‘Titane’: Vincent Lindon On Finding Heart In Absurdism, Hating Dancing & Comparing The Wild Film To ‘The Shape Of Water’ [NYFF]

Since you were playing a firefighter, what kind of training did you do for those scenes? 
Over the course of three months, I went twice a week to a fire station. Not only to be close to the fire but to live with them. We worked on a lot of emergencies together. In France, when you’re a firefighter, you arrive at like 7:00 PM, and you stay until the day after at 7:00 PM. You live with other firemen: eating and sleeping. You can be woken up at two o’clock in the morning because there’s an emergency and you have to dress yourself in one minute, like in “Backdraft,” then you jump on the truck, and you go with them. I did that 10 or 15 times. I practiced with the hoses and how to go into a fire, and I tried to run with the oxygen tank on my back. It was very, very exciting. That’s the way I like to sometimes work because it feels like I’m a child, and it’s enjoyable to build a character like that. 

And what was the preparation for the dance scenes?
No preparation— because I hate dancing. Very often, my friends ask me: Why don’t you dance? It’s good. You’ll just relax. You’ll lose control. But for me, it’s the only time I’m entirely aware of myself. I’m completely crazy about looking ridiculous. So I hate dancing. 

When Julia gave me the script, she told me: “Vincent, I want you to lose control in my movie. By the way, you’ve got to dance two or three times. And one time you’re going to dance and be drunk at the same time, which for an actor is very difficult because you have to forget that you’re on the set. You have to forget that everybody, all the crew, is looking at you. It’s like being in a nightclub, and the owner saying to everyone: Everybody, Vincent is going to dance.” But I was obliged to do it because I do movies, and I accept that I have to do something that I’m not able to do in my real life. 

When you talk about losing control, it must be challenging to play the kind of vulnerability needed for the audience to believe that Vincent thinks Alexia is his son.
Those two characters think they are completely lost, completely alone. They don’t know how to love, but they meet, and then they reinvent a new kind of love. Alexia is afraid of living. And Vincent is afraid of dying. And that’s a very good cocktail. 

I like when people are not supposed to meet. Or when they have a sickness in common and when they try to do something with that. For me, that’s the definition of hope. What I like about “Titane” is there’s a lot of hope. It’s also a love story. It’s almost like “The Shape of the Water.” 

READ MORE: Mia Hansen-Løve & Joachim Trier Talk Ingmar Bergman, Growing As A Filmmaker & More [NYFF]

How do you see this movie and “The Shape of Water” aligning?
Sometimes to show people a love story, you do a movie like “Bridges of Madison County.” It’s a woman; it’s a man in love together. It’s real. But sometimes the form is completely crazy, completely original, completely new, like “The Shape of Water” or like “Titane.”

It’s driven by the obsession of the director. And Guillermo Del Toro has his own obsessions, but they speak about love. Juliana too. Quentin Tarantino too. But it’s not the same as a Frank Capra. It’s what I like about directors. They all have their own way of showing things, like painters. Rembrandt and Picasso are both painters, but they don’t tell people things in the same way. But in the end, it’s all art. The same with “The Shape of the Water” and Titane.”

“Titane” is currently in theaters, and you can find screenings/buy tickets on the film’s official site.

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