Alpe d’Huez 2024 – Melvil Poupaud: “It’s true that I haven’t made many films while jogging”

Meeting with the actor at the Alpe d’Huez Comedy Film Festival, where he came to present Les Règles de l’art alongside Sofiane Zermani.

In Rules of the art by Dominique Baumard, Melvil Poupaud shares the bill with Sofiane Zermani and plays a watch expert who finds himself, somewhat unwillingly, at the heart of a case of theft of master paintings. Inspired by an incredible true story, the feature film, in competition at the Alpe d’Huez festival, navigates between detective film and comedy. As it was below zero degrees on the slopes, we got cozy with Melvil Poupaud to discuss this role, elegance, Didier Bourdon and auteur cinema.

Premiere: It’s amazing to see you at a comedy festival, it seems like two worlds collide. You, the smart and elegant actor in all circumstances, who finds himself in the middle of a big gathering devoted to an inherently popular genre…
Melvil Poupaud: I admit that I’ve already been told that today… Well, I’m used to festivals, eh. But I had heard about Alpe d’Huez from my brother (Editor’s note: Yarol Poupaud, musician) who came to give a concert here two years ago, and he told me that it was cool and relaxing. . It was also the opportunity to show the film for the first time, because we only released it on April 30 and it was the first public screening, in a comedy context. In fact, there is an a priori: everyone comes here to have fun so our film is more half-hearted. Do you see what I mean?

We navigate between thriller and comedy.
Exactly, there is a comic aspect which is revealed especially towards the end. So I hope people weren’t destabilized… It’s difficult to manage, mixing genres. But I find that Dominique Baumard has found a sort of perfect balance. And since there was a lot of laughter at the end of the session, we are happy.

You are rare in comedy. How did you approach the role?
It’s true that I don’t do much, but I was disillusioned by the series UFO(s) on Canal+. It’s more or less the same as for Rules of the art : at first, we weren’t sure if it was a real comedy. In any case there were situations which lent themselves to a more burlesque game, which allowed one to emancipate themselves a little from realism. And I loved that. I felt more comfortable, especially in expressing a feeling with my body. The way you move in space says more than all the dialogue. I got a taste for it, it interests me a lot. I was frustrated that the series ended, but very happy that Dominique offered me this comic role. I felt from reading the script and during the first days of filming that I could go for it honestly: play the acorn, the pigeon (Laughs.) The guy who goes from one emotion to another. And I want more and more to go to that and hear people laughing. I feel at ease, uninhibited. In fact, it’s almost like a new career has opened up for me.

Have you let go of the idea of ​​being in control of your image?
So. I understood that I no longer had to be afraid of not looking my best. And now it suits me. What matters is that I am in the scene, that it takes hold, that I am credible. I have always considered that acting at face value is one of the qualities of an actor. And maybe even more in comedy. I don’t want to act like a joke, have a little conniving thing, like “look how funny I am”, or make a fuss about it. When you are at the first level, your body escapes you and that’s when you find the right position.

Do you hope to do more comedy in the future?
I would very much like and above all I would like to succeed in acquiring what I call “the comic a priori” that certain actors possess. There are guys who come into the field and you know in advance that you’re going to laugh, even if they don’t do anything. I am thinking of Louis de Funès of course, of Jonathan Cohen too, but also of Didier Bourdon. I am a child of Unknown and Bourdon. Well, today he makes really very popular comedies and it’s not always great cinema, but in any case, I think he’s always very first degree. He is capable of playing a peasant, a bourgeois… With THE Unknownhe put the level comedy very, very high. As for me, I don’t yet have this comedic preconception because I’ve mostly made arthouse films, serious things. But I hope to get there one day and hardly have to do anything to make people think they’re going to have a laugh.

But if comedy appeals to you so much, why didn’t you try it sooner?
I haven’t been offered too many comedic roles. And then there weren’t that many comedies that I might like. More and more, I am on the lookout. I don’t have a career plan and so, if I am offered a film in one register or another, as long as I find myself in it, I accept without batting an eyelid. I look out for good comedy, because I find it precious and there aren’t that many. I love cinema and directing. And it turns out that there are some comedies where you feel like they don’t even bother to light them properly. It’s shot in a hurry: “Go ahead, do your act.” Come on, that’s enough, let’s move on. » But that said, things seem to me to be moving in the right direction. There is a generation of young filmmakers capable of making films that are intelligent, beautiful and funny at the same time. I will take as an example the film by Louis Garrel, The Innocentwhich is perfectly in this genre. And there are perhaps fewer self-centered auteur films, where people talk about themselves, about their lives. And then the world is so complicated today that entertainment and comedy are almost public safety.

However, by caricaturing a little, these films of “egocentric authors” as you say, you were also the incarnation of them.
Of course. But if the films are of quality, I have no problem with that. It’s when it’s poorly done and it’s just intellectual wanking that it becomes boring. But I filmed with good directors, which protects you from the caricature side and the in-your-face side.

I come back to the question of elegance, but I tell myself that if you are not offered more comedies, it is perhaps also because you are perfectly chic for all occasions. There, for example, your pretty suit and your beautiful coat contrast with the more casual clothes that everyone around us wears.
I haven’t made many films while jogging, it’s true (Laughter.) But in France, it’s a tradition: if you make a film about characters from Marseille, we’ll take actors who have a Marseille accent. The traditional realism of French cinema requires us to take people for what they are. So if there is a role for a guy who comes from a different social background than mine, we will choose an actor who already has that image rather than me. But I have the impression that we are emancipating ourselves more and more from realism and naturalism, from boxes and preconceptions. And I think it’s cool.

The Rules of the Art will be released in cinemas on April 30.