Could you start by talking about your character in Têtes givrées?
Clovis Cornillac :It's Alain's character. He was a former top-level ski coach. You get the feeling that there's been a tragedy in his life, that he's shut himself away a bit. And then he gets an opportunity, because there's a shortage of teachers in the French education system. He's offered a job as a teacher in a SEGPA class. And in fact, this character is going to give new life - confidence, rather than "life". He's going to give confidence, he's going to give desire. He's going to create desire in students who are in a bit of a rut and have a cruel lack of self-confidence. And through it, he'll also regain a taste for life, confidence and all that. So it's quite a virtuous path. And it's all set against the backdrop of, well, against the backdrop of, it's a strange word to use in relation to the story, but let's just say it's linked to a major project connected with global warming.
How did you prepare for your role in the film?
C.C.: Often, when you're going to act in a film, you have a character with a profession, and the least you can do is try to meet the people who practice that profession. Because you don't want to betray a profession or a way of... I mean, you're going to grasp things and build on them... But in any case, to try not to betray. And I met an absolutely remarkable guy called Vincent Fayet, who works a bit like Alain's character, in other words, someone who has a vision of education that I find quite fascinating and that works, where he destructures classrooms. He asked himself, "Is it really the best way to teach, to be the man of knowledge in front of people who are silent and who have to learn and not copy each other?" He's broken that, he's broken up the class, basically creating groups that help each other, that learn together. And he's still the teacher in the middle. There's no... His classes aren't messy at all. And the students work. In other words, they get their diplomas and all that. But the big difference is that they go to school, or high school, or college with desire. Because you say "I'm going to work, I'm going to learn things with my mates and all that" and that notion, I find that with Vincent Fayet, it really works.
That's it, and finally, in the film, with their project, they're obliged to take their lives into their own hands too, to telephone to become tarpaulins.
C.C.: In the film, yeah. In the film, he gives them a lot of responsibility, he gives them... And that's great. And cinema also allows us, in a very short space of time, to see the extent to which we can give people, and particularly young people, the opportunity to say that we have to believe in our dreams. I think that's a very positive mantra because, once again, it's not the result that counts, it's the process. As long as you don't forbid yourself to go for it, then the process is bound to produce things for you. And that, yeah, that's very virtuous.
In the end, he's not going to save the glacier with his SEGPA class. But the fact that he's trying to do something, to take action and show them that they can be actors in their own lives reveals and transforms them.
C.C.: Of course. For each one of us, for our kids and all that, I mean "but go for it!" You see, the question isn't...
In fact, that's what Inès says when she wants to go and destroy her father's building site: "Go ahead, do it, what's stopping you?".
C.C.: And that's something that speaks to us. I mean, I've got kids and all that. For me, it wasn't about believing in your dreams, it was about being happy. So the quest for happiness means believing in your dreams. In other words, it's trying to move towards them.
And what attracted you to this project?
C.C.: Well, all that. Well, there are several things. There are obviously the themes that I find really interesting, whether it's education, the relationship with kids, the relationship with oneself and obviously the ecological transition, but also the notion of cinema. In other words, it was important for me to work with the director, Stéphane, whom I didn't know at the time. When I read the script, which I found very skilful and all that, I saw a guy who wasn't at all cynical and who didn't come to take subjects and themes that were a bit topical to make a film, but who was very involved in all these themes. And where I questioned him was on his desire for cinema, in other words, to say "why make a film?" Today, you've got platforms, you've got TV, you've got all that, there are some very fine programs, so why cinema? And I think that's a question we have to ask ourselves when we're making films: "What's to make sure that the people who are going to pay for a ticket, who are supposed to come and pay for a ticket to go to the cinema, haven't been smoked out?" Because they can, there are things... Cinema is special, it's not better or worse than platforms or TV, it's cinema, so it has to make sense, you have to want to make cinema too, something to do with cinema. So that was one of my questions, and indeed, he wanted to make movies. And I believe that the film, in my eyes, is cinema.
I must admit that I was a little afraid of the ecological theme, which comes out a lot, but in the end it's very well handled. It's not "We're not going to, we're going to change the world in one class action", it's "We're going to do our best to try and have the best possible future."
C.C.: Yes, and then with this thing that's very complex today, as soon as you broach the subject of ecology or climatology, or... It's that as soon as you say you're doing something at your own little level and all that, you often get people on the other side who feel attacked. And you go, "I'm not giving any lessons". The only thing that can be said, and it can be said by everyone on Earth today, is: "Yes, there's a huge problem. You do things on your own scale, so you share, "Oh well, no, but in the end, I do this and you..." "Oh yes, but then you do this, but you don't do that and everything" But no, I'm far from perfect, really, I go by... And it's funny how as soon as you start talking about it, everyone feels attacked. "Yes, I've got a car. So what?" But... Frankly, I don't want to attack you because you've got a car, we're talking about the thing, "Me, I can do without it, I do without it, you can't do without it, I don't do without it." But it's funny how quickly these subjects become... So yes, there are those who systematically attack you, saying "You don't do that, you don't do that", but that's in everything, it's unbearable in anything, it's not a way of exchanging between humans whatsoever, frankly. But here we have a real problem that transcends political divisions. So it's despairing to see the COP 28 and to see that nothing happens at the end and I say to myself ", that's what hurts". "We're not talking politics here, folks." And it really reminds me of something that was done for the hell of it on Netflix, called Don't Lookup and that was in my opinion.... The more I see how it progresses from time to time, the more you think, but this is crazy. In other words, you make a cynical fable like that, funny but terrifying. So there it is, it's a comet, it arrives, everyone sees it and then whole countries say "No, there isn't, no". And then, you get the impression, you go "But that's crazy, it's burning in your country, there's flooding, there's stuff, everything" Even the climate sceptics today, they say sorry, we were wrong. So everybody agrees and nobody agrees. You go "Oh my God, that's crazy", we're really just kids, we're really still tadpoles! As long as we're not underwater, as long as we can still breathe a little. I say, "Oh no, it's all right.
"We're still here.
C.C.: That's crazy. Yeah, it is.
How do you think the film can encourage people to take action to protect the planet?
C.C.: Oh, I don't know.
That's not necessarily the point of the film.
C.C.: Yeah, no, I don't think so. I think that yes, there is one thing in my opinion, for the ecological climate transition, and that's personal awareness. So that's part of it, I think this film is just part of something generous, not at all divisive, not at all aggressive, not at all... But where maybe bah, you know, two weeks after, a month after having had the film or all that, bah there are little things that come up and where you say... In the end, it's pretty sweet.
That's why, for me, it's a feel good movie.
C.C.: Oh yeah, it's a real feel good movie, but it's thematic, and you go, "Well, maybe it'll go a little way", that's it. And so much the better.
I was impressed by the acting of the kids, who are very young and superb! How did you work with them?
C.C.: They're really good! Well, first of all, Stéphane, the director, was really... He didn't let them down, very gently, but he never let them down. And I tried to be the relay too, not to drop them and... I didn't want to get to know them beforehand. I told Stéphane, "I don't want to meet them first." We're going to do things in order in the film, and we're going to set up something that's going to happen as the days go by. And it worked quite well, actually.
So the relationship really developed as you went along?
C.C.: Yes, I wanted to control it. I knew I had scenes with one, with the other and everything, and that once you'd... That one knew you a little better than, you know, you knew him... So he was super happy, so it spread the word among the group. And you know, that's how a teacher actually... You know, you say, "Oh no, but I like him. "Yeah, but wait a minute, he's still something." "Yeah, but he's" And in fact, there's this... Well, I liked that idea.
That's great! Thank you very much.
Les Têtes givrées: the gentle environmental comedy with Clovis Cornillac and Claudia Tagbo
Stéphane Cazes' comedy-drama Les Têtes Givrées, starring Clovis Cornillac and Claudia Tagbo, will be released this Wednesday, February 8, 2023. In addition to immersing us in sumptuous settings, this feel-good movie deals gently and sincerely with key issues such as education and global warming. [Read more]
Les Têtes givrées: the gentle environmental comedy with Clovis Cornillac and Claudia Tagbo
