Ivo van Hove has dazzled and paralyzed the courtyard of the Papal Palace adapting masterly film by Luchino Visconti, with the troupe of the Comédie-French
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It’s a strange triumph which hosted, Wednesday, July 6 at night, the premiere of Damned in the courtyard of the Papal Palace, the opening of the 70th edition of the Avignon Festival. A serious triumph, almost solemn, at the height of the subject, and the grandiose and chilling spectacle – not frozen – signed by the Flemish director Ivo van Hove, and played by the troupe of the Comédie-French
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the public remained paralyzed few seconds before getting up in waves that eventually reach the VIP area in the center of the bleachers, the heart of which was the Minister of culture, Audrey Azoulay, surrounded by Olivier Py, the Director of the Avignon Festival, and Eric Ruf, the deputy head of the Comédie-French, came to witness the return of the troops, after twenty-three years of absence in the Vaucluse.
on knows what strikes first in this masterful reinterpretation of history invented in 1969 by Luchino Visconti: the relevance of the back on the center stage today in Europe again won by nationalism and temptations authoritarian; the formal audacity of the director, who has invented one of the most extensive mergers between cinema and theater I have ever seen; or brillantissime and intense game offered by comedians-French.
as in the movie, the story begins on February 27, 1933. in Berlin, the Reichstag is in flames. In von Essenbeck family, who made his fortune in the steel industry, we celebrate the birthday of Patriarch Joachim. Family happiness trompe-l’oeil will be short. Family rivalries worthy of Greek tragedy, and the thirst for power, consuming as that in Shakespeare, will not soon be unleashed, fueled by deus ex machina belonging to Nazi circles, Hauptsturmführer von Aschenbach.
By adapting the Damned , Ivo van Hove breaks completely with the profuse historical and aesthetic of the film . However, it is deeply loyal to the bottom line which underpins it viscontien look at the wedding of blood of capitalism and Nazism. Italian filmmaker also said his Essenbeck, as insane, dehumanized as they were, were still well below the reality embodied by the Krupp family …
And this wedding is an opportunity for the director of a unique combination of epic theater and drama, and between theater and cinema. In the courtyard of the Papal Palace, there is no real decor, no reconstruction of a large mansion. The wall of the courtyard, this “ glorious stone ” celebrated by Jean Vilar, is bare. As did Patrice Chéreau, whose Ivo van Hove is a great admirer with his Hamlet , the director made the choice of horizontality of the court and not its verticality. At the center of the plate, a large orange rectangle, playground, crucible melting of all the family and political follies.
Ivo van Hove’s stages, this story, like a death ritual, which sees the protagonists, one after another, switch yard garden , theater boxes they prepare and dress to view the coffins that seal their fate. The director with his usual designer, Jan Versweyveld, designed this “empty space” to better develop the dialogue it creates between cinema and theater: a dialogue that, aside from Frank Castorf, had never been away.
the work done with the American video artist Tal Yarden is staggering in various ways, which seems to play on all the available ranges. live pictures, which never come to double the action on the set, but deepen it in an intimate relationship. recorded images and projected parallel to the action, that can give full force to the most difficult scenes, like the Night of the Long Knives, suggesting that by showing more directly. Images multiplied, blurry, grainy, Warhol, play between color and black and white, in the passage from life to death …
And so Ivo van Hove found an operatic dimension mythical and epic, while the drama play his actors in the most organic way and the most humane. And they play the game, these comedians-French is often said, by pure cliché, prisoners of a certain academicism, stunningly.
There is no space to describe the work of each. What Denis Podalydès here is particularly striking in the role without doubt the most ungrateful, most contemptible of the room, one of SA (assault Section) Konstantin von Essenbeck. Guillaume Gallienne, in that of Friedrich Bruckmann, Macbeth in miniature, displayed a sobriety and a novel interior and beautiful.
All bring a unique color, a force, an emotion. But here, we particularly remember Christophe Montenez. With him, Martin, the pivot of history, keeps its mystery: a black abyss of resentment, hatred and perversion of the young actor expresses a poisonous and morbid sweetness. And will long be remembered Elsa Lepoivre by Sophie von Essenbeck-Lady Macbeth, haunting his madness underground Palace of the Popes. The tall blonde is the queen of Damned .
the Damned, according to the film Luchino Visconti. Directed by Ivo van Hove. Courtyard of the Papal Palace, at 22 pm until July 16. Duration: 2 hours 20. Tel. : 04-90-14-14-14
After twenty-three years of absence, the band returned to Avignon for “the Damned”, the film adaptation of Luchino Visconti
will play, not play? Guillaume Gallienne is on the bench, in jeans and sneakers. We are May 31 He will not play. Rehearsals Damned started a week earlier, the Centquatre in Paris and the Flemish director Ivo van Hove comb and repaint a double simultaneous and complex stage, in which does not appear the star of the Comedie-French.
Gallienne will only look with pleasure obviously, his classmates committed body and soul on fire color game era in the center of the space.
Damned is the ‘superlative opening of the Avignon Festival 2016, in the courtyard of the Papal Palace. The adaptation of the sumptuous and poisonous film Luchino Visconti, which dates from 1969. The impact of history – that of the rise of Nazism in Germany – and the intimate, through the story of a family decadent . Signing Ivo van Hove, become a master of the stage in Europe. And Last but not least , the return of the French Comedie in Avignon, where she was not coming for twenty-three years – the Damned will also be the opening season of the House of Molière in September.
and this is a band at the top that can be found in this show, and in the rehearsal room, which has sound stage tunes: Guillaume Gallienne therefore, Denis Podalydès, Elsa Lepoivre Eric Génovèse, Loïc Corbery, Adeline Hermy, Montenez Christophe Didier Sandre, Alexander Pavloff, Clément Hervieu-Léger, Jennifer Decker and Sylvia Bergé. The addition of talent is staggering.
How to follow in the footsteps of Dirk Bogarde, Helmut Berger, Ingrid Thulin or Charlotte Rampling, mythical players Visconti film? Forgetting unanimously say the members of the troupe.
The method of work of Ivo van Hove is so special that it prompted anyway. From the first day, rehearsals take place in the final set, and costumes. All played in this furnace molten what the theater stage, where all the incandescent are possible and necessary.
” I was very disturbed Ivo van Hove intend to play the role of section assault (SA) Konstantin von Essenbeck, which in the film is a brute, can we even call a fat pig, and tells Denis Podalydès. But this shift shows its willingness to reinterpret the full story and characters of the film. Like all great teachers, Ivo van Hove has an impressive team around him and works in the most total calm. This puts us, the actors, in a state of natural availability, as if our software was completely up to date, having erased the previous layers. It arrives on set with a gigantic consciousness preparation was carried upstream, and suddenly the work seems very simple to mount in a short time at a high intensity game and expression. For the scene of the Night of the Long Knives [mass murder of SA by Hitler and the SS, on the night of June 29 to 30, 1934] Ivo van Hove just pronounced this sentence: “It is a bacchanal”. All was said, there was to drive things in their ultimate formal and dramatic consequences … “
” This a director very attached to the readability, clarity of the story told , “said Eric Génovèse, which he, as he says with relish, and with this stylish remote that never leaves, plays “ the most wicked of the wicked ‘ Hauptsturmführer Wolf von Aschenbach, the Nazi ideologist, who manipulates everyone.
“ Ivo van Hove does not happen with a big theoretical knowledge, but with a staging structure is built entirely adds Guillaume Gallienne, who was assigned the role of Friedrich Bruckmann, the upstart who arrives at the head of the family business, before being rolled by political issues. The displacement, relative to the video and music, everything is hyper worked in advance, like an opera. And the characters are never addressed psychological way: Ivo rather encourages us to follow the score and we added demands on reflection. The other day I told him jokingly that with him I had ceased to be a psychological actor! Often I asked for an explanation where the theater is more than enough, but it gives me confidence that can do without. It feels good, and 44 years to finally release it! “
Two weeks later, on June 14 the atmosphere is always calm and focused in the studio Centquatre. In three weeks, the company has already been able to repeat the show in its entirety. Ivo van Hove takes everything from the beginning, particularly in order to refine the relationship between the game on the board and live images of shooting, led by video artist Tal Yarden.
“ this is quite new to most of us that work with the camera, Lepoivre observes Elsa, who plays the formidable Sophie von Essenbeck, kind of Lady Macbeth of time of Nazism. But, yet, his presence never clamp the game: in this dialogue it establishes with it, Ivo van Hove seems rather encourage our theatricality. I can play all the colors of this terrible woman of helplessness and frustration strength: its perversion necessarily comes from somewhere, even if it does not excuse his actions and his lust for power, which, for me, remains a enigma. But in the movie, Ingrid Thulin cheek so very fragrant, very pussy with its small stripped silk. I wanted to go to something more raw and more monstrous, and Ivo encouraged me. He likes to show on stage the balance of power, paroxysmal, carried by a game that unfolds fully. I really enjoy. “
Two weeks later, on the night of June 29 to 30, we find again the players and the team of Ivo van Hove, in Avignon, in the Court of honor, where they arrived two days earlier. Despite the pleasure to finally be in the Holy of Holies, the actors caught up in this terrible story feel. June 29 marks the anniversary of the Night of the Long Knives. The day before, on June 28 a new attack bloodied Istanbul
collisions. Adeline Hermy came out in the repetition of tears too emotional. “ It was six years ago, I was playing in the Festival” off “, in a small room then called the Monte-Charge, says the young actress. Today I am here in this court where I’ve never been to play Elisabeth Thalmann, which is about the only really pure character of this story. It’s a lot. “
Christophe Montenez, which could be the revelation of this show, as it impresses, in rehearsal, in the role of Martin, played in the film by Helmut Berger, takes the shock. “ I feel supported by the method of Ivo van Hove, who really preserves the sacred fire of the actor , he analyzed. And I like the strangeness of the theater, and with Martin, I am served. “
But even the great Denis Podalydès seems deeply moved by diving in this human molten magma that are the Damned. “ What I have endless questions is how a social class that had a history, a culture, a nobility, distinction, agreed to barbarism and s’ is left devoured by it he remarked dreamily. How can barbarity reach the most educated body, the most accomplished of the social, cultural, economic … Nazism is seen as a long process of negation, destruction, death. And I feel that not only is not free from this, but there are many signs in our society that can give the feeling that this machine is waiting to start up again … “
” This story is not so distant. I constantly ask me what makes you fall in there. While all these bloody struggles are based only on the wind, nothing, sand, pure destruction … “murmured Elsa Lepoivre, large elegant blonde, her pink chiffon dress billowing like a breath in light winds of the Court of honor
After Broadway, where he collaborated with David Bowie for “Lazarus”, the Flemish film director invests the courtyard of the Papal Palace in Avignon.
at 58, the director Ivo van Hove worked all over Europe, in Belgium, where it comes from, the Netherlands, where he directs the Toneelgroep Amsterdam, England, France, and to New York, where he was the last to work with David Bowie, for Lazarus musical. Here he is today in the courtyard of the Papal Palace, a consecration which, for him, is well worth it to Broadway.
where is the idea to adapt the theater the Damned
I absolutely love the films of Visconti: I have already staged for the theater Rocco and his brothers and Ludwig, the twilight of the gods . When took shape the idea of the opening of the Avignon Festival in the courtyard of the papal palace with the cast of the Comédie-French, I first thought that Eric Ruf [l administrator of the French] would we climbed high in the repertoire. But when I asked him, he was very open. I then offered to The Damned , and he enthusiastically agreed.
Why this story ? -There particularly
history speaks of the important things for us today. Until then I had always avoided putting on a show directly on the Second World War and Nazism – a lot has already been done in this area, and I felt that it was not me. But I kept thinking that Visconti said when asked why he had made this film: for him, Nazism revealed the historical reversal of values. And that’s what, to me it seems, resonates so strongly today.
Are you going to stage The Damned as a historical play
no, I’m looking for not too historicizing the show, although it will be crossed by the image archive. What interests me in The Damned is the mixture between historical material regarding the company and a family story, a terrible family, degenerate. The heart of the story, for me, what is perhaps most important in relation to our time, it is dangerous liaisons between business – here the steel industry – and politics – in this case Nazism. That shows the sumptuous manner of the film is that capitalism is both an ideology and economy, and the least we can say is that this is still the case today. The mythical dimension, mythological, is very present
How do you adapt to a movie theater
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whether Visconti, Bergman or Cassavetes, who also been the source of many of my shows, I do not fit the film, but the screenplay. I have not seen The Damned recently, and I do not see her again. For me, forget Visconti: it’s really about capturing the story, the characters, to create a new staging, as is done from a room
How do you approach the courtyard of the Papal Palace, which is a very special place
January Versweyveld my designer, we often attended performances in the Court. But we wanted to see the empty, to wash us of what has been done previously. And this fear of naked place led us to emphasize the horizontality of the Court, not its verticality, as is often the case.
working with Actors French is different from the one you regularly lead your troupe Toneelgroep Amsterdam?
no, not at all. Everything was done in a very natural way, even we did not need to really talk about. Most actors have seen many of my shows, including Kings of War , after Shakespeare, and knew they would fall into the same mix of live music , video and game on stage. Since work with me directly on the plate, they were immediately open to develop a very physical game, organic and concrete. These are great actors who have no problem with this type of non-psychological play.
How do you see the relationship between the private and political, in the Wretched
All played it, in this story. The first plan is the family life, but gradually, the political – the machine – is set up, and it invades everything. This is what I want to show how the machine becomes a kind of perfection to which we can not escape. The machine eats men and women, it has no emotional.
In 1969, Luchino Visconti was scandal with “ The Damned .” In 2016, the Belgian director Ivo van Hove brings back the day this film at the Avignon Festival in involving the Comédie-French.
in 1969, Luchino Visconti was scandal with the Damned. history of switching from a wealthy family of industrialists in the Nazism. In 2016, the Belgian director Ivo van Hove brings back the day the film by using the Comedie-French. A first for this man of theater and a fantastic return of the troupe at the Avignon Festival, after twenty-three years of absence. Result: a masterful piece, strong, with amazing actors. Among them, Guillaume Gallienne, Elsa Lepoivre and Christophe Montenez. Meeting.
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