Lambert Wilson : “You have monsters like Cousteau” – The Point

In 1990, was called “Captain Planet”, the superhero of the oceans and the great defender of mother Nature. In 2016, it is treated an impostor, guilty of, among other, of having committed The World of silence, which won the palme d’or 1956, featuring a killing sharks with blows of the shovel, blasting of coral garden, a harassment of turtles, and many other feats. Without doubt this is the fate of idols that finally broken by the companies that had manufactured, and there was not figure more idolised than that of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, twenty times holder of the title of personality favorite of the French. As said by the director Jérôme Salle, “to the people of his generation, jacques Cousteau, it was Jesus Christ.” Except that those of the following generation have done a Pontius Pilate, when they think not simply, if we say “red cap”, the protesters against the ecotax. Suffice to say that a biopic rehabilitating “JYC” was not useless.

But The Odyssey is a film more clever than that : in fact rehabilitation, rather, it is a recontextualization. In an era and, especially, in a family. A quartet, in addition to the explorer, a wife discreet, Simone (Audrey Tautou), without which nothing would have been possible, and two sons, Jean-Michel (Benjamin Lavernhe) and Philippe (Pierre Niney), thanks to which everything was possible. The Cousteau camped by Lambert Wilson is not one that we imagine her admirers nor one canardent its detractors. “He had faults, but not those of which he is accused,” says the actor, visibly inspired by this role.

The Point of Pop : The Odyssey focuses on the rocky relationship of Cousteau with his family. Why this choice, which requires them to move more quickly on the history of inventions and discoveries ?

Lambert Wilson : I think that the bottom of it, Jerome Hall wanted to make a film on the problematic father/son, in which many of us can project. The relationship to a father stimulating and generous, and at the same time, monomaniacal, obsessive, ready to leave the nucleus of the family, to satisfy his curiosity…, me, I am completely associated since I have experienced practically the same thing with mine. And then, to have the adventure, the spectacle, it is enough to re-Cousteau’s films. If you want the Cousteau public, it is accessible. The Cousteau intimate, this is what makes The Odyssey. With, obviously, areas of shadow.

let’s Talk about, precisely. When you type “Cousteau” on the Internet, the result is not glorious…

there are actually sales controversy lingering around him. Hence the need to reset the clock to the hour. When it is said that in fact he was not rabid, and that during the filming of World of silence he slain the sharks… But Cousteau himself has made his mea culpa about it ! He did not want to change the film’s editing is actually to assume completely that this was the perception of the nature at that time.

The way he has done is huge and this is shown in The Odyssey, this awareness of a man who was at first a predator and which is gradually realized the fragility of a world he must defend. There is a lack of knowledge of the folder Cousteau that allows people, sometimes very young people, moreover, want to pay.

still, there is this letter about anti-semitic : in 1941, Cousteau writes to his best friend referring to “all these abominable youtres that weigh us down”…

first, let’s make one thing clear : there is an overlay which is unfortunate, which is made between Jacques-Yves and his brother Pierre-Antoine, who was truly a collabo-semitic and who has been arrested. Jacques-Yves, has been the Legion of honour as a resistant. As to the terms that you cite, they did not have the same connotation as today and were unfortunately shared by many French in the bourgeois world which emanated Cousteau. But nothing in his actions do not tell an anti-semite. I believe that you really want to debunk the icon at any price.

Why would one want to ?

With the Cousteau society, it has built a kind of secular saint. Gold saints are most annoying, you want to destroy them. Cousteau has irritated a lot of people for a long time, especially in the scientific community. It was a great speaker and it before nappa landed things so that it was not scientific – it has never claimed to be. It has raised tensions and jealousies which have swollen over the years. Then, it is true that it has dismissed more or less stylish people who were faithful companions.

including his eldest son, Jean-Michel, who wrote : “My father used the people. When he did not need, he sold.”

I would like to put in opposition to what the us has entrusted François Sarano, who has been a diver for fifteen years on the Calypso and who accompanied us during the shooting. He explained to us that the Commander said all the time to his companions : “Do what you gotta do, but do it well.” They were in total freedom and had all the equipment imaginable available, but Cousteau had a limited patience for people who have no effective and fleeing from the conflict, preferring to evacuate the problem. I experienced the same thing with my father, who could not have the courage to say to the actors that it auditionnait that they had not the role of the…

Play the role of the father when one has been a long time, “son of”, it does not makes you a schizophrenic ?

It was particularly strange, a form of internal torque, when I played the great scene where the father and the younger son is saying things final. Because Pierre Niney had replicas that I could say and what I say to my father, which to me has probably said things as hard as Cousteau, as “I would have preferred not to have children”. My instinct pushed me to the son so that it was necessary to incarnate the father.

Even taken by the demon of pride, Cousteau was given the key to his children

But I was able to support me on all the work that I have done before and after the death of my father to remove the anger that I felt towards her. I had a father devastating, but it was not bad. Fort of it, I have seen Cousteau with a lot more indulgence and patience. I looked at him with tenderness, because even taken by the demon of pride, this man gave the key to his children : a taste of the beauty of the Universe, the philosophy of freedom, this willingness to go to the end of its forces to discover. It is still a great viaticum. After that, it is up to the son to make peace with their heritage.

today, the family is the Cousteau society is divided, and most young people don’t know who is Cousteau. Is there really an inheritance ?

But you can breathe under water thanks to Cousteau ! The Antarctic is preserved until 2048 thanks to him ! He was responsible for the environmental consciousness of an entire generation. If there is such a sympathy for associations working for the environment, it is thanks to people like Cousteau. Yes, these are figures, a little monstrous, but undoubtedly it is necessary mobs to spend so much energy on a mission, leaves to devastate everything in the intimate sphere. It’s funny because this is the second time that I play a figure of this type. When I played the abbé Pierre, I was in the same situation as the young relative to Cousteau : it was a name I knew, but I didn’t understand why it was something so huge in the history of the French.

But the two figures have nothing to do !

These are two men who are concerned about the plight of humanity. The difference is that abbé Pierre was an animal much more political, willing to take more risk on this plan. Cousteau has been a concern for the well-being of mankind, but perhaps it was more self-centered and pleasure-seeker, too. It was in a kind of jubilation and enjoyment permanently of what he was doing, which makes it less immediately altruistic. But his concern for the future of humanity was real, he reported on the status of places of the planet all his life… A role as a charismatic, I believe, does happen to me more soon. After having played the number one and number two in the Top 50 of the most popular celebrity in French, one does not even ask me to play Jean-Jacques Goldman, or Yannick Noah !