Des Vivants: “It was overwhelming to return to the Bataclan”
Benjamin Lavernhe speaks to Première and recounts the disturbing experience of the magnificent series by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, about the survivors of the Paris attacks. Interview.
It brings to the screen the story of Arnaud, one of the survivors of the Bataclan. Arnaud and his wife, Marie, were part of the public who came to attend the Eagles of Death Metal concert on November 13, 2015. Taken hostage by the attackers, the couple spent more than two hours in a service corridor of the performance hall, certain of being executed… or jumping with the terrorists. Then the BIS intervened. Arnaud and Marie were released, along with nine other spectators detained that evening. But when they left, they took with them a heavy trauma, the kind that cannot be erased.
It is this suffering and the impossible return to a normal life that Des Vivants, the superb series from France Télévisions, tells in full now on France.tv, before its prime time broadcast on France 2, from November 3.
Nominated for a César last year for En Fanfare, Benjamin Lavernhe plays Arnaud alongside Alix Poisson (Marie) to tell a great story of solidarity. Because the ex-Bataclan hostages met again a few weeks after the events and formed a support group. Seven of the eleven survivors created the “potages” (“hostage friends”), to exorcise their demons together. The actor tells us about this very special role, as France prepares to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
FIRST: What memory do you have of the attacks on a personal level?
Benjamin Lavernhe: During the entire shoot, I understood to what extent we all had traces of that evening within us. The waves of emotion that washed over me reminded me that everyone carries their scar from that moment. I experienced it from a distance: I was in the 11th arrondissement, I couldn’t go home to sleep. I went to a friend’s house, and we watched the news channels until 4 a.m., dazed, shocked. The next day, I remember these people who went back to have a drink on the terrace, as if to say: “life goes on”.
Were you able to speak, yourself, with the “real” Arnaud and Marie to understand their experiences?
Initially, it was not planned that we would meet our characters. Jean-Xavier feared that it would break the distance necessary to play, that it would inhibit us, even intimidate us. But pretty quickly, we ended up meeting them. Arnaud was very generous in sharing the details of what he felt that evening, in that corridor, after the explosion of one of the terrorists, when he heard his heart beating, his breathing starting again, with tinnitus in his ears. We talked about what he had been through, what he had seen. From the shower he took at home, for two hours. From his dazed state, from this immense joy of being alive, almost a jubilation. And then, then, darkness, anger, the desire for revenge. I was stunned to hear him confide in me like that. Moreover, Arnaud makes a small, discreet appearance in the series, during the opening of his character’s exhibition.
There’s a huge weight that comes with this kind of role, right? A responsibility towards the victims and their families?
Yes, great gravity surrounds this project. I even felt a form of fear at the beginning, because it’s delicate to touch on the subject of the attacks. The question of morality, of ethics, almost of the obscenity of making a fiction based on this drama arises. Playing the trauma, the tears… We inevitably wonder how the families of the victims will receive this series which speaks of their pain, ten years later. But when I read the script, I was reassured: there was no sensationalism, no pathos. It’s also up to us, in front of the camera, not to overdo it, to remain modest.
You filmed in real locations, notably at the Bataclan. What emotion did you feel at that moment?
It was disturbing, even upsetting, to be in this concert hall that had become a place of massacre. We weren’t very comfortable with the idea of playing there. Suddenly, there is no more distance, we are no longer protected by the frame of the stage. We were gripped by fear. It wasn’t the most pleasant moment of filming. But we did it in confidence with Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, and above all because the survivors had given their agreement. I experienced this moment as a meditation, a thought for the victims.
The director, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, speaks of a form of mission, almost of a series for History. Did you feel that?
Yes. We were all very intimidated by the weight of embodying these victims, who represent all the others. We feel invested with a mission. It’s almost a point of pride to have been chosen to wear this. Perhaps this series will have a catharsis function, like a collective prayer, a political gesture too: to remember together, to become one. Very quickly, we realized that it was going to become an important series. Because there is a need to revisit this collective trauma, and fiction can allow this catharsis.
Do you think the country was able to recover after these attacks?
It is a trauma that is difficult to overcome. There will always be traces of it, a national trauma impossible to erase. The ten-year anniversary is a reminder of the extent to which it united the country, at least for a time. When we see the current political dissensions, the ambient cacophony, I hope that this series will remind us of the unity that was there at that time.
Have you kept in touch with Arnaud and Marie?
Of course ! We really hit it off. They are touching, generous, in the way they welcomed us into their lives. We kept in touch. They came to see me at the theater. We’ll see each other again during the promo, and after. It created very strong bonds. We are delighted to see how alive they are.
