Bernard Campan and Alexandre Jollien: “Cinema can convert…

Inspired by your own story, Almost tells the budding friendship between Louis, an undertaker, and Igor, a bicycle delivery man with a passion for philosophy. Was your meeting as fortuitous as in this fiction?

Bernard Campan: It was probably less cinematic than that of our characters, following a traffic accident (smiles) . But a meeting always takes the form of something unexpected. I “stumbled upon” Alexandre’s testimony in 2003, while turning on my TV set one evening at 11 p.m. He testified to his life: his words overwhelmed me.

Alexandre Jollien: My first meeting with you is even more unlikely than a car collision (laugh) . I discovered Bernard thanks to a video cassette of his sketches with Les Inconnus, during the 1990s. Within the institution for disabled people in which I was then living (Alexandre was born with cerebral palsy, Editor’s note) it was one of my few contacts with the outside world.

The idea for the film comes from Philippe Godeau, its producer. How did you receive his proposal?

BC: It is the fruit of a ten-year journey and successive clicks, because the film, originally, was far from our concerns. For a long time, only our friendship, very fusional, and our exclusive need to be together, to talk, to exchange counted.

AD: I am not an actor: if I had been offered to do figure skating, I would have hesitated in the same way (laughs) . I was also very afraid of being reduced to my physical condition. In the meantime, the discovery of the film Untouchables and his treatment of disability, both comical and profound, touched me. I realized how cinema could convert hearts. Bernard’s confidence, associated with that of the producer and the film crew, fertilized our passage to the act. Both of us have a spiritual dimension to welcoming everything that presents itself and letting ourselves be carried away by our friendship.

Alexandre, in 1999, you started writing; today, in the cinema. What is the most dizzying?

AD: Writing, which for me has a sacred dimension, is a solitary exercise. For the “trade” of actor, I found in Bernard a godfather, a friend and a brother. You invited me, Bernard, not to play but to be Igor. I lived it as a spiritual experience. I had to leave aside the padding of my projections – how I’m going to be perceived, what people are going to think of me – to give myself completely to my character.

BC: Louis Jouvet talks very well about this very particular state, on stage, where one’s own ego is annihilated, where one forgets oneself to let something arise and pass through us. “The poet is a ferryman of closed letters”, said the writer Rilke. It’s a lot of work upstream to reach this state of abandonment.

Alexandre, this letting go that you lavish in your philosophical writings, so you experienced it in front of the camera?

AD: Yes, and it’s make or break. At first, I went there backwards, before seeing a feeling of joy dawn. But this is more given by life than it is conquered by hard struggle.

BC: Alexandre, I still remember your concern: “When are we going to get ready to play?” You took body expression classes, I reassured you, but it’s not easy to convince the other that it will happen naturally. ( laughter )

AD: I took it as a gift to live this shoot day after day, discovering only the day before the aftershocks of the next day. This artisanal work, based on trust, brought me a lot. I liked this idea of ​​the “ration of the day”, which is not encumbered with the general idea of ​​the film.

Bernard, Alexandre’s legitimate concern resembles what you may have experienced when you were seeking fulfillment through a more personal cinema…

BC: Yes, it was Alexandre who made me realize at the time that the screenplay of the film I was working on (The hidden face, Editor’s note) was not really adjusted to what I wanted deepest in me. But starting from scratch was like climbing a cliff in sneakers and without a rope! Alexandre reassured me through the image of leaping into the void: “Only the first step will cost you.” I was blown away because I discovered that there was a treasure in what Alexandre was offering me. It still bothers me thinking about it…

In the film, you don’t hesitate to bare yourself, in the metaphorical, even physical, sense of the term…

BC: We wanted the spiritual path of liberation taken by our two characters to be an art of stripping. The film gave us the opportunity to experiment ourselves with this exposure, without a priori or shell, with as much lightness and innocence as possible.

AD: By staging bodies in touch with everyday life, we also wanted to show that spirituality is not something ethereal or remote from our senses, from desire.

Despite your success with Les Inconnus, Bernard, you never took on a “big head”. How has spirituality helped you keep your feet on the ground?

BC: I believe she helped me become more alive. It is also the fate of our characters in the film. It’s even more obvious for mine – a being a little dead inside – than for Igor, who is bubbling with inner life but who is stuck in his narrow social life.

You seem to live a gratuitous, disinterested friendship. Didn’t you worry that she would be “roughed up” by working together?

AD: Bernard and I each have our vision of the world. Like two painters wanting to compose the same landscape, we had disagreements about the film. They are similar to what a storm at sea can be: terrible on the surface with its waves 20 meters high but without effects if you dive into the ocean.

BC: We had this feeling of keeping intact this bond of the depths which unites us. The exercise was perilous, but we got through these dizzying moments happily. It even strengthened our friendship.

How has it evolved over the past eighteen years?

BC: Undoubtedly towards a form of counting, too, of relief. This goes against a “habit” friendship, where everyone would be in a give-and-take situation. Beyond possible misunderstandings, we must agree that each remains a mystery to the other. There is something beautiful in the will not to try to pierce this one.

AD: Our friendship may be disinterested, perhaps unconsciously there remains an expectation of security, of revaluation… But it’s wonderful to see that it basically doesn’t need that to last.

Igor and Louis, your characters, do they continue to live in you?

AD: I may have in me the failings of Igor to crash too much. So when at the restaurant, when it’s time to pay, I apologize for not doing it quickly enough, my son often says to me: “Don’t play Igor!” Interpreting a character also allows you to distance yourself from yourself. It’s very cathartic.

BC: In what I share with Louis, there is undoubtedly a tendency to close myself off. For Louis, this initiatory journey is a way to open up to encounters and the joy it brings. Going to the other remains complicated, but it’s always a small miracle when it happens.

Almost hits theaters in a few days. What inner state lives in you?

AD: A fear often comes up, that of being reduced to my handicap. I am spiritually preparing for this. But there is also great confidence and great gratitude towards Bernard, the team of Almost and the public who discovered it in preview. I would like the film to be like a flowing river and to be an opportunity for sharing.

BC: A bit of the whole palette of emotions! ( laughter ) This period is intense and tiring, but rich and happy. Above all, I feel carried by the film and by the bond that unites us both.

>>> Also read on Lepelerin.com: 2nd edition of the “Believe in Cinema” prize: discover the films in competition

Their bios

Bernard Campan

1958 Born in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne).

1984 Beginnings with The small theater of Bouvard then The Unknowns.

2001 Remember beautiful things (actor).

2007 The dark side (director). Alexandre Jollien

1975 Born in Sierre (Switzerland).

1997 Philosophy studies.

1999 In praise of weakness, his first work.

2016 Three friends in search of wisdom (with Christophe André and Matthieu Ricard).

Their universes

Bernard Campan: “Thanks to Arnaud Desjardins, I opened up to spirituality by attending his ashram in Hautveille (Drôme). Protestant, he often quoted the Gospels. In contact with him, I discovered the word of Christ, but also Eastern non-duality or even Sufism.

Alexandre Jollien: “Chögyam Trungpa, master of Tibetan Buddhism helps me to welcome the hassles and worries of everyday life. His teachings reconcile detachment and commitment, the two major projects of the spiritual life.

Bernard Campan and Alexandre Jollien: “Cinema can convert…