He once downed 14 bottles of wine and counted Putin as a pal. With his new film out, what are we – and the French – to make of him?
“France without meat isn’t France.” Gérard Depardieu growls the words, his irritation spreading across the screen like a gravy stain. He’s in character, playing Georges, a celebrated but erratic French actor, in his latest film, Robuste (Robust), the first feature by director Constance Meyer. But these are the kind of words – provocative, emphatic – which could equally have been spoken by Depardieu himself.
Larger than life, both onscreen – with the ugly-beautiful brutalist angles of his face, the forceful magnetism of his presence, the sheer heft of the man as he fills the frame – and off, with his notorious excesses and a life story that feels as though it could be the stuff of literature, the 73-year-old Depardieu has achieved an almost mythic quality. At his best, he’s a thrilling, disruptive and almost dangerous performer, but the Depardieu legend can weigh heavily on a film and tip a whole production off balance if it is not properly harnessed.
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