From R.Ruiz, Rohmer, Ozon, to Dolan, Melvil Poupaud Anyways, The Great Game is His New Film

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    Parker Posey and Melvil Poupaud in Broken English (Z. Cassavates directed)
    Happy birthday Melvil Poupaud.

    Named after author ‘Herman Melville’ by his mother. (via IMDB)
    Slant Interview(discusses his new film the Great Game)

    Although he may be too introverted to gain status as an international superstar, Melvil Poupaud admits he’s content to let independent and auteur-driven films shape his career. He made his screen debut in Raúl Ruiz’s City of Pirates at age nine, after which his maturation on screen came at the hands of some of world cinema’s most accomplished directors, among them Eric Rohmer (A Summer’s Tale), François Ozon (Time to Leave), and Arnaud Desplechin (A Christmas Tale), and Xavier Dolan (Laurence Anyways). Even in his work for American filmmakers like Zoe Cassavetes (Broken English) and Angelina Jolie (By the Sea), there’s a sense that his aura, a charismatic mix of intelligence and apprehension, is a kind of inspirational force.

  • Melvil Poupaud – Interview

    MP: It was thanks in no small part to Xavier Dolan and Laurence Anyways. Every ten years, I’ve been lucky enough to have had some noteworthy roles. When I was 10, it was with Ruiz; then at 20, it was with Rohmer; at 30, with François Ozon and also Desplechin, but in a secondary role. In Ozon’s film, Time to Leave (Le Temps Qui Reste), I died, so after filming it was a kind of rebirth. Then with Dolan when I was 40 years old, when I went into a whole other dimension by playing a woman. It was really demanding, that experience took a lot out of me.

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    Laurence Anyways directed by Xavier Dolan.

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    Time to Leave (starring with Jeanne Moreau) (Melvil was directed twice by Francois Ozon, Time to Leave and Hideaway).

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    Melville as a child actor made his first film “City of Pirates” directed by Raul Ruiz

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    A Summer’s Tale by Eric Rohmer
    (documentary of the making of A Summer’s Tale showed Rohmer’s interests in local music and culture).