François Berléand takes up contemporary dance in Last Dance! to see at the cinema

François Berléand takes up contemporary dance for Delphine Lehericey in Last Dance!

Two years after the rural drama Le Milieu De L’Horizon with Laetitia Casta, the Swiss director returns with a touching comedy which won the Audience Award at the 2022 Locarno Film Festival.

Led by François Berléand, Kacey Mottet Klein, Mario Ribot, Astrid Whettnall and Déborah Lukumena, Last Dance! follows Germain, a retiree who suddenly finds himself a widower at age 75. He doesn’t even have time to breathe as his family interferes in his daily life: incessant visits and calls, meals organized in advance… His life becomes regulated like a Swiss watch! But Germain has his mind elsewhere. Honoring a promise made to his wife, he is propelled to the heart of contemporary dance creation…

Until now Delphine Lehericey had mainly directed dramas, with Last dance! she made her first comedy.

She explains in the press kit: “The desire to make a comedy already existed before making my previous film, Le Milieu de l’horizon. I have always considered that comedy is the most difficult genre to write, especially when it is a realistic comedy where the laughter does not necessarily arise from the dialogues, but rather from the situations. Life is full of absurdities from which we can draw ample inspiration! Even in tragic moments, there is a way to laugh.”

“Moving others is a militant act”

“Laughing and crying are for me emotions that have the same value: I therefore perceive Last Dance! as a work that is a continuation of my previous creations. It is not pure comedy, but a mixture of “sad emotions and life urges, tears and smiles, combativeness and resilience. At the origin of my desire to make films, there is the desire to generate emotions. Managing to move others is almost of a militant act. Because emotion shakes us up, makes us move, pushes us to change our ideological position. This is why I make films.” adds the filmmaker.

For her previous feature films, the Swiss director had mainly worked with adolescents (she also finds in Last Dance! the young Luc Bruchez already in the casting of Milieu de l’horizon), Last Dance! is his first film whose hero is a retiree.

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For Delphine Lehericey, filming a teenager or a retiree is a bit similar because it is a period of life when the body is transformed irreversibly. She states thus: “If adolescence takes us away from childhood, when we’re old, we’re old and our body and mind potentially start to mess up. We are forced to accept this state, in the same way that we must accept our body which changes during adolescence, without being able to control anything. This implacability of the body which is transforming can be perfectly distressing.

François Berléand, a grown-up teenager

“Come to think of it, Germain is perhaps the oldest teenager I have filmed! François Berléand embodies him to perfection, in all his corporeality, his funnyness, in his selfishness too. He really merged with the character. And perhaps he too, like so many other actors, remained a great adolescent.”

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The French actor shares the bill here with Maria Ribot known as La Ribot, a Spanish contemporary artist known for her work in dance, performance and visual art. The Ribot has gained international recognition for its innovative performance.

The filmmaker declares about it: “La Ribot approaches her job as a choreographer with a lot of second degree. His creations are very serious, very constructed. They are solid and exciting. But it always leaves gaps where seriousness no longer has its place. Working with her on the choreography for Last Dance! was simply fantastic.”

A renowned artist with multiple hats

This is the first time that the artist appears in a fiction film at the cinema. Delphine Lehericey initially did not know if the latter would be capable of acting.

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But the director was quickly reassured. “Turns out she’s a great actress! Throughout the filming, she was extremely generous: not only did she adapt and create choreography for the needs of the film, but she also reinvented herself by playing her own role. We wanted this approach on Last Dance! : that La Ribot could work with her own dancers and remain true to herself while evolving in a framework – the filming of an action – which she did not know at all and which brought her new things, and perhaps new freedoms.

Without forgetting that she had to accompany and supervise all the actresses and actors, who were not necessarily dancers! For me, working with her has been an awesome gift. His generosity, his enthusiasm and, above all, his talent made our meeting a source of pleasure and invention.”

Fans of contemporary dance will appreciate seeing the artist in this tender and touching film about the work of mourning. To be discovered in theaters from this Wednesday, September 20.