2023-09-30 17:40:36
INTERVIEW – The 34th British film festival ends in Dinard. The opportunity to take stock with one of the jurors of this edition, the Anglophile star of the Bureau des Légendes, a few hours before the closing ceremony.
The Union Jack is flying again over Dinard where the 34th British film festival has been taking place since Wednesday. Six films, from a new generation of authors, were submitted to the jury chaired by Catherine Frot. Unlike the previous edition where the biopic Emily on the nineteenth-century British novelist Emily Brontë had made a raid, this selection does not include any costume films and paints the portrait of young people – often women – of today, from the “working class”. A new approach to social film which delighted Jonathan Zaccai. The comedian of Legends Office happily took on jury duty. Debriefing a few hours before the closing ceremony.
LE FIGARO. Why did you agree to sit on Catherine Frot’s jury?
JONATHAN ZACCAI. I love this jury exercise. My last experience was some time ago. I was in Les Arcs with the Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, a fascinating artist, as president. It’s also an opportunity to meet artists that I don’t know and that I admire, like Catherine. My youth was bathed in British cinema, the films of Monty Python, Terry Gilliam, Ken Loach, Stephen Frears or the great romanticism of the frescoes of James Ivory like Room with a view. After joining the cast of the second film from the series Downton Abbey this immersion in the 7th art from across the Channel could only delight me.
What trends emerge from this selection?
The social film predominates but the feature films presented, often first and second films, move away from the masters of the genre like Ken Loach. There is an aspiration, a desire to be less harsh. The subjects – many of the protagonists lost one of their parents young – are heavy, but this realism is counterbalanced by aesthetic biases. I discovered a new generation of virtuoso British directors. I had real crushes. Being on a jury is a perpetual arbitration between defending a difficult film and helping a film with more mainstream potential to find an audience.
What are the differences between French and British cinema?
We already have two different schools of comedy. The French tradition is more in the boulevard: we announce the comedy, the laughter. There is more pride. On the other side of the Channel, we are moving towards a more masked, more cynical approach. The English embrace the black humor, the ridiculousness, the pathos of life. In terms of drama, the English know how to maintain a touch of comedy even in the worst situations. French films have often had difficulty with this double language which speaks a lot to us in my native Belgium. What is also fascinating is the ability of British cinema to find actors who come straight from their lives. There is an art of fiction of reality. In Silver Haze, the main actress is, like her character, a serious burn victim. The resourceful kid Scrapper gives me that same feeling.
After Downton Abbey will we see you again playing in the language of Shakespeare?
I will appear in Mr. Spade, the miniseries from the creator of Queen’s game Scott Frank which should arrive next year on Canal +. Clive Owen, whom I adore, lends his features to the detective created by novelist Dashiell Hammet. The action takes place in the south of France in the 1960s, in the Cévennes. A period that suits Louise Bourgoin like a glove, who is also into adventure. Scott Frank asked me to audition after watching The Legends Office. He thought I looked a bit like a psychopath (laughs). I will also be starring in the TF1 family comedy, The tribe, with Alix Poisson. I was delighted with this register. I tell myself that my identity is sometimes misunderstood. I get given very tough roles but I love comedy! I dream about it !
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