Wild Horse Nine: the film that will (finally) give John Malkovich an Oscar?

Will Martin McDonagh’s new film allow John Malkovich to win the Oscar that Hollywood has forgotten to give him for four decades? Première asked the question to the person concerned, under the complicit eye of Sam Rockwell…

We only see him.

Half a dozen press officers and technicians are busy in the living room of an old Venetian palace converted for the day into a TV studio, but when we enter the room, it’s impossible not to instantly fix our gaze on the actor lurking at the far end, in the darkness. John Malkovich is seated in an armchair to which his aristocratic posture gives the air of a throne. He crossed his legs, which seemed immense. Exactly how tall is the actor Dangerous connections and of Mary Reilly ?, we ask ourselves as we move forward. At this point Sam Rockwell appears, who sets up a small table in front of us on which to place the smartphone which will record the conversation. Very considerate, Sam. Super affable. The duo he forms with Malkovich, while the two actors meet the international press the day before the world premiere of Wild Horse Nine at the Venice Film Festival, is as well practiced as on screen. Rockwell is in his role of electric battery, jovial Zebulon, cool Yankee. Malkovich, for his part, speaks as he has spoken in the cinema since the 80s: detaching the syllables, weighing each one in an indistinguishable mixture of dandy detachment and cold humor.

The complicity between the two men is at the heart of Martin McDonagh’s film, where they play two old work colleagues – barbouzes taking a few days of RTT together on Easter Island. They spent six weeks there, where they clearly devoted less time to tourism than to work, rehearsing hard in the evenings and weekends in their hotel rooms, dissecting each scene “hundreds of times”, says Malkovich, because…..