The first images of Bruno Sevaistre's documentary,
Mel Gibson, madly passionately,
broadcast on Arte, show a young man of wild beauty, azure eyes, uncomfortable, squirming in his chair while the journalist move on to the question.
We feel the
Mad Max
actor inhabited by an underground anxiety, which makes him an unpredictable being, capable of exploding at any time.
A pinned grenade with explosive sex appeal.
It is in this way that depicts it this fair and enthralling film, which in no way yields to hagiography.
The sixth child in a family of eleven, Mel Gibson was born on December 3, 1956 in Peekskill, New York.
The household is dominated by the strict authority of a Catholic patriarch, a revisionist denying the existence of the Holocaust.
In 1968, this toxic father moved his family to Australia.
Torn between a peaceful family environment and temptations
Uprooted, young Mel clowns around to fit in.
Leaving the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sidney, he made his first film
Summer City
(1977)
.
Two
years later, it's
Mad Max
, by George Miller.
His role as a cop of the future, surviving in a violent post-apocalyptic world propels him to the rank of global superstar.
“Mad Mel” perfectly embodies this hothead in two other films.
The 1980s cemented its glory, notably with
The Year of All Dangers
by Peter Weir.
In 1987, he triumphed as a suicidal cop, a Vietnam veteran, with Danny Glover in
Lethal Weapon
.
Torn between a peaceful family environment and temptations, Gibson drinks, fights against his demons.
The 1990s are those of his successful passage behind the camera.
At the head of the Icon company, he signed
The Man Without a Face
in 1993. Then it was
Braveheart
, which won 5 Oscars in 1996, including those for best film and best director.
At the turn of the 2000s, he was believed to be at peace when he played in
What Women Want
.
It is not so.
The blaze of his obsessions
With
The Passion of the Christ
(2004), Gibson reignited the flames of his obsessions and unleashed the critics against him.
Even if the public responds present, in Hollywood, his fate is settled.
Diagnosed bipolar, suffering from a dissociative personality disorder, Mel Gibson has aged.
He is overtaken by his inner violence.
It is the fall.
Apocalypto
(2006), his film on the decline of the Mayan civilization, grandiose and ultraviolent, does not redeem it.
His dissolute private life is on display.
In 2011, with
Le Complexe du Castor,
Jodie Foster caught up with him.
Robert Downey Jr. campaigns for his friend.
Mel Gibson picks himself up and realizes
You shall not kill
in 2016 with Andrew Garfield as a pacifist nurse during the Pacific War.
His latest project: Gibson would like to give a sequel to
The Passion of the Christ
!
"Mad Mel"
forever
...
