Dotted with family dynasties, the great history of cinema has often given pride of place to members of the same lineage.
If we think of the Cohen brothers in the United States, France is not left out with Jalil and Yaniss Lespert or even Maiwenn and Isild Le Besco.
But seeing two brothers nominated in the same category for the César is simply unprecedented.
An event which takes place this year on the occasion of the 49th ceremony, where Samuel and Paul Kircher were both selected to win the statuette for best male revelation, respectively for
Last Summer
and
Animal Kingdom
.
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Children of the ball
One has short hair, the other a long mane.
Despite their common surname, they don't look alike and their roles on the big screen have nothing to do with each other.
Paul Kircher, 22, has four films under his belt and already a nomination for best male hopeful, in 2023 for
Le Lycéen
by Christophe Honoré.
His brother Samuel, 19, has only appeared in one film,
Last Summer
by Catherine Breillat.
Despite their talents – obvious to anyone who has seen their films – we cannot talk about the Kirchers without mentioning their parents, also actors.
Their mother, Irène Jacob won the Best Actress Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991 for
La Double Vie de Véronique,
while Jérôme Kircher studied at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art Dramatique in the mid-1980s and was appointed to four times at the Molière, while appearing in several films including
A Long Engagement Sunday
and
La Famille Bélier
.
Paul, the most experienced
Touching the heights at an early age, the Kircher brothers were not necessarily destined to become the actors we know today.
Thus, Paul first studied economics and geography at Paris-Cité University, while participating in summer theater courses, when he was approached in 2019 to play one of the main characters in
T' did you sin?
, a romantic comedy.
What followed was a small role in the series
Captain Marleau
in 2020, then the following year, the real baptism of fire with the film
The High School Student
.
He plays a young man who has just lost his father and, fearing his homosexuality, feels damaged, plunged into a lethargy which, thanks to the support of his brother (Vincent Lacoste) and his mother (Juliette Binoche) will finally be resolved. alleviate.
He then exploded in
The Animal Kingdom
, directed by Thomas Cailley, presented at the Cannes Film Festival and released last October.
He portrays Emile, a teenager who is somewhat uncomfortable in his skin, who goes to live in the countryside with his father (Romain Duris) after his mother is affected by an illness which transforms humans into hybrid creatures, half-human, half. -animals.
Father and son go looking for the latter, who has disappeared (like a little déjà vu?), but Emile will gradually transform in his turn... into a wild beast.
Without equal, his deliberately clumsy playing, mixed with an almost stripped-down suavity, has earned him comments, each more laudatory than the last.
Samuel, the ingenuous
The youngest Kircher found himself playing in
Last Summer
somewhat by chance.
The role, first assigned to his brother Paul, was then offered to him: “In the summer of 2021, my brother had just learned that he was cast in both
Le Lycéen
, by Christophe Honoré, and
Le Règne animal
, by Thomas Cailley.
He was no longer available to play Catherine Breillat's film, which was going to be filmed at the same time,” he tells Le
Monde
, before specifying: “Catherine therefore took over the casting, but found no one else.
In the spring, she came back to Paul again, she absolutely cared for him.
That's when he suggested she turn to me.
The shooting was imminent.
At the same time as I was taking the baccalaureate, I also found myself taking the tests.”
So simple collusion?
Judging by the demands of the director of
36 Fillette
, this is not the case.
The praise received reflects a real discovery.
In the film, we follow Anne, a lawyer played by Léa Drucker, who falls under the spell of her stepson Théo, a master in the art of indolence.
Of this incestuous relationship, we focus especially on the young Samuel Kircher, astonishingly authentic.
Hail Caesar
When on January 24, the César Academy revealed the nominations, we assume without much error that the Kircher family must have been at the party.
Two brothers selected in the same category is a first, especially at the start of their career.
We are talking here of a - small - revolution on the scale of French cinema.
If we had to find a common denominator for them, we would lean towards the hackneyed but no less proven expression of “born actors”.
Their games are united by an immense naturalness, but also a playfulness which is nestled in the look as in the posture.
Disarmingly sincere, the Kirchers seem well and truly on their way to a great journey in the 7th art.