If Azéma and Dussollier are so close, it is because they have known each other forever. Before they even worked together. They shared improv classes, had the same theater teacher, Jean Périmony, before both being chosen as favorite actors by Alain Resnais. “André gave me the answer for entering the Conservatory in Musset, You must not swear about anything…”, recalls Azéma. “Wasn’t it in a Guitry? ”, asks Dussollier? “Ah yes, you’re right…”
The meeting with Resnais
Since La Vie est un roman in 1983, Azéma and Dussollier have appeared together in seven films by Alain Resnais. This meeting with the legend of the New Wave was decisive. Particularly for Sabine Azéma, who was Resnais’ companion from 1998 to his death in 2014. “I remember very well the day he called me. He says: ‘Hello, I’m Alain Resnais. I am a film director. I want to see you. I have a role for you.’ I said to myself: it’s not possible; it’s a joke. I arrived too early for the appointment. He was a little disconcerted, because Alain was very precise. He would have liked to arrange the office and everything… He told me to bring photos. I brought about fifteen, about the same. He must have taken fourteen and left one; I don’t know why… And then there was no audition, there was nothing…”, says the actress, with her characteristic fantasy. However, she will play in La Vie est un roman, just like Dussollier, hired thanks to the support of Fanny Ardant. It was she who convinced Resnais to offer Dussollier a small role in this choral film, even though he thought the actor would not be interested. “Which gift ! ”, believes Dussollier today… “It’s thanks to him that we worked together, Sabine and I. Really.”
Fanny Ardant and André Dussollier in “La Vie est un roman” by Alain Resnais in 1983. ©DR
Resnais, the actor director
Thanks to Resnais, the two actors won a César, that of best actress for Azéma in Mélo in 1987, that of best actor for Dussollier in On sais la chanson in 1998. The actress remembers the director’s acting direction . “Alain said: ‘Let’s shoot it to see how it will turn out.’ It was great. The right word, the right adjective. No more… On the other hand, we saw each other before filming. We go to see painting exhibitions. He makes us read books. We revolve around our characters, the film. We soak it in. And on set, we say engine and we’ll see how it will run. Often I would tell him: ‘I’m going to do one take where I’ll be a little discreet, another where I’ll go a little louder and then one where I’ll be really wild.’ He accepted all proposals…”
“To love, drink and sing”: Death, like life, with the fun side!
André Dussollier has equally emotional memories of the filming of Mélo. “Alain was self-taught. He left school quite early, so he was interested in everything, he had no barriers. We, when we were at the Conservatory, Bernstein, we should not play him, because he was a guy who had a terrible reputation. But we still realized that he was a good author. To tell you Resnais’s scruples… For Mélo, he wrote me the biography of the character’s parents. It was incredibly delicate to do that. It was as if he was passing the baton when playing the character. It was a way of bringing us into the character. Gifts like that are overwhelming. That alone, for me, symbolizes this man.”
André Dussollier and Sabine Azéma in “Mélo” by Alain Resnais in 1986. A role which earned Azéma her second César for best actress (after that obtained two years earlier for “A Sunday in the Country” by Bertrand Tavernier. © DR
A controlled freedom
If Resnais’ actors were free to suggest things on set, their freedom was quite controlled. “He made us feel like we were free and creative. But be careful, he knew what he wanted, admits Azéma. He was a man who took life slowly; he always took his time. But then on a platter! Engine. Yes. No… Right away! It was Alain who fraternized us, let’s say. Besides, Alain said: ‘Pierre (Arditti, his other favorite actor, Editor’s note) and André, they are my fathers, my dads.’ It was funny to say that… But it’s true. I feel like we were a family. We moved forward together. ”
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I find that I am better than before my meeting with Resnais.
Ten years after the death of Resnais, what André Dussollier remembers – who does not say he is at all jealous that it was Arditi who was chosen to film in Smoking/No Smoking in 1993), is his “way of being ”. “He will mark me until the end, not only in my professional life, in my life in general. Because this man’s attitude, his way of being were exemplary.” “My true personality, the one I have now, arrived with him. I built myself with meeting him, adds Azéma. Before Alain, I felt a bit like a puppy. We’re pretentious, we think we’re going to succeed in everything… I don’t know how to say it. With Resnais, all of a sudden, I found myself human. I find that I am better than before Resnais. This meeting made me become the best version of who I could be in life…”
In 2009, Alain Resnais reunited with his faithful André Dussollier and Sabine Azéma for “Les Herbes Folles”. ©DR
Love of comics
A filmmaker who started out in very intellectual cinema (from Hiroshima mon amour in 1959 to Providence in 1977, via Last Year at Marienbad in 1961), Alain Resnais ended his career with an explosion of fantasy, with films like Smoking /No Smoking (1993), We Know the Song (1997) or Hearts (2006). “André loved the Belgians, because there are many great Belgian comic book artists. He talked about that often. He really liked the Belgian spirit,” says Azéma.
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Alain Resnais really liked the Belgian spirit.
Passionate about comics, Resnais had the project of bringing to the screen the adventures of Harry Dickson, a detective popularized in France by Jean Ray in the 1930s and adapted into comics by Dargaud from 1986 to 2003. “He ultimately didn’t couldn’t do it, regrets Dussollier. But he was a great director, patient and hardworking. Afterwards, it’s my personal interpretation, but I think that he was in such a hurry to realize that he went to the theater, of which he was very accustomed. Whether it’s Bernstein (for Mélo) or Ayckbourn (from which Resnais adapted Smoking/No Smoking, but also Aimer, verre et chant, his last film in 2014, Editor’s note), because there was already the material, the scenario . And the director that he was only embellished…”
Sabine Azéma will remember the eternal youth of Alain Resnais
40 years of joint career
For 40 years, Dussollier and Azéma have toured together 11 times, for Resnais, but also for François Dupeyron (in La Chambre desofficers in 2001) or for Étienne Chatillez, in the unforgettable Tanguy in 2001 and in its sequel in 2019 “Thanks to Resnais, directors like Étienne (Chatillez) or Dupeyron hired us. We thank them because, for them, it was not so easy to reconstitute a couple who had already existed with a great director, believes Azéma. It’s funny. People like us or don’t like us, but we are credible as a couple.” “I think people guess that we have a work community. They must feel that there are affinities, a sensitivity,” continues Dussollier.
What is the value of “Tanguy”, which returns… 16 years later?
“I noticed that with André, since the time we made these films together, we felt the same things, the atmosphere, the people, what happened on the set or outside… Sometimes, I said to him: ‘Didn’t you see that?’ And yes, he saw, he felt. You agree André, right? No, but that’s crazy! However, in life, we do not have the same character. But if I say something to him, he understands straight away. […] The complicity is there all the time. There, if we were to start playing, there is no problem. Sometimes, when I turn, it says engine and I feel a little dizzy. I no longer know if there is a camera, if it is life or fiction…”
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I think people guess that we have a work community. They must feel that there are affinities, a sensitivity…
Despite the years, their complicity, the two actors still manage to surprise each other on a film set. “That’s what’s at stake, the pleasure of playing,” comments Dussollier. I like surprising her, even in an extreme way. When I played in Les Herbes Folles (by Resnais in 2009, Editor’s note), it was a role that Sabine didn’t know. I wondered how she was going to react… And she reacted in a split second, as an actress. Even though we didn’t know each other in that guise…” “But you also surprised me in the films of other directors. I was happy. I was like: Wow! Well done.’ I told you about some. What I always say is that we humans are mysteries. You will always surprise. Acting is also a bit like opening the wardrobe, the actress reflects, touching her chest. When we say engine, if we open it a little, we will discover that we are full of secrets. We are all just little piles of secrets, which we want to give or not. But playing allows you to open up. Alain said: ‘An actor is a sleepwalker. Don’t wake him.’ This means that you don’t have to take it again all the time. You must not cut, break…”
Sabine Azéma and André Dussollier, unforgettable pair of parents unable to get rid of their son “Tanguy” in the comedy phenomenon by Étienne Chatillez in 2001. ©DR
