French to define someone on the beat: “Il fait pas la sieste”, he doesn’t doze.
Vincent Lindon in Venice with Stefan Crepon and Benjamin Voisin, co-stars of “Us and Them” (Getty Images).
“Voilà, I contradict myself”
Maybe he rests – taking a sort of vacation himself – when he’s on set as a character.
Oh no! I don’t take vacations from myself. It would delight me… (laughs) A long holiday, a sabbatical! I often find it tiring.
Why?
I have the impression that there are fifty of us arguing, like in the market, and everyone is trying to prevail… It’s complicated, exhausting. I am a living paradox.
Walt Whitman would understand: “Am I contradicting myself? Very good, then I contradict myself. I am vast, I contain multitudes” he wrote.
Voila, exactly! So sure: I deserve some holidays. Acting is suffering, torture. There is some sado-masochism, I admit: it is an immense pleasure nourished by terrible suffering.
He will not have prepared himself, but he will have wondered about the constantly increasing youth discomfort. He must have imagined an antidote…
I’m not sure if it leads anywhere, but communication, the word, is fundamental. As in the couple. If we really talked to each other, if we dared to say to those in front of us: “You know, today I feel less like hugging you than yesterday”, it would be enough to feel understood to instantly restore the desire to hug. If you were able, in the morning, to ask your partner “How are you?” with intention, not automatically: “How are you at this precise moment, tell me. Are you OK?”. What if we were not satisfied with an automatic, hasty response but instead investigated: “You don’t understand, I love you and I ask you: how are you now? Tell me about it.” If parents knew how to address their children: “Let it out if there’s something wrong. Maybe I can help you, maybe not, anyway together we can try to avoid stupid things…”. Now, that would be a significant step.
Vincent Lindon with his partner, Cecile Duffau (Getty Images).
Couple secrets
Unfortunately there are things that are almost impossible to express.
I know, unpleasant things, yet what is hard to hear must be verbalized. It happens to anyone (sorry for the comparison) to have bad breath. Instead of warning your partner, you end up hating him and even attacking him… Wouldn’t frankness be better? “Chérie, I adore you, unfortunately there is this little problem”. The other can intervene and, suddenly, the nervousness vanishes. (smiles)
In a scene of Us and them teaches his son to dance, and he danced in Titan: is he good?
No. It’s definitely not my strong point.
Safe safe?
Dance by definition is an area in which you relax and let yourself go, while for me the opposite happens: there I exercise ultra-control over myself so as not to appear ridiculous.
“Only one love”
Victim of control syndrome?
Ninth. I have no sense of rhythm, of ta-ta-ta. (snaps fingers)
Strange, being comfortable in acting and not in dancing…
I’m comfortable when I live, not when I dance. I’m comfortable on land, but not in water. Happens.
Do you remember your very first spark for acting?
I can’t remember it because… it never attracted me: it was a coincidence. I did some studies, I found myself a costume assistant on an Alain Resnais film (Mon Oncle d’Amériquein 1980, ed), shortly after becoming assistant to Coluche, the French comedian, and finally – not having a clear path to take – I enrolled in a theater school. I took auditions, they selected me. First they gave me one-minute roles, then two, ten… And now I’m here.
What had he studied?
After high school I started economic sciences: I got bored straight away! In reality, what gives me satisfaction is working, I am in love with work! And I like to try to do it as best as possible. If tomorrow they offered me to change my job and become a restaurateur, I would accept, as long as the food was good in that restaurant.
“Who do they think they are?”
In the next film “we will eat well”: the director is Ruben Östlund, twice Palme d’Or winner at Cannes, for The Square and for Triangle of Sadness. The title is a program: The Entertainment System Is Down, The entertainment system is brokenAnd.
I’m not allowed to spoil anything.
But what is your opinion on showbusiness?
(rolls eyes). It’s a long speech. I’ll summarize it like this: this is my phone (shows an antediluvian cell phone) and I don’t have Twitter, or Facebook, or Instagram. Je-m’en-fou! I don’t care! To know if someone has a cat, the view they see from their window, their lunch… Does anyone care? (he blurts out in perfect Italian). Everyone tells their impressions of everything… Who do they think they are?
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