Raphaël Thiéry shows Pietro Marcello’s latest feature film, L’Envol, which he will present to the public on Friday and Saturday at the cinemas of La Charité-sur-Loire and Château-Chinon.
Originally from Morvan, more precisely from Anost, Raphaël Thiéry is a versatile actor who, despite his many experiences, keeps his head on his shoulders. Without hesitation, he responded positively to Sceni Qua Non’s invitation to present the film L’Envol, in which he plays one of the main roles.
Pietro Marcello was looking for an actor for the lead role. He has cast many actors, through the usual network, who have to go through acting agencies. He still couldn’t find it. He placed his ad on wild castings; we ran into it with my agent. We said to ourselves “let’s give it a chance”, even though the profile of the character was a bit far from me, in that I thought I was too old for someone who had just returned from the 14-18 war. Pietro invited me to try it with the young actress Juliette Jouan. Three days later he confirmed to me that I had been selected.
I’ll admit it: no. You have to dare to say it when it’s true! The character profile was really within my reach. Even though it takes place at the beginning of the 20th century. It’s rural scenes, a guy working with wood. So me, since I did the 100 trades before I became a show business professional or even at the same time, I immediately felt good in this character.
Yes, in a feature film it was really the first time. I have to admit that we start with a lead role with the director Pietro Marcello, there we realize that we are entering the big leagues immediately. I got to know his film since I was selected, I saw his first feature film, Martin Eden. I went to see his work as a documentary filmmaker. It’s incredible work, he made a masterpiece with his film La Bocca del Lupo. Stunning beauty, intelligence, good mind. Pietro is someone who comes from the fine arts, he is a fan of cinematographic archives. He spends a lot of his time looking at stock material. We have already seen it in Martin Eden, in L’Envol, he used it wonderfully. He mixes archival images and fictional images, it works relatively well.
I spent a lot of time discussing the character with him. We understood each other quickly, we talked about the same thing. He had the brilliant idea to invite us to the farm a week before filming to start living in this environment, together with the actress and others who were part of the universe of this farm. We did what we wanted. We never rehearsed, that’s fine, I’m not a fan of rehearsals. When we started filming, we were so in the element that it seemed obvious to us. We were all one with the decor. Pietro gave us a lot of freedom to shape our characters. This is a way of working that I like! I took out a lot of my lines that didn’t seem interesting to me. I warned him in the morning. Suddenly I became a very quiet character, expressing himself with his face, his body. In this film, the character is a cabinet maker. To be as close to the role as possible, I contacted someone from the region whose job it is, who worked for the decoration; he showed me the right gestures, not to pretend and to be as close to reality as possible.
Pietro does not spin in the usual way. It’s a duo on set, with his cinematographer Marco. There is no fixed shot, it is a handheld camera, which makes the characters more present and alive. A fantastic experience: I really enjoyed myself.
Two months of filming in the Somme, which I fully took to stay in the role. I didn’t go home once. With a lead role, we are very often busy on set. I didn’t want to cut myself off from the film crew, so I stayed on set, on location.
It is always good if you can accompany the film, to present it. There I also come for Sceni Qua Non. Whether it’s independent or associative films, I’m very present.
I will return to Ouroux-en-Morvan, if I am available. For me, this is the coolest short film festival of everything I’ve done in France. Really, seriously. There is life, closeness. It has intense meeting spaces. It’s so cool! Maybe they will program L’Envol!
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Will the film of Anaïs Tellenne, which was shot in the Morvan (Du Grand feu only the coals remain), be released soon?
I will post sync soon. The director and the production want to present it at Cannes. So, for the moment no date. It will depend on Cannes whether the film is selected.
Yes, two: a young director with a beautiful supporting role, of a priest. I immediately said yes, as I read the script, I really liked his story and this fascinating character. And I just received a script for a lead role in a feature film. I do not know anymore. Things start happening. There was a short break which was good by the way, I had a lot of things to manage… Then, while I’m writing a film and I’m looking for a producer with my agent. It keeps us pretty busy.
Yes, I refused 3 or 4… Not long ago. They were comedy roles, good roles, but the writing and the subject matter didn’t interest me. It’s always boring to say no! I receive these proposals from my agent, even though he knows I will refuse. He tries anyway because These are things I don’t want to do. I’m not saying if I was 20 I might take it all. The proposals are coming, I have enough work and I prefer to go to the first feature films by young directors. I like it, there is still freshness, beautiful ideas, that’s what I like.