Big Talk: Mathieu Amalric

Principally known to mainstream audiences as an actor, Mathieu Amalric prefers to view himself primarily as a director. That might sound strange for someone who has played countless roles since the early 1990s, won three Césars for his acting, and has also made an international name for himself with films such as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and as a Bond villain in Quantum of Solace. However, Amalric has said repeatedly in interviews that he became an actor by chance and he only acts if the project is “irresistible”. As a lot of them prove to be.

This year, Amalric appears at IFFR in both roles. Hold Me Tight, his sixth feature film as a director, provides Luxemburg actress Vicky Krieps with a stage on which to shine as an unmoored woman. The film gradually reveals why she just got in her station wagon and left her family. The character Amalric plays in Tralala is also searching for something. In the film, by brothers Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, with whom Amalric has made four other films, he plays a singer-songwriter who combats his midlife crisis by journeying to Lourdes as a busker.

During this wide-ranging talk, IFFR director Vanja Kaludjercic will speak to Amalric about his rich career on either side of the camera.

This Big Talk is available worldwide from Sun 30 January, 16:00 via IFFR.com