Xavier Beauvois: Gods, men and 'Top Gear'

Dave Calhoun locks horns with the straight-talking French actor-director

Xavier Beauvois has a reputation. The 43-year-old French director, who won the Grand Prix in Cannes this year for ‘Of Gods and Men’ the true story of French monks standing up to fundamentalism in Algeria in the 1990s, is known for being trouble. Colleagues tell me of his hellraising at the London Film Festival a few years ago. At Cannes this year, he cancelled most of his interviews. Someone who once shared a meal with him in London tells me that he’s ‘unpleasant’, and even a contact working on his film admits that the director, who is well known in France as an actor, is ‘tricky’, which is why Etienne Comar, the more diplomatic and urbane co-writer and producer of ‘Of Gods and Men’, will be sitting in when we meet one afternoon in the bar of a hotel in the Montparnasse district of Paris to discuss their Cannes prizewinner.

Amusingly, considering all this talk, Beauvois’s new film is a serene meditation on brotherhood, religion and faith and runs counter to his reputation, both as a person and filmmaker. His first movie, ‘Nord’ (1991), made when he was 23 and starring himself, was an Oedipal ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ set in his drab hometown of Calais. His next film, ‘Don’t Forget You’re Going to Die’ (1995), again starring Beauvois, told of an art student with HIV and featured ample sex and drugs, and his last film, the more sober ‘Le Petit Lieutenant’ (2005), was a policier set in Paris. His films are a curious mix, all of them different and assured, all of them striving hard for a gritty, ground-level authenticity.

Why, I ask Comar, who wrote the first draft of the script, did he think Beauvois was the right man to direct ‘Of Gods and Men’?
‘I love his films,’ Comar says, with Beauvois at his side. ‘He’s one of our most talented directors, and I like his documentary style of directing. He likes to investigate different worlds. Also, he’s a contemplative guy, he lives in the countryside and likes to observe things.’

I turn to Beauvois. Is this a film that he was only able to make now he’s a bit older? He nods. ‘Yes.’ He thinks more. ‘Also, I live in the country in a calm environment, like monks do, and what I’m talking about in the film is “being” rather than “doing”.’
 Comar interrupts: ‘He’s often said this is the first film of his maturity.’

How long has Beauvois lived in the country? ‘Four years. I live in Normandy, opposite Brighton,’ he jokes. It’s the first of a few nods to his interviewer: later he has a dig at our food. Has living away from the city changed his outlook? ‘Yes, I was feeling that I’d like to make films in that environment. That’s why, when I read the script, I thought it was right.’

You can see why Beauvois is known for being difficult: he’s defensive and impetuous, although when he does talk he shows a desire for shedding artifice in his process (no read-throughs, no auditions, lots of research) that might explain his difficulty with interviews. He favours one-word answers or childish dismissals and needs prodding to take questions seriously. He doesn’t do pleasantries: he leaves the room twice for a smoke while his answers are being translated and gets up to order a glass of wine towards the end of our 45-minute chat as he begins to look increasingly exasperated.

I ask him to tell me about spending time observing monks in France while preparing the film, before shooting it in Morocco. ‘Of course – it’s obvious you have to do that. It’s important to go to the source of things as a lot of people make films which are based on books, not on reality.’



I say that his answer suggests it’s not exactly ‘obvious’ if he feels lots of filmmakers don’t work the same way. ‘It’s something I’ve always done. For “Le Petit Lieutenant” I spent time with the police, learning how they lived and worked.’

Comar gets out his mobile and finds a text which Beauvois wrote from a monastery about his plans for the film. He shows it to Beauvois. ‘It reads like a joke,’ says the director.

Beauvois doesn’t like talking about success either. It seems to embarrass him. I mention that the film has seen an incredible three million admissions in France since it was released in September. ‘I’m fed up of talking about the success of the film, I really don’t have an answer.’

Comar chips in, again playing the diplomat. ‘It’s difficult for him to explain.’ Beauvois pipes up: ‘Among all this analysis, the important thing is just that it’s a good film, no?’ He talks more animatedly about the experience of unveiling the film in Cannes this May: ‘It was amazing to see the actors, some of whom are in their eighties, all dressed up and part of this show.’ But he reserves most of his enthusiasm for the end of the interview, as we wrap things up. Out of the blue, he throws me a question.

‘Is “Top Gear” well known in England?’ Yes, I say, surprised that the conversation has moved from monks and cinema to Jeremy Clarkson and fast cars. ‘Ah, yes, I watch it all the time.’



Read our review of 'Of Gods and Men' here

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