After Benoît Jacquot, Jacques Doillon and Nils Tavernier, it is the turn of another French filmmaker to find himself in turmoil. Philippe Lioret had a great hour of glory before being indicted for unhealthy behavior on castings in an investigation published on France Info this Tuesday. The 68-year-old filmmaker is now placed in the spotlight by ten actresses accusing him of an embarrassing attitude and inappropriate behavior.
It was as a sound engineer that Philippe Lioret first distinguished himself, working with filmmakers as diverse as Coline Serreau, Jean-Pierre Mocky and Robert Altman. His career as a director was marked by his meetings with talented and faithful performers like Vincent Lindon Jacques Gamblin or Sandrine Bonnaire. He has directed nine feature films since 1994, including I’m fine, don’t worry And Welcomehis greatest hits.
Make people laugh and think
For Fallen from the sky, his first feature film, he moves Jean Rochefort in the transit zone of an airport where he meets all kinds of picturesque characters. This successful comedy allowed him to persevere in this genre three years later with Correct outfit required where he directs Jacques Gamblin, Zabou Breitman, Elsa Zylberstein. He confirms his talent for a situation comedy based on well-depicted characters in an exceptional setting. A luxury hotel or pharmaceutical seminar for Miss for which he finds Jacques Gamblin who experiences a brief affair with a medical visitor played by Sandrine Bonnaire. Philipe Lioret uses humor to describe societies in isolation.
Make you cry and think
In 2004, he tackled a more serious register with The Team Member, where he evokes a poignant drama in the setting of a Breton lighthouse. He applies the recipe of these lighter films to tragedy for a result that breaks the heart and earns him three César nominations.
He then offered a sublime role to Mélanie Laurent in I’m fine, don’t worry about a fragile young woman going in search of her missing brother with her father played by Kad Merad. This adaptation of a novel by Olivier Adam received two Césars for its actors. “ I’m fine, don’t worry reveals the extraordinary feelings of simple people, he explains when the film is released. He also talks about the difficulty we all have in telling ourselves that we love ourselves, out of modesty, shyness or sometimes a lack of generosity. I realize today that all my films, each in their own way, only talk about that. »
They are also simple people that he describes in Welcome which he co-wrote (with Olivier Adam and Emmanuel Courcol) for Vincent Lindon. The latter is astonishing in the role of a swimming instructor helping a young Kurdish refugee try to cross the Channel to reach England. This story of tragic friendship full of humanity was a success with more than 1.2 million spectators. The film confirmed the filmmaker’s commitment to the cause of refugees and the most deprived.
Marie Gillian speaks
It is always “little people” that he portrays in Tall our desires where magistrates played by Vincent Lindon and Marie Gillain attack credit companies which promote over-indebtedness. The actress is one of the filmmaker’s accusers to whom she reproaches “a carnal attitude which bothers her” at the time of the tests for this film. “I didn’t tell him,” wrote Marie Gillain to France Info. No doubt because he had all the powers at that moment, in particular the power to give me or not this role that I dreamed of. If she is exceptional in the film, her testimony and that of nine other actresses discredit Philippe Lioret and his working methods.
Philippe Lioret’s response
“Today, if actresses feel offended, Philippe Lioret is deeply sorry. He obviously didn’t realize it at all,” said Solange Doumic, the filmmaker’s lawyer, in the same investigation.
The director who has not released a film for 16 years, a variation on Romeo and Juliet distributed in January 2023, declares himself “stunned” by statements which accuse him of having abused his authority and his power to ask the actresses , among other things, to show their breasts or steal kisses from them.