And the phantasm projected by Vincent Perez was not apparent in Peau d'ange, a film he directed and presented at the Montreal World Film Festival. This film has a white color, which points to the world of Bresson and Alain Cavalier, a quasi-mystical search of purity. A strange tone! Luc Besson, who produced the film, spoke about it this week referring to it as fragile work. Some criticized Peau d'ange for its improbable characters - a heroine named Angele (Morgane More), a young country person, almost holy, who is transformed by a single night of love with her emotive partner, Gregoire (Guillaume Depardieu). For me, it seemed like a luminous and mysterious film, full of ellipses, seen like a fable with its heroes and prototypes in a small provincial town where destinies become entangled. Peau d'ange is close to the Balzac literary universe, imperfect and poetic all at the same time. Vincent Perez has already directed three short films, Before being an actor, he was interested in photography. For ten years, he had the desire to direct a full-length film. "Sometimes I amuse myself like a kid when acting (I presently have the insane pleasure in playing Fanfan in Fanfan la Tulipe, directed by Gerard Krawcyk), but it is obvious that I want to diversify and explore more." Behind Peau d'ange is not only Vincent, but also Karine Silla, his wife, co-screenwriter and an actress in the film. Is this film more the world of Karine? "It is a mixture of both of us," answers Vincent Perez. "As a child in the Swiss countryside, I had this mystical aspiration in me. Karine had this too. We both created this tale based on reality, but fantastic also, with its fairy-like tone. Angele, the heroine, is a pure being, who meets another being, who was pure, but who has broken his wings (the character played by Guillaume). Angele is an angel who passes through the film, and then flies away. One meets pure beings during their lifetime. Those who have the force to keep this course and maintain a line without influence are capable of great things." Vincent Perez worked on most of the structure and scenes of the film - the meeting at the station, the night of love - whereas Karine especially polished the dialogues with Jerome Tonnerre. The remainder was connected. Luc Besson (who lives with the sister of Karine Silla) is a close relation and produced the film. The distribution was essentially easy. Magali Woch, noted in Saint-Cyr military school, became the luminous Angele. Guillaume Depardieu became the alter ego of Perez, with his role as a man at the crossroads who breaks the chains of the past. Laurent Terzieff, Olivier Gourmet and Domenica White all agreed to do the film. His past experience as a photographer enabled Vincent to create the images. Today, the scriptwriter looks at his film and thinks that Peau d'ange rests on a silk wire. "I have refused the support of solid mechanisms. I do not impose anything. I do not manipulate the audience. I like to show destinies which cross, which fly away elsewhere...one does not know where."
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This weekend he
accompanied his first feature-length film, Peau d'ange (Angel Skin), a
strange work of white light. Vincent Perez, the French actor of Swiss origin, created a
film about a mystical journey. We have seen him in several action films, as a chivalrous
hero in Indochine, Le Bossu and Queen Margot. In France, and also in the
United States, Vincent Perez seems at ease as a romantic lover or a libertine in very
physical roles, often with a horse or sword in hand. But do we really know the actor?
Prisoners of their roles, actors often remain a phantasm of others.