Guillaume Canet, unrecognizable as Louis XVI: “No need to be sexy!”

Mélanie Laurent says her transformation “gave her strength,” and she talks about her own incarnation of Marie Antoinette alongside her.

We learned at the end of July that Melanie Laurent And Guillaume Canet were to receive an award at the Locarno Festival, where they were invited to present The flood to the public. Today is the day the new edition opens, and they confided in Variety just before the festivities begin – the event will run until August 17.

The two French actors and directors talk together about how they took on the story of this legendary couple, who have already inspired so many films, including Sofia Coppola and her drama Marie-Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst. They are not directing this project, as it is directed by Gianluca Jodice (The Poet and the Dictator) in this feature film co-written with Filippo Gravino, but they helped create “their” Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI. In particular, by accepting many make-up sessions for him. In the first photos of The FloodGuillaume Canet is absolutely unrecognizable.

“We did a lot of makeup tests, but I was never satisfied, he tells. I knew it would help me blend into the character, but at the same time I didn't want to hide or limit my expressions. I showed the team different things, and their reaction was optimistic, so I allowed myself to fully immerse myself in the process.”

When your makeup artist makes you look ugly, like crap… it's something that can make you feel extremely good, reacts his playing partner. You don't have to be beautiful, you don't have to be sexy. All you care about then is the emotions you're going to deliver. That gives you so much strength.”

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“So many films have already been made about these events,” continues Mélanie Laurent. “Every time we portray Marie-Antoinette, we depict incredible parties, with hundreds of extras. Except that here, their wealth has been taken away from them. They were the richest people in the world, and 24 hours later, the poorest.”

“Choosing this angle was very interesting, confirms Canet. In his diary, Louis XVI's valet (Jean-Baptiste Cléry)details how the king experienced all this. How shy and disconnected from reality he was. I understood that he must have suffered from a form of autism. He was constantly interested in how clocks worked… When his father died, he said this famous sentence: 'After me, the flood'because he knew that his son would be incapable of becoming the king of France.”

“We tend to forget that these women were married at 14 to someone they barely knew, adds the actress about Marie-Antoinette. Louis XVI was like a child, he observed the world with a very naive gaze. In this film, their relationship is particularly complex, because there is so much tenderness between them. She really liked him, and he must have been in love with her in a certain way. You know, she was not stupid, nor obsessed with the idea of ​​partying. But she was married to an asexual man. He was nice to her… except that she was bored. She was not supposed to have power, she was incapable of governing. They were not evil, deep down. They did not seek to be cruel. In a way, they too were victims, on several levels.”

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Mélanie Laurent also says she was greatly inspired by the portrait of Marie-Antoinette written by Stefan Zweig, a work she says she is “fallen in love.”

“I haven't had a role like this for a long time, which allows me to cry, to scream, to feel like an actress again, finally confides the director of Thieves. I get a lot of pleasure from directing, and now that I've had a taste of it, I can't stop, but it felt good to play the part again.”

An observation shared by the director of Small handkerchiefs :

“I've always been passionate about directing, it's probably how I express myself best, but I also love acting so much. I may be wrong, but I feel like I'm improving. In any case, I'm tending towards more complex characters.”

The flood does not yet have a release date in France, but after its presentation event at the Locarno festival, we should soon hear about it again…

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