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Benjamin Voisin: “I fall in love a lot”

2023-04-08T04:16:19.778Z


The actor continues his irresistible momentum between cinema and theater with Les Âmes frères, by André Téchiné, then Guerre, by Céline, at the Festival d'Avignon.


A year after winning the César for best hope for his remarkable performance in

Illusions perdus,

by Xavier Giannoli, Benjamin Voisin, 26, reveals himself through a first role with André Téchiné.

In

Les Âmes sœurs

(1),

he plays a lieutenant who became amnesiac after an explosion in Mali.

Returning to France, he must start from scratch with the help of his sister (Noémie Merlant), who is both a mother, a nurse and a confidante.

His feelings for her are then a little troubled... An arthouse film he shot before embarking on rehearsals for the play

War (2),

adaptation of the unpublished text by Céline found in 2021 (published by Gallimard), which he will play in Avignon this summer.

A new exercise for the young talent that nothing seems to be able to stop.

In video,

Soul mates

, the trailer

Miss Figaro.

What did André Téchiné represent for you before this film

?


Benjamin Voisin.

My cinephile culture being to be seriously enriched, I had only seen of him

Hôtel des Amériques

and

Les Voleurs.

It was while discovering the screenplay of

Âmes sœurs

that I measured the stage power of this director and his love for the actors.

By announcing around me that I was going to shoot for him, I also realized the magnitude of the event.

With this film, you were catching up on a missed meeting with the filmmaker…


Yes, I was already supposed to take some tests for his film

Our Roaring Twenties,

but on my way to the casting, I fell off my bike violently and ended up 'hospital.

André Téchiné told me that he liked the idea of ​​this failed meeting and that he would offer me another role one day.

I couldn't believe he kept his word for

Les Âmes sœurs.

How did you approach this amnesiac character?


Having no particular working method, I tried to start from scratch each day of shooting.

I also tried to disconnect from normal life (which was not always easy), and physically I lost weight and slept little in order to find myself in a state of alert which helped me to stay concentrate.

Art can soften our anxieties and help us live more calmly by elevating ourselves

Benjamin Voisin

The film tackles a taboo subject: incest.

What do you think

André Téchiné wanted to say through

Les Âmes sœurs ?

You'd have to ask him, but what I'm sure of is that he wanted to depict an inexplicable situation with poetry.

I think he also seeks to show that the subject questions, by recalling that if morality is against it, incest between consenting adults is however not a crime in certain European countries.

It is all the more interesting that Téchiné remains unclear.

It does not give the keys, and at a time when many films tend to explain to us that two and two make four, it is quite appreciable.


Is it the role of cinema to tackle disturbing subjects?


Of course, and art in general.

It has always been more powerful to observe the work of an artist who has put his soul for years in a work, than to watch people debate on television.

As our world is very concrete and society forces us to be down to earth, art brings us a little imagination.

It can soften our anxieties and help us live more calmly by uplifting ourselves.

Noémie Merlant and Benjamin Voisin in

Les Âmes sœurs,

by André Téchiné.

Picture 2022 Curiosa Films

You rehearse

War,

by Céline, for the theatre.

When did you meet this author

?


As I was not good at school, I quickly realized that the only way to get by in life was to have a good cultural background.

From the age of 14-15, I started to throw myself into different literary styles: Houellebecq, Proust, Huysmans… Céline landed like love at first sight.

I found his sentences more beautiful than the others, and I was seduced by his way of transcribing the spoken word in writing.

So I was very happy that the director Benoît Lavigne asked me to play this monologue on stage.

The 2022 Caesar Revelations

In images, in pictures

See the slideshow12 photos

See the slideshow12 photos

What does theater bring you compared to cinema

?


I relearn fear.

In the cinema, I no longer have anxiety because I know that a take can be redone if it is not good.

There, you have to look for consistency, and I think you never quite master the exercise.

Marina Foïs, with whom I shared the poster of

En roue libre,

had told me that it was necessary to return to the boards every three or four years, because that made it possible to return to the very essence of the game and that made the rest of the work easier.

She was right: I can already see the benefits of

War

rehearsals on the film I'm currently preparing (L'Esprit Coubertin,

by Jérémie Sein, editor's note

).

2017 was both a period of hardship and pure joy.

We kinda didn't care what happened right or wrong as long as we got it right

Benjamin Voisin

Guerre

will also allow you to return to the Festival d'Avignon...


It's funny, because I'm not at all nostalgic by nature, but I was overwhelmed with emotion when I went back there.

I saw myself again in 2017 towing with my friends in the streets to encourage people to come and see the adaptation of

Don Juan

that I was directing.

It was both a time of hardship and pure joy.

We didn't really care what happened, good or bad, as long as we got things done.

Read alsoIn photos, Mélanie Laurent exposes Lou de Laâge and Benjamin Voisin, her actors from the "Bal des Folles"

What do you do when you're not working

?


I fall in love a lot, I go out a lot and I try to feed myself through reading and music.

I do a bit of piano, I compose with friends, I sing, I rap… I multiply the hobbies that allow me to cultivate an emotional seed.

What are your desires for the future

?


I try to choose different projects to try to surprise the public a little, but also to continue to evolve, to surprise myself, to know myself better.

We think that the actors choose their roles, but it's not true, we depend on the desires of the directors and we are only instruments.

The objective is therefore to become a Stradivarius.

(1)

Soul mates,

by André Téchiné, with Benjamin Voisin, Noémie Merlant, André Marcon, Audrey Dana… (2)

War,

directed by Benoît Lavigne, with Benjamin Voisin.

Creation on July 7 at the Théâtre du Chêne Noir, in Avignon, during the festival.

Resumption envisaged in Paris in the fall.

In video,

The Lost Illusions

, the trailer

Source: lefigaro

All life articles on 2023-04-08

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