- Dominique Besnehard, A nos amours (To Our Loves), France, 1983, Returning to aid realisateur Maurice Pialat, after their bitter row during Passe ton bac d’abord… in 1978, Dominique Besnehard set about locating the heroine’s violent brother. The film was written by Pialat’s lover, Arlette Langmann, based on her life and her brother: none other than the #1 French producer-director Claude Berri… who also made his mark with films about his own childhood and adolescence. (How French can you get). Despite making snide, anti-gay slurs about Besenhard really searching among young actors for a new lover, Pialat saw the final selection. them. Lindon, Jackie Berroyer, Patrick Bruel, Jacques Gamblin, Robin Renucci, Jacques Villeret – all slapping poor Sandrine Bonnaire several times in their tests. And then gave the role to… Besnehard! He’d started as actor and various directors he’d worked for told him to go for it. Next day, Pialat typically declared: “Not sure if it’s a good idea… [Pause] OK, just don’t be be too gay. Then again, Berri is a bit homo!”
- François Cluzet, Force majeure, France, 1989. Probably the choosiest ofFrench actors, Lindon didn’t feel the rolewas right for him. He was far more positive aboutfive of auteur Pierre Jolivet’s next nine films:Fred, 1997, Ma petite enterprise, 1999, Le Frère du guerrier, 2002, Filles uniques, 2003 andJe crois que je l’aime, 2007,
- Jean Reno, Le jaguar, France, 1995. Wise to avoid this so-so Francis Veber comedyscenario opposite Patrick Bruel.
- Patrick Bruel, Un secret, France, 2007. Claude Miller was musing upon Lindon to play Maxime.Except the realisateur knew it would beeasierto makeBruel look younger for the early 30s/40s sections. “He has a baby face.” Bruel would hardly agree.
- Benoit Poelvoorde, 3 cœurs (Three Hearts), France-Germany-Belgium, 2014. We’ve been here before. In the 2010 US mumblecore, Your Sister’s Sister: Jack Duplass stuck between sisters Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt The Gallic version was scripted for Vincent Lindon. He must have read it. (The US film was all improv). Enter: Poelvoorde (and, therefore, Belgian budget money!) caught between (famous daughters) Chiara Mastroianni and Charlotte Gainsbourg – who looks so miserable in her movies that I suspect her pay-cheques never arrive.
- Denis Ménochet, Inglourious Basterds, 2008. Two French stars actually refused the role of Perrier LaPadite in Quentin Tarantino’s Wild Bunch take on The Dirty Dozen. Amazing! They were Jean Reno and, according to his very late, 2017 interview, Lindon. Reviews were mixed. From Roger Ebert’s rave – “a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others… a director of quixotic delights” – and The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw’s “exasperatingly awful and transcendentally disappointing,” while Christopher Hitchens compared it to “sitting in the dark having a great pot of warm piss emptied very slowly over your head.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 6