During the 74th Venice Film Festival, the Belgian director Michaël R. Roskam presented his latest work, “Le Fidèle“. With the “love noir” story about the gangster Gigi, who is torn between his band of outlaws and his great love Bibi, Roskam creates a less rude character than the protagonist of his first gangster movie “Bullhead“, always played by Matthias Schoenaerts, leaving more space for inner psychology and sacrificing the most pure and dark action scenes.
In “Le Fidèle”, then, the rhythmic and bursting sequences of gangsters pass through moments of loving drama, leaving space for a pure emotion.
The excellent interpretation of Adèle Exarchopoulos, who has been able to create a sensual and dramatic character without falling into the usual schemes, is also to be underlined.
And it is for having avoided the banality that Roskam deserves the applauses of the audience. It would have been easy to use the usual clichés, having chosen two of the most used genres, the love story and the gangster / noir, but the plot continues to change its path, to completely disappear from what initially seemed to be the main focus of the film, becoming a real love drama.
Here is our interview with director Michael Roskam, with whom we have talked about the inspiration for the crime scenes, how he built the character with actor Matthias Schoenaerts and his future projects!
In collaboration with: Gianluca Vona.
