Dimitri Rassam is a modern-day adventurer. He has the passion and this element of controlled unconsciousness which allows him to transcend his fears to embark on Dantesque cinematographic projects. Chatting with him over tea a few days before the release of Milady, second part of Three musketeers, we suddenly begin to think that, if he had lived in the 17th century, he would necessarily have joined the company of the king’s musketeers to face his destiny. With panache. A sharp mind, he dodges certain questions that he considers too personal. It’s an art. A donation too. So never, during our conversation, will he mention his wife, Charlotte Casiraghi, the daughter of Princess Caroline of Hanover, the mother of her son Balthazar, 5 years old. The elegance of the feeling… Perhaps he also has the impression of revealing himself in the feature films that he initiates. In twenty years of career, the actress’s eldest son Carole Bouquet and of Jean-Pierre Rassam, a brilliant and charismatic producer from the 1970s behind the films of Godard, Pialat, Jean Yanne and Marco Ferreri, who died when Dimitri was 4 years old, established himself as one of the most important dream makers of French cinema. His ancestry – he is the nephew of the producer and distributor Paul Rassam, the godson of the director Francis Ford Coppola, with whom he regularly spent his summer holidays, nephew of the director and producer Claude Berri, first cousin of the producer Thomas Langmann – would have could paralyze him, make him kneel on the ground. Dimitri assumes it. She stimulates him, carries him, galvanizes him. He often compares himself to an athlete. At 42, he has the build and, above all, the mentality. Talkative, he draws us into his world. Selected extracts.
GALA: We meet a week before the release of Milady, the highly anticipated sequel to Three musketeers. What state will you be in on the first day of its theatrical release?
DIMITRI RASSAM: Feverish, and it’s quite a mysterious state. We are never sure of anything. We are waiting for the public’s desire to crystallize or not. We try to appease ourselves by saying that what we are proposing is the best version of what we thought we could do. But at the same time, we really want the story to be beautiful until the end… So, we’re going to have lunch with the film crew. We tend to want to get together to experience this day together. We receive the entry numbers live. We’re trying to measure the quality of the film’s takeoff. Ultimately, we are like athletes after a match.
“I wanted to reconnect with the films that marked my childhood”
GALA: Can we live with this fear of failure?
DR: Yes. To ward off it, you have to invest yourself, give your all, be the most sincere. I hate chess. We don’t do anything without risks. I feel like my job is to serve the film until it exists on its own. The public becomes sovereign. Fear sometimes leads you to success. There is no recipe…
GALA: What pushed you to adapt the work of Alexandre Dumas for cinema?
DR: The historical outline of the plot. The 17th century was an extraordinary century. I studied history at the Sorbonne as a dilettante. I started a memoir, which I never finished, whose theme was “Richelieu, Mazarin: two men, one policy”. Adapting this fresco was perhaps confronting myself with it again. It was also reconnecting me with the films that had a profound impact on me when I was a child like Indiana Jones, The Bear Or Cyrano de Bergerac.
GALA: Do you still go to the cinema?
DR: Less often, due to lack of time. But I love going there with my two children, sharing these emotions with them. I saw barbie with Darya, my eldest daughter [née d’un premier mariage, ndlr]. After the session, she happily trolled me for an hour. I really felt like Ken. She is 12 years old and begins to do without her parents’ authorization on her cultural choices. She is a big consumer of series, for example. She saw The three Musketeers then she went to see him again with her friends. This film appeals to all generations… My son Balthazar has not yet seen it. It’s not his age. He loves the great animated classics. In the cinema, I like watching him, seeing his eyes widen, getting into the story. One day he will see The three Musketeers and I hope he will be lenient with me. With children, you have to share and pass on your passions, but also let them develop their own tastes, their own worlds. For my part, I was not forced to love cinema. It was contagious.
GALA: Can we talk about predestination?
DR: We are all the product of a story and mine is linked to this profession. I had a very happy childhood. I did all my schooling, from kindergarten to final year, at EJM, a bilingual school in Paris. I grew up with friends who have different backgrounds and backgrounds. I wanted to do this job quite early on. Afterwards, I called my Chapter 2 production company, I assumed I was writing a story.
GALA: And in a lineage?
DR: The man who took great care of me growing up was my uncle Paul. It is a lineage from uncle to nephew. I was lucky to have the parents I have. My mother rarely took my brother and me on set. She was very protective of us. Above all, she passed on to us her passion for culture. We went to the theater, to concerts, to see exhibitions. I am grateful to him because these are emotions that remain. To see my mother, my uncles, my cousin loving cinema, being happy in their profession, it was galvanizing. Today, I feel like I’m where I wanted to be.
This article could be found in Gala N°1592, available on newsstands on December 14. The new issue of Gala comes out this Thursday, December 21, 2023. Enjoy reading.
Photo credits: BORDE-JACOVIDES / BESTIMAGE