The North American Premiere of Gilles Legrand's You Will Be My Son (Tu seras mon fils) was the closing night event of the annual New York's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema on Sunday, March 10. Joining director Legrand on stage at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater was the star of his film Niels Arestrup, who as Saint-Émilion vineyard owner Paul de Marseu, was domineering with good reason. The thriller about fathers, sons and wine, inspired a discussion of these vital matters with Gavin Smith, editor & programming associate for Film Comment Selects, who moderated following the screening.
Gavin Smith: That must have been the most gripping film about wine making I have ever seen. What was your inspiration?
Gilles Legrand: I always wanted to make a movie in a vineyard. To make movies is to find problems, to create conflict. When I saw the Sean Penn (directed) movie Into The Wild…there was a small moment when a character says, "I want to have a son like you."
GS: This is a natural question. Do you have a son?
Niels Arestrup: I've been a father for a few months. I've never had the desire before.
As he only knows them for a few months (he has twins) he cannot really talk about any parallels to the film. Smith doesn't give up yet with the biography and asks about other places the inspiration could have come from.
Arestrup talks about his father: My father was quite difficult. And I did have the impression that I wasn't wanted. Not for bad reasons. My father was already old, though much younger than I am now [he is 64], when I was born. At the time, I was an accident. And I thought there was something accidental in the relationship with my father…
[he switches course mid-sentence to talk about the film]. It's not about transmitting only an inheritance. You have generations who have worked this land for centuries with their sweat, their energy and their courage. It is not only that he (his character, vineyard owner Paul de Marseu) has doubts about his son. He is not convinced that his son has the necessary qualities. He is searching for someone else he can transmit it to…
De Marseu's expectations for his son have clearly soured.
Back to his own biography and his father: Not only did my father not want to have children, he didn't want to live in France. He wanted to live in New York. He made it all the way to Paris and he was scheduled to take the train to Normandy and then hop on a ship to get all the way to here. He had an hour or two before catching the connecting train. He had a bite to eat at a restaurant across from the station. There was a young woman at a table. She was dipping grapes in a bowl of water. My father had never seen that, so he smiled. She smiled too. And she became my mother and he became my father. He never made it to New York. Neither did I. It took 64 years for me to be here. I was afraid to come, but I'm very happy, very moved by this experience.
Anne-Katrin Titze: You (Legrand) warned us before the screening that this is not a love story. And, indeed, I was wondering what the opposite of a love story was. I would like to ask you about the character of the son. You really make it hard for us to like him. I loved the mercilessness with which you were showing his weakness. Were you ever tempted to make him more heroic?
Gilles Legrand: We can make a survey. I'm quite sure if we ask the audience that half of them have a lot of sympathy or compassion for the son. And the other half for the father.
Gavin Smith announces, "let's do it" - An inconclusive result, results, with most of the audience shocked by the question requiring their active participation.
GL: The game we tried to play with this movie, I didn't invent that, to try and love the one we hate. The first time I met Niels we spoke about that. It's interesting to follow the unbearable character. And try to make it attractive. It was very difficult for Lorànt Deutsch (Martin de Marseul), the young guy, who is normally a very funny actor. Brilliant and very clever and, you know, he was a little bit lost during the shooting because we tried to find the right level. We tried to stay on the line. The path is not easy. A lot of people loved really the young boy and hated the father. I am quite sure you are happy with the criminal, you understand him, I'm quite sure of that.
At the reception for the filmmakers, I caught up with the director to put him into Suspicion. He appropriately toasted the success of the evening with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine over his shoulder and a glass of good French wine.
