Panayotis Pascot... his name appears more and more often.
Discovered in “Le Petit Journal” (Canal+), acclaimed in “Quotidien” (TMC), where he was a columnist, he is also a humorist, writer and now an actor.
After
Le Daim
by Quentin Dupieux or
My Stupid Dog
by Yvan Attal, he plays one of the main roles in
De grace
, a superb family tragedy in six episodes directed by Vincent-Maël Cardona for
Arte
.
To discover
TV program this evening: our selection of the day
Benjamin of the Leprieur children in the family tragedy D'Arte, alongside Margot Brancilhon and Pierre Lottin, who play his brothers and sisters, he returns to his character and to this series which is a particular object in the French serial landscape .
Also read: De Grace, the dark novel of dockers
TV MAGAZINE. - This question may seem strange… but have you seen all the episodes and what did you think of them?
PANAYOTIS PASCOT
.
- I find them excellent.
I find a simple beauty in them.
A deep look at humanity, at its polarities.
Through its story, this series reminds us what it is to be human, that no one is black or white, that we are all made of this kind of gray which motivates each of our choices.
This is a very good observation.
Do you have any siblings in real life? What does brotherhood mean to you?
Siblings are so many pairs of shoulders to lean on, so many people you can count on, unchanging support, whatever the disagreements, the disagreements, the responsibilities.
Something unwavering, unconditional, all the more precious because if the parents are supposed to disappear, the brothers and sisters are supposed to stay.
“
Degrace
focuses on showcasing the beauty of the ordinary”
And what about the one you play in De grace?
What struck me was how normal it was.
The Leprieur children make up ordinary siblings whom events will force into extraordinary behavior.
That’s what makes it cathartic.
The daughter is her mother's rival.
The eldest son is his father's rival, full of anger that has turned into hatred over the years.
The youngest, my character, is the little one who is a little lost, who feels foreign to a world that he thinks is outdated.
In the multitude of stories conceived as high concepts,
De grace
focuses on showcasing the beauty of the ordinary.
A few words about your character, indeed. Do you like it?
He is the youngest, the most rebellious and the most protected.
But like his brother, who became a car dealer married to a middle-class girl, and his sister, a criminal lawyer in Paris, Simon seeks to free himself from family determinism by refusing to become a dockworker, by making small deals, by getting involved with delinquents, ultimately looking for another haven.
French family sagas are rare and generally treated in a dramatic tone. But this is a real tragedy. Is this what gives it its strength?
It is based on a postulate that is perhaps very Anglo-Saxon, in the vein, for example, of
Succession.
That of the collapse of a world.
With people stepping out of their comfort zone and hesitating to rally or fight among themselves.
The ship is taking on water.
We're all on board.
But are we all on the same side?
And what do we do with it?
Do we save the other first or their apple?
The final season of
Succession
is truly remarkable for this.
And Grace indeed pulls on the same threads.
The character of Emma, from this point of view, is very interesting.
She fights for her family.
She carries everything.
She leaves everything behind for something that is dying, that is perhaps already dead.
And gets no recognition, at least at first, neither from his mother nor his brothers.
Should she sacrifice herself permanently?
Did you know the world of dockworkers?
It's a very particular universe about which I knew absolutely nothing.
Without doubt one of the last witnesses of a bygone era, where everything is based on descent, co-optation, a vanished industrial era, the law of omerta, the sense of family, solidarity.
But if the little story of the Leprieurs allows us to evoke the big story of the dockers, I believe that it is still the opposite which prevails in the series.
Above all, it is the world of dockers that serves as the setting for the Leprieur story.
“The port of Le Havre as a living theater of a Shakespearean tragedy”
It’s a very, very beautiful setting…
There is indeed something of excess, harshness, anger, impregnation and confinement which defines this family well and serves the plot magnificently.
Then it's visually superb, the container buildings, the ballet of gigantic cranes, the bows of the ships, metal monsters, the hangars, the night lighting, the early morning skies... The port of Le Havre as a living theater of a Shakespearean tragedy.
What does this series actually say?
It speaks of transmission, missed opportunities, disintegration, even collapse, but also of courage, emancipation, love, resilience and hope.
It ends on a beautiful note of hope.
She questions our contradictions with strong symbols and simple images, like that of Simon who tries to act tough by hiding under his duvet.
And I think it doesn't say who is wrong, who is right, who is the bad guy, who is the good guy, who has the power.
I think she asks a lot of questions.
One of the authors is a philosopher.
Nothing suprising.