Brad Pitt has revealed a little secret about his favorite director David Fincher: the filmmaker likes very few films. And yet, a French film from 2022 has found favor in his eyes.
David Fincher is perhaps one of the most demanding filmmakers in Hollywood. A proven cinephile, he is, according to some people, uncompromising when it comes to judging films. However, a French feature film released last year touched his heart. And that film is Pacifiction – Torment on the Islands by Albert Serra.
The main performer of the film, Benoît Magimel, was the guest of It’s up to you to evoke the recent obtaining of his César, the second in two years and the third of his career, for Pacifiction.
The actor dined among others with Brad Pitt and David Fincher, also present at the Cesar ceremony, and shared their opinion on the film during Anne-Élisabeth Lemoine’s show:
[Brad Pitt m’a confié] : ‘David Fincher is pretty tough. In twenty years, I must have seen him about five times happy to see a film. Meaning, he doesn’t like anything. He said to me: ‘this guy doesn’t like anything, but Pacifiction, he loved it’.
The story of Pacifiction takes place on the island of Tahiti, where a representative of the French State (Magimel) visits the local authorities and the population in order to collect their wishes. But the tension rises because a rumor is insistent: we have seen a submarine whose ghostly presence would announce a resumption of French nuclear tests.
Benoît Magimel did not reveal what Fincher had particularly appreciated in the film, but underlines that the director like Brad Pitt were of a “elegance” and one “kindness” rare and that “Like all greats, they are simple!”
Before Pacifiction, Magimel had won the César for Best Supporting Actor for La Tête haute in 2016 and Best Actor in In his lifetime in 2022. We will see him again in Le pot-au-feu by Dodin Bouffant with Juliette Binoche and La Rosalie by Stéphanie Du Giusto, free adaptation of the life of Clémentine Delait, the famous bearded woman of the 19th century.