Melvil Poupaud

Biography: life and films

If it is true that an actor's inner soul is revealed by the roles he takes on in the course of his career, then Melvil Poupaud must be a very strange man indeed. From boy treasure hunter and innocent romantics to diabolical seducers and a man coming to terms with a terminal illness, from calculating killer to determined transsexual and libidinous country priest, Poupaud seems to have slipped under the skin of every character type known to man - and he is still only in his mid-forties. Poupaud is the kind of actor that playwrights like Harold Pinter thrive on - a shell of outer normality only just keeping from sight the manifold perversions and eccentricities that lie within. Poupaud isn't only a magnetic performer, one who brings a startling reality to his portrayals (no matter how bizarre the character), he is also one who can send chills down the spine in great profusion. If the part demands it, he can be as terrifying as the Devil, and just as seductive.

Born on 26th January 1973, Melvil Poupaud is the son of Chantal Poupaud, a press attaché on Marguerite Duras's films. It was through his mother that the young Melvil came into contact with the director Raoul Ruiz, who gave him his first screen role in La Ville des pirates (1983) when he was ten. After this, Ruiz employed him on L'Éveillé du pont de l'Alma (1985) and then Treasure Island (1985), in which he played Jim Hawkins. It was entirely through Ruiz's influence that Poupaud fell in love with acting and made up his mind to become a professional film actor. Ruiz made the most of his talented young protégé, giving him prominent roles in many of his later films, notably Trois vies et une seule mort (1996), Généalogies d'un crime (1997), Le Temps retrouvé (1999) and Combat d'amour en songe (2000).

Poupaud's acting career really got off the ground when Jacques Doillon cast him as his 15-year-old son in La Fille de 15 ans (1989). This earned him his first César nomination, for Most Promising Actor, but it wasn't until three years later, when he appeared in Jean-Jacques Annaud's phenomenally successful L'Amant (1992), that Poupaud's talents were first brought to a large cinema audience. Laurence Ferreira Barbosa gave him his first leading role in Les Gens normaux n'ont rien d'exceptionnel (1993), for which he received another César nomination for Most Promising Actor. By the mid-1990s, auteur filmmakers were queuing up to make use of this talented newcomer.

The sunny exteriors of Éric Rohmer's Conte d'été (1996) and oppressive interiors of Didier Haudepin's Le Plus bel âge (1995) mirror the contrasting portrayals that Melvil Poupaud supplies in these two films. In the first, Poupaud is a likeably introspective student torn between various holiday romances. In the second, he is a seductive, possibly dangerous manipulator who seems to enjoy creating emotional problems for others. An even darker Poupaud is revealed in Danièle Dubroux's Le Journal du séducteur (1995), no longer the innocent but an unmistakable creature of the night. How natural that he should then play an aunt murderer in Généalogies d'un crime (1997).

Over the next decade, roles in somewhat lighter films would come Poupaud's way - Marion Vernoux's Reines d'un jour (2001), Noémie Lvovsky's Les Sentiments (2003) and James Ivory's Le Divorce (2003) - but the actor appeared more at home in more serious parts. In François Ozon's Le Temps qui reste (2005), Poupaud turns in one of his finest performances as a young man coming to terms with a terminal disease. The actor's penchant for ambiguous portrayals is well-utilised by Pascal Thomas in his inspired Agatha Christie adaptation L'Heure zéro (2008) and he stands apart in a distinguished ensemble in Arnaud Desplechin's Un conte de Noël (2008).

In 2009, Melvil Poupaud took a break from serious auteur fare and threw himself into a mainstream entertainment, playing the outlaw Jesse James in James Huth's Lucky Luke. It is an aberration that we can easily forgive. The actor redeemed himself in his next Ozon outing, Le Refuge (2010), and Gilles Marchand's eerie thriller L'Autre monde (2010). He then took some time out from his acting work to write an autobiography, Quel est Mon noM (2011), which references his many screen creations and sheds further light on this remarkably complex individual. It is worth mentioning, en passant, that Poupaud has directed several short films and a feature Melvil (2006). He also founded a rock band Mud with his older brother Yarol Poupaud and released two albums: Mud (1995) and Mud Pack (1997).

Every committed actor is constantly seeking ways to reinvent himself, and in Xavier Dolan's Laurence Anyways (2012), Poupaud takes this to the limit, playing a man who is determined to become a woman. After this career high point, the actor could have been allowed to settle into middle-age in more mundane roles, but no. In Philippe Ramos's Fou d'amour (2015), he is back as a disembodied head recounting his past life as a country priest with too much of a taste for earthly pleasures, and in Justine Triet's madcap comedy Victoria (2016) he is man dependent on a dog and a chimp to prevent him from being convicted of murder. We have Nicolas Pariser to thank for casting him in a more down-to-earth and sympathetic role in Le Grand jeu (2015). Wherever Melvil Poupaud's career takes him next we can be sure of only one thing: it will not be dull.

Filmography

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