“An appointment that I fix with all those people who saw me as a child, then older unfortunately”

The Palme d’Or director will be visiting this Sunday to present his latest film “Arthur Rambo” in Deux-Sèvres, in Chef-Boutonne and Niort, the strongholds of his childhood.

Only four days after the release of his last film, Laurent Cantet chose Deux-Sèvres to spend his Sunday afternoon in the company of lovers of the seventh art, and it’s no coincidence… he grew up in Challenging, and he makes it a point of honor to present each of his films in these familiar territories: “first because there are lots of people I know, that I like and to whom I like to show what I do”, he tells us, “from the beginning of the preparation for the release of the film, I talk about these two appointments.”

Two appointments are scheduled; Ciné-chef in Chef-Boutonne, and Le Moulin du Roc in Niort, places that contributed to his awakening to cinema. It was in the former that he saw his first films on the big screen, such as White horsehair, The red ball or a little later The big mop : “this is where I have my first memories of the cinema, I think that these cinemas play a role, there is something very emotional in this process, quite moving to come back to it regularly”. For Laurent Cantet, it’s even a family affair, because at the head of Cine-head for more than 25 years, Yves Bonneau has been a close friend: “he’s a bit like my second dad”, says the director, “He was the father of my best friend and he is someone I continue to love, to whom I am very happy to give this pleasure.”

The arrival of Laurent Cantet, it’s surreal, it’s completely emotional

Yves Bonneau, former president of Ciné-chef in Chef-Boutonne

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And it is certainly not Yves Bonneau who will contradict him. The octogenarian has now passed on the baton of the chef-boutonnaise association, but he continues to work there on a voluntary basis and never misses the opportunity to see the child of the country: “the arrival of Laurent Cantet, it’s surreal, I presume that he has a multitude of proposals and that he comes to us, it’s extraordinary, it’s completely emotional”. He who is full of praise for the filmmaker is well aware of the importance of each of his visits, both for the spectators who, in all objectivity, have always “a favorable prejudice” with regard to him, as for the association: “as long as we can, we will bring this cinema to life, and it’s a big spotlight for us”.

It must be said that when Laurent Cantet returns home, he is eagerly awaited, in Chef-Boutonne as in Niort. For Marc Lanel, the head of Moulin du Roc, director “Arrives in conquered territory, there are always a lot of people and we are rarely disappointed, he always has a very good welcome at the height of the character”.

Twenty-four years after his first feature film, the filmmaker remains a bit of a child of the country, and if he no longer has to prove his affection for the two rooms, Marc Lanel still appreciates his loyalty: “Laurent Cantet won the Palme d’Or in 2008, and it didn’t change his personality when we received him”.

I think that depending on who we are, where we speak from and who we speak to, we are not quite looked at in the same way

Laurent Cantet, filmmaker

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A Palme d’Or obtained for the film Between the walls, a film about the life of a French class in a college in a priority education zone, and since then, Laurent Cantet has not abandoned his desire to tell the story of society bluntly, to question it. This is what he does in his latest film, Arthur Rambo, which exposes a few hours of the life of Karim D., a young man of immigrant origin, “who managed to cross the periphery by becoming a writer” whose image is tarnished by the revelation of hateful content that he would have published on social networks. The theme, taken from a true story, fascinated Laurent Cantet in what it reveals about contemporary society: “without wishing to exonerate Karim from his responsibility, we also wanted the tweets to appear on the screen and that they have their full weight, I think that depending on who we are, where we speak and who we talk to, we are not quite looked at in the same way, and it is true that we unfortunately have plenty of examples in our political life today which prove to us that we can write things as inadmissible as what Karim wrote when he was a teenager, and continue to be solicited, to be continually in front of the cameras.”