Depardieu

Broaching personal matters in an interview can be tricky. Laying the groundwork, not appearing prurient, choosing your words carefully so as not to spook your subject – all these elements are crucial. They are also completely unnecessary in the case of Juliette Binoche. We are fewer than five minutes into our Zoom call and already the 58-year-old actor is leaning forward in her seat in an office in Paris and trawling through intimate memories. “I fell in love with two men in my 20s,” she says, matter of factly. “It was…

The oversized screen presence of Gérard Depardieu, an actor who comes with baggage to match his bulk, is smartly harnessed in this impressive feature debut from Constance Meyer. Depardieu plays Georges, a celebrated French actor with the appetite of an ogre, a tendency to crash motorbikes and a self-destructive kind of genius that is frequently diluted by endless bottles of wine. The role, in other words, that Depardieu has arguably been playing for most of his life.Déborah Lukumuena.Starring opposite him is the…

Here’s an odd-couple comedy drama about a grumpy, cantankerous old movie star called Georges (Gérard Depardieu), who is assigned a tough “minder” called Aïssa (Déborah Lukumuena) to look after him. Why does he need a security guard? Apparently, there’s a stalker issue (a pretty harmless-looking woman camps outside his apartment building) and he also seems to be the target of environmental activists.Frankly, the premise for Aïssa’s presence in Georges’ life is a bit thin, and this looks as if it’s going to be a sentimental…

“France without meat isn’t France.” Gérard Depardieu growls the words, his irritation spreading across the screen like a gravy stain. He’s in character, playing Georges, a celebrated but erratic French actor, in his latest film, Robuste (Robust), the first feature by director Constance Meyer. But these are the kind of words – provocative, emphatic – which could equally have been spoken by Depardieu himself.Larger than life, both onscreen – with the ugly-beautiful brutalist angles of his face, the forceful magnetism of his…