© Marie Rouge
With the unforgettable trio Les Inconnus, but also—and above all—with Les Trois Frères, *Le Pari*, *The Three Wise Men* or even *The Heart of Men*, Bernard Campan has had comedy lovers in tears (of laughter). He is also capable of touching audiences’ hearts—and even moving them deeply—in dramas such as Remembering the Good Things and “Presque”, this veteran of film, theater, and television is a well-rounded actor, as well as a passionate and captivating screenwriter and director who resonates with audiences of all ages.
It is a great pleasure for the festival to present him with a Golden Bull at the closing ceremony in recognition of his entire career. The award ceremony will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience, moderated by Cathy Immelen, in the Grand Salle de l’Europe at the Palais des Congrès in Liège on Saturday, November 14, at 8:00 p.m.
Would you say it’s easier to make an entire audience laugh, or to make them cry?
The hardest part is definitely making an empty theater laugh or cry.
On a more serious note, laughter is a very complex thing, but it’s the quality of the laughter—or of the emotion—that seems most important to me. We can laugh out of reflex, and that kind of laughter won’t leave much of an impression. We can laugh for deeper reasons, and that kind of laughter will leave a lasting impact.
From *Les Trois Frères* to *Au Cœur des Hommes*, your career has been deeply shaped by stories of groups and friendship. What is it about working as a team that inspires you so much?
The acting profession pushes you to be self-centered, focused on yourself. Working as part of a collective allows you to break free from that bias, that flaw. And besides, I’ve always loved working in a group—I’ve been fascinated by the collective ever since the rock band I played in with my childhood friends, Les Inconnus of course, and even before that, at the Cours Simon. Today, I love it when a film is driven by the whole team; I love the fluidity between roles, the fact that everyone is involved in building a project.
You move seamlessly from movie sets to the stage. Where do you feel the most free these days?
I don’t feel any freer on one side or the other: true freedom—which I seek and find more and more often as I get older—is precisely the ability to move from one to the other.
