His biopic Séraphine, about the unjustly little-remembered French painter Séraphine Louis, won him seven César Awards; his period pieces like Bonnard, Pierre et Marthe and How to Be a Good Wife regularly become audience favourites. In his newest work, Martin Provost turns his humorous gaze at the human condition on an old academic looking for new love. Just a couple of hours before Love Lessons celebrates its world premiere on Locarno's sun-drenched Piazza Grande, the acclaimed French director took some time for an interview with Lidanoir on late-life crises, personal parallels between him and his main characters, and the importance of loving regardless of age.
Lida Bach: You made this comedy about an elderly man who tries to fall in love again. What interested you in bringing this classical love-story plot to an elderly audience and an elderly set of characters?
Martin Provost: I am almost as old as Fabrice Luchini. Sp I’m at an age where we look back and start to say, “What have I done with my life? What have I done well? What are the things I handled badly? And why did I even live my life the way I have?” Sometimes I, too, look at events and ask myself, “My God, why did I get involved into this? And why did this take up so much time in my life?” And then at a certain point in life, there is a moment when there is a shift and everything becomes much clearer.
And I think that’s when you can really love. That’s the whole difference for me: between being loved—that need that we all have to be loved—and loving. My film is the story of a man who learns to really love. That is, above all, the most important thing. He will be able to approach the last part of his life with love, not just with a demand for something or a feeling of frustration. Because desire or a selfish need for love always leads to frustration. It always leads to an impossibility to really enjoy life and feel fulfilled. Whereas the generous love we find in ourselves is eternal.
LB: Do you see a bit of yourself in the protagonist? Beyond being about the same age?
MP: There are certain universal themes that of course also relate to me. But I never intended this to be autobiographical in any way. But love, the wish to be loved, that is also something that I know, just like anybody. And maybe there are certain follies of the protagonist where I thought, maybe it did not happen to me like that, but it could have.
LB: The main character is at a turning point in his life. His wife leaves him, he retires, and then he looks for new love. Do you think there is something like a late-life crisis where people suddenly aim to change their lives and look for new opportunities?
MP: The last part of life can be perfectly serene and happy and, I would say, almost ideal. If before that there was chaos, as in the case of Émile who neglected his wife, the end of life will be rather worse. I think his wife left because she said to herself, “I can’t find myself face-to-face with this guy who is absolutely not interested in me.” So she is taking a chance and that also becomes a chance for him. But to address your question: Yes, I think there really is a certain age when these thing happen. Additionally, as it turns out that, my generation lives very long lives.
People are getting older and older, so an age that might have seemed very advanced in the past doesn’t feel that much anymore. And this creates a real change in society. I remember that my grandparents at my age were very old. But today I don’t feel old at all. Everything still seems still possible to me.
LB: The philosophical ideal of love is discussed in the opening scene, where Émile is still a university professor. Do you think there is a dissonance between an older generation’s ideal of love and real mundane love?
MP: Yes, I think that today our society is obsessed with screens, images and pornography, which is accessible to everyone. There’s a problem here. Which is what the teacher says at the beginning. In my generation, I was raised with poetry. My mother told me fairy tales when I was little, but she read them from the text because she didn’t want to water them down. I was nurtured on Prévert and Rimbaud, and I realize that all of this was very essential for my development. It made me who I am.
For a long time, I said to myself, “Oh là là, I’m completely beside the point. I’m a romantic.” But I’m not romantic at all. Actually, I was simply looking for love, and love is the goal of a life. Being loved and loving are not the same thing. That’s what Émile is going to learn, and what he passes on to his students.
What is it to love? We learn it through poetry. We learn with Léo Ferré, with Jacques Brel, with Brassens, to quote only the French, and with Rimbaud. It’s their experience, transmitted through words, that still resonates in us today. At 20, we don’t know all these things, and we can’t know them. That’s the meaning of this fable, the madness of love. You don’t have to philosophize about it. You have to live it and do all the nonsense to which it incites you. After a while, it’s like water that gets disturbed: it settles again. Then you have to take stock and see where you stand in this love.
LB: How was working with Fabrice Luchini, and what did he bring to the character?
MP: At first, I had written the role for a younger man. Fabrice Luchini told my producers that he would like to work with me, and I thought it was a great idea.
All of a sudden, the character became a retired man, as it will be the case with me at some point. I intend to make my last films, but I will make until I’m 100 years old. But still, I’m coming closer towards doing my final projects. I found it much more realistic and interesting to show this man who arrives in the autumn of his life and is going to be totally shaken by himself. When he’s going to transmit to his students, what he wants to teach to them, he will to have to put his words into action. And this he absolutely did not expect.
LB: Do you hope films like this will also contribute to getting a somewhat older audience to the cinema? Broadly, the main cinema audience is 18 to 25, and then the next biggest segment is 25 to 38. Younger people are usually the ones on whom studios and productions are focused on. Or do you think there is a change, with people of a higher age going more regularly to the cinema?
MP: To be truthful, I didn’t think about anything like that. I’m not even sure if that is the case in France, or maybe this is because I’m immersed in a more cinephile crowd. When I make a film, I don’t think about such things, I think about the film I’m making and what I want to say. It’s very mysterious. We don’t know what makes an audience come to the cinema or not.
We never know. Fortunately, cinema is not a quantified market thing—a thought-out and calculated product for an audience. At least the cinema I make is not driven by that. I make a film, and I happen to be 69 years old. So, of course, I like to choose a character who is the same age as me. That was my only goal. We can never know if a film is going to work or not.
LB: You mentioned that you first wrote the script for a younger character.
MP: Well, it that young, but younger. He was 60.
LB: Did you then adapt the story specifically when casting Fabrice Luchini?
MP: In many aspects, yes. I really rewrote it for him, because I thought the idea was great. It’s so good when an actor expresses his desire and comes to you in a certain way. I said to myself, “Yes, it’s great. It’s a gift. Let’s take it as a gift.” When I write a script, I always have people in mind. Sometimes they say yes or they say no. You never know. But every time an actor gives me a positive answer, I rewrite my script for them.
LB: You also have this whole story set in a very intellectualist segment of society. Why did you choose this specific milieu of academics? Do you think the story would have changed if it had been set in a lower-class or higher-class milieu?
MP: Well, ultimately the film incorporates two classes. The character played by Emmanuelle Devos, Laetitia is a fisherwoman. The city of Dieppe is built in such a way that there are really two worlds. There is the Pollet, which is the popular neighborhood, and the other neighborhood, in the west. The rich are in the west and the poor are in the east. The port is between the two. The topography is separated by the sea, and you can only access it by a bridge.
I don’t think I’m only talking about an intellectual milieu. Of course, poetry and literature are at the heart of the film, but the real subject is more than that. It’s also how Émile missed out on being with this woman who was the love of his life. She was a fisherwoman, and this fact didn’t play in her favor either. He preferred to stay in the dark and remain a little confined in his own narrow milieu. That’s what the film is also dealing with.
LB: You’ve made films in a number of different genres: historical films, biopics, dramas, and now a comedy, a romantic comedy. Do you have a preferred genre that you like to work in?
MP: No, I don’t really have a favorite genre. I hope and I explore. In any case, I don’t want to do just one thing over and over. I loved shooting Séraphine, but I wouldn’t want to do it 50 times. I like to interrogate myself every time, and this film is no exception.
I shot the film in 32 days. When I think that I shot Séraphine in 50 days, can you imagine the difference? Here, it was shot in 32 days, at the speed of light. I completely reinvented myself. I wanted to approach cinema differently, and I hope next time I will do so even more.
LB: Now you have your film here at Locarno. How does it feel?
MP: [lauhs] I don’t know, yet, as I arrived only last night. I saw this big hotel room which looks down on the wonderful Piazza Grande. I opened the door and saw this huge open air space with the screen, and I thought, “My God, I’m going to be here tomorrow night.” I hope for all the people to be there, as well. I want them to enjoy themselves, to feel happy this evening. That’s all I want.
LB: What would you hope for your film to achieve with the audience in general?
MP: It’s always gratifying when a film works. I hope the film will be well received. I believe it will find its audience. What else more could I dream of? After all, that’s an important part of every film. But we’re never sure, and I repeat: it’s good that it’s like that. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be going to make films. And we are going to do more film products.
LB: Speaking of: Do you already have a new project that you’re working on?
MP: Oh yes, I have some things I’m thing about.
LB: Something that you’d like to mention and can talk a little about?
MP: No, I’m afraid it’s too early for that.
LB: Thank you so much for this interview.