The 30-something is both impatient and focused.
Christophe Montenez, who joined the French at the age of 25, has been a member of the house since 2020. He plays, from January 15, in
Tartuffe
directed by Ivo Van Hove.
He tells how he saw this first.
And the privilege of being directed by a renowned director.
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Molière file: celebration of the 400th anniversary of his birth
Le Figaro: What did Ivo Van Hove tell you about the role?
Christophe MONTENEZ:
He wanted a young Tartuffe, there will be a prologue. We start from the image of a tramp taken in by a family who will parasitize, transform and blow up the family unit. The characters reveal themselves because they are confronted with this character. I thought of
Theorem
, Pasolini's film, even if it's not the same thing.
It's intimidating, emblematic, you can be impressed but the work and the staging make it concrete and you put it into perspective.
The day of the premiere, I'll be nervous.
In addition, Pathé rebroadcasts the play live in its cinemas.
Aesthetically, it's beautiful, the decor of Jan Versweyveld is thought for the actor.
Ivo is in the spectacular, he is not afraid to put on a show, to have effects.
The music of Alexandre Desplat carries the actors.
There is a Hollywood thing, titanic.
Ivo opens the way to the imagination, everything is possible with him.
Nothing is prohibited.
It looks simple, but he is experienced and works a lot upstream.
What does Tartuffe represent for you?
We get rid of the idea that he is a false devotee. “To be devout, I am no less a man,” he says. A man loved by Elmire (Marina Hands) and Orgon (Denis Podalydès), with a love of desire, of the body, almost mystical. He is endearing, his declaration to Elmire is magnificent. He's seductive, fatally manipulative, but if you treat him as if he's genuine all the time, it's unsettling. It should be taken with as much sincerity as possible. We don't see him as a farce character, it's interesting to see how Ivo, a theater man from a culture different from ours, treats this character. The play is like a tragedy, evil has entered our home. How to get it out? For the family, there is a real urgency to find a solution.The tray is heavy and loaded, there is gravity. And also the fact of being a virgin in this staging. Ivo said he had so far managed not to stage Shakespeare in England and Molière in France. There, he takes the leap.
Read alsoMolière, 400 years old and still modern
Have you seen other versions of
Tartuffe
?
I missed Luc Bondy's, but I don't really want to see it.
I would be afraid of being influenced even without wanting it, of being questioned.
I saw the capture of that of Ariane Mnouchkine.
I do not remember it on purpose... Xavier Gallais played it under the direction of Macha Makeïeff.
But the play could be called Orgon, Elmire, or even Cléante (Loïc Corbery), all the roles are very balanced.
You were already a little marquis in
The Misanthrope
by Molière directed by Clément Hervieu-Léger...
At 17, I played
Dom Juan
, but I was too young.
Molière is familiar to me by what he says.
I realize with Clément and Ivo that he is a great author, beyond the sacred side, of what we imagine, he is strong.
When you don't add second degree or you dust off the text, you remove outdated images, it is very beautiful, funny and powerful.
He has a modern side in the writing, the situations.
We find these characters of false devotees still today, Molière tells the human species that does not change.
How are you going to interpret it?
Ivo's line is frank, clear, limpid.
What is difficult is wanting to play a lot of things at the same time, the manipulation, the fact that Tartuffe benefits from it.
There, I almost short-circuit the thought of the other, there is an erotic approach.
Everything is passion and love.
With Orgon, it's the sharing of faith.
Do not ask too many questions, the progression of the scenes is in this whirlwind.
What kind of actor are you?
The costume is a framework, it helps me a lot, it directly transforms the body.
I like to transform myself, but I am also in the intuition of the body, I also like the voice of the actors, the way of speaking, the fact of taking the time, to build and deconstruct.
I like to work it.
I just play the scene intuitively.
Do you have models?
Pascal Rénéric in
Hamlet
by Vincent Macaigne, Xavier Gallais, Niels Arestrup, we always steal a little, I imagine.
I saw the
Second Surprise of Love
directed by Alain Françon, I understood his work, I found it very modern in the direction of the actors in particular.
I loved Philip Seymour Hoffman, I also appreciate Daniel Day-Lewis, Joaquin Phoenix or Al Pacino.
The cinema also asks you...
Television too, but the Comédie-Française requires a lot of time and we give it a lot.
I await answers for films.