Victor comme tout le monde

A comical yet sensitive dramatisation of a French stage actor (superb Fabrice Luchini) facing the complexities of a tangled emotional life, and changes in global culture. Should Victor Hugo be regarded as a ‘great genius’ or ‘like everybody’, a talented but flawed human being?

The popular performer Robert Zucchini – modelled on actor Fabrice Luchini, who portrays him – has built his fame upon a stage act that extols and exhibits (through superb recitations) the brilliance of classic French writer Victor Hugo. But does this unabashed veneration of ‘male genius’ play so well any longer in today’s enlightened world? The actor collides not only with a feminist theatre troupe, but with his adult daughter from whose life he has been largely absent. How to square art with politics – and, even more importantly, with real-life relationships?

Former critic and prolific screenwriter Pascal Bonitzer has hit his stride as a director in recent years; Victor comme tout le monde is a crisp, sensitive, funny and moving account of contemporary dilemmas on and off stage, beautifully scripted by Sophie Fillières (who died in 2023). The film achieves a rare balance: avoiding easy satire, it allows us to see all sides of the situation – including appreciation of Hugo as, indeed, a great writer.

– Adrian Martin

Trailer