On had left him fattened by twenty kilos, chilling and unrecognizable in the skin of Vice President Dick Cheney in Vice (2019), which won him a Golden Globe. Familiar with metamorphosis roles, serial killer in American Psycho (2000) based on Bret Easton Ellis, huge crook in american bluff (2013) and mountain of muscles in the trilogy Batman by Christopher Nolan, today we find Christian Bale, 48, transformed into a one-eyed doctor in the new film by his friend David O. Russell, Amsterdam. A mix of wacky comedy and political fable set in 1930s New York.
Glass eye, corset, limping gait, the actor of Welsh origin embodies a certain Burt, a Jewish doctor from Brooklyn, mutilated during the war of 14. With his black brother-in-arms, Harold (John David Washington), who became a lawyer , and Valérie (Margot Robbie), nurse and Dadaist artist, they form an inseparable trio confronted with a plot fomented by pro-Nazi industrialists.
Installed simply on a chair in the suite of a Parisian palace, Christian Bale, jeans, open shirt and thick boots, is much more relaxed than his close guard of agents and publicists who surround him frantically 24 hours a day. He is all the more willing to promoteamsterdam that he actively participated in the development of the film of which he is the producer. Favorite actor of David O. Russel since fighter, he invested a lot in the script and the idea of this preposterous comedy where humor defuses dramatic situations.
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“For six years, he explains, I collaborated with David who wrote with his team no less than fourteen versions of the script. I followed the construction of the film and the characters from start to finish. We read books, watched documentaries, listened to jazz to conceive a film between vaudeville and espionage based on sometimes unknown historical facts. »
A fiction nourished by reality
In fact, the fiction ofamsterdam is nourished by reality: the existence of the Harlem Hellfighters, this regiment of African-American soldiers forced to wear the French uniform during the First World War; the artistic avant-garde of the Roaring Twenties in Europe and the emergence of women like the photographer Lee Miller or the visual artist Hannah Höch; the attempted military coup fomented by a handful of industrialists linked to Wall Street and seduced by Hitler’s ideas; the courage of a Republican, General Smedley Butler (Robert de Niro) who denounced it; forced sterilization clinics…
“I admit that I was unaware of this story of a Nazi conspiracy born in the 1930s, recognizes the actor. I remember seeing news footage in Madison Square Garden showing crowds giving the Nazi salute to Hitler. It reinforced my idea that my character and his friends defend a certain idea of American democracy that was able to resist the fascist and Nazi movements that were sweeping Europe. Nevertheless, we realize, especially today, that the system is fragile and everyone must do their part to preserve it. »
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After surviving the war, the three friends with the false airs of Jules and Jim savor life to the fullest and redouble their strength when they are confronted with the mysterious assassination of a soldier and his daughter, which will lead them to to conspirators. “They are not superheroes or saints, but show resilience,” adds Christian Bale. They are simply human beings who know the price of life, combative in adversity and endowed with a disarming humor. »
Enough to get carried away by this unusual trio joined by a fine line-up of actors in secondary roles, including Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Taylor Swift, Zoe Saldana, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy , Andrea Riseborough, Matthias Schoenaerts. A luxury cast for a wisp of the wisps film, with an overexcited, sometimes crazy direction, just like its author who does not lack ideas or charm and does not shy away from diversions and lengths.
No message in amsterdam, if not that of the strength of friendship and the troubled periods of history. “At the time of the war in Ukraine and the chaos that threatens us in the world, confides Christian Bale, it is a quality that we really need. Everyone is free to receive or not this simple message and to appropriate a film as they see fit. If he likes her, so much the better! My role is to arouse his curiosity and be credible. The rest is not mine. »
Actor-chameleon, chosen at the age of thirteen by Steven Spielberg to play the main role ofempire of the sun, Christian Bale admits that if he hadn’t chosen this path, he would have wanted to be a motorcycle rider like his idol, the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo, Moto GP world champion. “I follow all his races. I ran for a while, but I gave up because I have a little too much metal in my body, he admits, showing his right arm. Today I swapped my Honda CBR 600 for an MV Agusta F4, a fantastic machine! »
“Amsterdam” indoors