Dearly beloved: France’s favourite actor Daniel Auteuil at 75
He came to our attention in 1986 arthouse hit Jean de Florette and 40 years later Daniel Auteuil is still going strong – with two new films coming out this year, including one with Jodie Foster.
Daniel Auteuil, 75, and Gerard Depardieu, 76, have been widely recognised as the best French actors of their generation. Yet they couldn’t be more different, both on screen and in real life.
While Depardieu is known for his bombast and big performances, Auteuil is quieter and his portrayals are more subtle and nuanced.
Depardieu had already appeared in major films when Auteuil had his international breakthrough and they starred together in Claude Berri’s 1986 arthouse hit Jean de Florette.
Auteuil followed up in the same year with Manon des Sources, a kind of sequel as both films were based on Marcel Pagnol’s 1962 two-part novel The Water of the Hills. In the latter film Auteuil co-starred with his then wife Emmanuelle Beart, with whom he went on to appear in Claude Sautet’s heart-wrenching 1996 masterpiece, A Heart in Winter.
“Claude invented for me a character who remained with me my whole life, a man who’s introverted, introspective and not in touch with his feelings,” Auteuil says. “It’s a character that I’ve played many times over the course of my career.”
He went on to portray such a character in Patrice Leconte’s 1999 film Girl on the Bridge, alongside Vanessa Paradis, then received great acclaim together with Juliette Binoche for their roles as a terrorised husband and wife in Michael Haneke’s 2005 film Hidden.
In 2019 he charmed audiences with the time-travel romance La Belle Epoque, where his unlucky-in-love character travelled back 40 years to re-unite with the love of his life, played by Fanny Ardant.
Now Auteuil stars in The Thread which he co-wrote and marks his fifth film as a director. It follows his role as a disgraced lawyer in last year’s A Silence, which evolved into a courtroom drama and was likewise based on a real case.
You might like
“There are scenes that take place in the courtroom, but A Silence is much more a psychological thriller,” Auteuil says. “What I like about courtroom dramas is they allow you to go to the essentials of the drama. It’s a closed universe that brings out the tragic, like Greek drama, in real life.”
Again in The Thread Auteuil plays a lawyer, this time based on the real-life criminal defence lawyer Jean-Yves Moyart, who drew on his experiences of the French legal system to become a blogger and author. He wrote the best-selling memoir, Le Livre de Maître Mo, which was published in 2022, almost a year after his death at the age of 53.
The book became the inspiration for The Thread, which follows the case of devoted dad Nicolas Milik (Gregory Gadebois) as he is accused of murdering his troubled wife — an incriminating thread of material is found on the corpse, hence the film’s title.
Auteuil’s Jean Monier, now working as a prosecutor, decides to help his over-committed wife and fellow counsel, Annie (Sidse Babett Knudsen), who tells him about the case. He ultimately defends Milik as he is convinced that he is innocent.
“There was no evidence against him, no motive and the material elements were ignored”, Monier says in the film. “So we’re going to convict a man because of a cotton thread under his fingernail?”
As Monier becomes more involved in the case and questions are raised, he starts to have doubts.
“Monier experienced a tragic failure that marked his life, and as a result he stopped pleading criminal cases for many years,” Auteuil notes. “He’s a man who clings to his illusions.”
Monier’s return is in fact an attempt to rectify his past failure when he was responsible for a killer being exonerated. Knudsen says Annie is “the conscience” of the piece.
Auteuil attended several closed criminal trials to get the feel of what was happening, though insists he didn’t want to make a documentary or be over to the top in terms of the emotion.
“What I was drawn to is the depiction of the human condition, the people speaking at the trial and what they’re hiding. The people in the courtroom are exposed to the horrors that the lawyer has to have the strength to defend. That struggle is what interested me, the depth of conviction that you need to defend such inhumanity.”
The novel first captivated Nelly Auteuil, Auteuil’s daughter with his ex-wife Beart, who produced the film alongside screenwriter and director Hugo Gelin.
Subscribe for updates
“It was Nelly who introduced me to the material and I developed the film with her,” Auteuil explains.
Did she tell him what to do?
“Yes!” he responds with a chuckle. “I’m not used to being told what to do, but she did at first. I found it difficult, but then I realised that she was absolutely right about certain elements of the script.”
His older daughter Aurore appears in the film.
“She chose cinema to be close to me. Nelly on the other hand wanted to escape the world of her parents. She studied law and worked as a lawyer and now she’s a producer, which just goes to show that you can’t escape your destiny.”
He admits to being a bit of a pessimist but these days Auteuil has a spring in his step
When he is directing himself, Auteuil says he shoots his own scenes quickly.
“I usually do one or two takes, to the great despair of my technicians,” he says. “I’m much more interested in my other actors than myself.”
He admits to being a bit of a pessimist but these days Auteuil has a spring in his step and looks much younger. What is making him happy is creating music. For four years he has been singing in a band in a kind of Serge Gainsbourg-style and writing songs. He has released two albums.
“I hadn’t dared to do it and I figured it was time to try,” he says. “In the beginning, I felt awkward, but fortunately I was surrounded by great musicians and they gave me the courage to go along with it. It’s so much fun.”
Auteuil also appears in another major upcoming film, the crime drama, A Private Life, where he plays Jodie Foster’s ex-husband. The American star speaks French. The pair admitted they got along like a house on fire when I asked them about their first experience of working together at the film’s Cannes press conference.
“For the very first time, I met someone who had the same reactions inside, who performs like I do, has the same feelings and who is hugely concentrated when working yet remains light at the same time,” Auteuil replies. “It was absolutely natural. It was as though we’d always loved each other.”
“Yes, it is an amazing thing,” Jodie Foster agrees. “And I’m sure you guys have had this experience as well, where you know an actor’s work so well, you know their face and where their face is going to move, and how they speak.
“And, of course, I’ve been watching Daniel for so many years. We had a good time making the movie as actors, but we had a good time sitting in our chairs waiting and talking about nonsense.”
The Thread opens in cinemas nationally from August 28. A Private Life will be released later this year.
Helen Barlow is a Paris-based Australian freelance journalist and critic. In 2019 she received the La Plume d’Or for her services to French cinema.