Denis Lavant

Denis Lavant (born 17 June 1961) is a French actor. He is known for his distinctive face and the physically demanding aspects of the roles he plays, which often involve slapstick, acrobatics or dance, as well as for his long-standing association with director Leos Carax. Lavant has played the lead role in all but two of Carax's films. Lavant is also known for his roles in Claire Denis' Beau Travail, and Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely.

Denis Lavant
Lavant at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival
Born	(1961-06-17) 17 June 1961 (age 63) Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1982–present

Life and career

Lavant was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, in France. At 13, he took courses in pantomime and the circus, fascinated by Marcel Marceau. He trained at the Paris Conservatoire under Jacques Lassalle,^[1] and began his professional career in 1982 in theatre, acting in Shakespeare's Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice. In 1982 he appeared in the television film L'Ombre sur la plage, before playing the minor part of Montparnasse in Robert Hossein's Les Misérables,^[1] which was entered into the 13th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Special Prize.^[2] He appeared in several further minor roles before making his breakthrough in 1984 as the lead in Boy Meets Girl, playing a depressed, aspiring filmmaker who falls in love with a suicidal young woman. The film marked the feature-film debut of Leos Carax, with whose work Lavant has been associated ever since.^[3][4]

In 1986, Lavant and Carax worked together again on the thriller Mauvais Sang and again in 1991 on Carax's third film, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf. In both Mauvais Sang and Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Lavant starred opposite Juliette Binoche.^[3] In 1998, Lavant appeared in the Jonathan Glazer-directed video for the UNKLE song "Rabbit in Your Headlights", and in 1999, he played one of the lead roles in Beau Travail, directed by Claire Denis. In 2007, he appeared in Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely, in which he portrayed a Charlie Chaplin impersonator. Lavant, who does not speak English, took an intensive language course in preparation and learned his lines phonetically.^[5] His longtime associate Leos Carax appears in a supporting role as the main character's talent agent.

In 2008, Lavant and Carax re-united for the anthology film Tokyo!, which marked their first work together since Lovers on the Bridge and Carax's first major directing work in nearly a decade. Carax's segment for the film, called "Merde," starred Lavant as a violent monster who lives in the sewers of Tokyo and speaks in a gibberish language, venturing out occasionally to attack passersby.

In 2012, he starred in Leos Carax' film Holy Motors where he plays a "chameleonic actor on assignment, ferried around Paris in a white limousine and changing en route from beggar-woman to satyr to assassin to victim."^[6] The film was an entrant at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2016, he starred in a 30-second clip directed by Yorgos Lanthimos to accompany the song "Identikit" by Radiohead.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1982	L'ombre sur la plage	Mathieu	Luc Béraud	TV movie
	Les Misérables	Montparnasse	Robert Hossein
1983	Entre Nous	Soldier	Diane Kurys
	The Wounded Man	Wanderer	Patrice Chéreau
	Paris ficelle	Joe	Laurence Ferreira Barbosa	Short
	Au-delà de minuit	Voice	Pierre Barletta	Short
1984	Viva la vie	Caviar delivery man	Claude Lelouch
	Boy Meets Girl	Alex	Leos Carax
1985	Partir, revenir	Simon Lerner's patient	Claude Lelouch (2)
	Hôtel du siècle	The statue	Jean Kerchbron	TV series (1 Episode)
1986	Cinéma 16	Jean-Pierre	François Dupont-Midi	TV series (1 Episode)
	Mauvais Sang	Alex	Leos Carax (2)
1987	L'étendu		Gilles Marchand	Short
1988	Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret	P'tit Louis	Jean Kerchbron (2)	TV series (1 Episode)
1989	Un tour de manège	Berville	Pierre Pradinas
	Mona et moi	Pierre	Patrick Grandperret
1991	Les Amants du Pont-Neuf	Alex	Leos Carax (3)	Nominated - European Film Award for Best Actor
	C'est merveilleux		Solange Martin	Short
1992	Drôle d'immeuble		Simon Pradinas	Short
1993	De force avec d'autres	Denis	Simon Reggiani
	Fuis la nuit		Patrick Brunie	Short
1994	La partie d'échecs	Max	Yves Hanchar	Short
1995	L'ennemi	Higra	Hervé Renoh	Short
	Visiblement je vous aime	Denis	Jean-Michel Carré
1997	Wild Animals	Emil	Kim Ki-duk
1998	Don Juan	Pierrot	Jacques Weber
	Le monde à l'envers	Yann	Rolando Colla
	Cantique de la racaille	The hitchhiker	Vincent Ravalec
	"Rabbit in Your Headlights"	Man	Jonathan Glazer	Music Video
1999	Beau travail	Galoup	Claire Denis
	Tuvalu	Anton	Veit Helmer	Málaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema - Best Actor
2000	Deep in the Woods	Stéphane	Lionel Delplanque
	La squale	The joker	Fabrice Genestal
2001	Married/Unmarried	Love	Noli
	Sofor	The driver	Guldem Durmaz	Short
	Affaire Libinski	Anatoli Libinski	Delphine Jaquet, Philippe Lacôte	Short
2002	Sous-commandant Père Noël		Christophe Vindis	Short
	La merveilleuse odyssée de l'idiot Toboggan	Voice	Vincent Ravalec (2)
2004	Luminal	Ryu	Andrea Vecchiato
	A Very Long Engagement	Six-Soux	Jean-Pierre Jeunet
	Le soldat inconnu vivant	Voice	Joël Calmettes	TV movie
	Low Street	Old Man	Tom Petch	Short
2005	Camping sauvage	Blaise	Christophe Ali, Nicolas Bonilauri
2006	Elegant		Daniel Wiroth	Short
2007	Le passeur		Philippe Lacôte (2)	Short
	Mister Lonely	Charlie Chaplin	Harmony Korine
	Capitaine Achab	Captain Ahab	Philippe Ramos
	Iyi Seneler Londra	Gerard	Berkun Oya
2008	Tokyo!	Merde	Leos Carax (4)
	Comment Albert vit bouger les montagnes		Harold Vasselin
2009	Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie	André Custe	Eric Woreth	TV series (1 Episode)
	Les Williams		Alban Mench	Short
	Tamanrasset	Philippe	Merzak Allouache	TV movie
	The Temptation of St. Tony	Count Dionysos Korzybski	Veiko Õunpuu
	Les cow-boys n'ont pas peur de mourir	Voice	Anne-Laure Daffis, Léo Marchand	Short
	Obsession(s)	Marc Douelec	Frédéric Tellier	TV movie
2010	Via	Denis	Leonore Mercier	Short
	Je, François Villon, voleur, assassin, poète	Bezon	Serge Meynard	TV movie
	Tandis qu'en bas des hommes en armes	Vilard	Samuel Rondière	Short
	HH, Hitler à Hollywood	Himself	Frédéric Sojcher
	Io sono con te	Sapiente	Guido Chiesa
	Enterrez nos chiens	Lucas	Frédéric Serve
2011	Atlantika	Jack	Igor Voloshin	Short
	My Little Princess	Ernst	Eva Ionesco
	Les amours perdues	Vincent	Samanou Acheche Sahlstrøm	Short
	Hop-o'-My-Thumb	The Ogre	Marina de Van
	Waster		Philippe Prouff, Virginie Nallet	Short
2012	L'oeil de l'astronome	Kepler	Stan Neumann
	Holy Motors	Mr. Oscar/ The Banker / The Beggar / The Motion Capture Actor / Monsieur Merde / The Father / The Accordionist / The Killer / The Killed / The Dying / The Man at Home	Leos Carax (5)	Chicago International Film Festival - Best Actor Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Indiewire Critics' Poll - Best Performance International Cinephile Society Awards - Best Actor Nominated - César Award for Best Actor Nominated - Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated - Italian Online Movie Award for Best Actor Nominated - Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated - Lumières Award for Best Actor Nominated - National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Nominated - New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Nominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor Nominated - Village Voice Film Poll - Best Actor Nominated - International Online Cinema Awards - Best Actor
	L'étoile du jour	Elliot	Sophie Blondy
2013	Barricade: le film			Short
	Fatigués d'être beaux	The duke	Anne-Laure Daffis (2), Léo Marchand (2)	Short
	Marussia	The tramp	Eva Pervolovici
	Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas	The theologist	Arnaud des Pallières
	Les grandes marées	Marc	Mathias Pardo	Short
	Méandres	Voice	Elodie Bouedec, Florence Miailhe, Mathilde Philippon-Aginski	Short
	Je sens plus la vitesse		Joanne Delachair	Short
	Jiminy	Otto Hoffmann	Arthur Môlard	Short
2014	Dassault, l'homme au pardessus	Marcel Dassault	Olivier Guignard	TV movie
	Journey to the West	Dragon	Tsai Ming-liang
	Liberté, égalité, cheveux lissés	The white man	Elefterios Zakaropoulos	Short
	Agafay		Olivier Nikolcic	Short
	Iron Ivan	Eugene de Paris	Gleb Orlov
	Le mystère des jonquilles	Sam	Jean-Pierre Mocky
	Pitchipoï	Pierre Schulmann	Charles Najman
	Fracas		Kévin Noguès	Short
2015	Graziella	Antoine	Mehdi Charef
	Eva no duerme	Koenig	Pablo Agüero
	Phasme	Jean	Maéva Ranaivojaona	Short
	History's Future	Lottery Ticket Seller	Fiona Tan
	Me and Kaminski	Karl-Ludwig	Wolfgang Becker
	21 Nights with Pattie	André	Arnaud Larrieu & Jean-Marie Larrieu
	Full House	The Hangman	Quentin Bocksberger	Short
2016	Boris Without Béatrice (Boris sans Béatrice)	The Unknown	Denis Côté
	Louis-Ferdinand Céline, deux clowns dans la catastrophe	Louis-Ferdinand Céline	Emmanuel Bourdieu
2018	À nos pères	Monsieur Loyal	Franchin Don
	The Mountain	Jack	Rick Alverson
	The Night Eats the World	Alfred	Dominique Rocher
2020	Night of the Kings (La Nuit des rois)	Silence	Philippe Lacôte
	Gagarine	Gérard	Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh	[7]
2022	Human Flowers of Flesh	Galoup	Helena Wittmann
2024	It's Not Me[8]		Leos Carax (5)

References

1. "Denis Lavant" (in French). Allocine.fr. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
2. "13th Moscow International Film Festival (1983)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 7 November 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
3. Singer, Leigh (30 August 2021). "Where to begin with Leos Carax". bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
4. Lukenbill, Mark (16 October 2013). "What it Is to Be Young: Two Films by Leos Carax". mtv.com. Archived from the original on 27 August 2023. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
5. Interview with actor Denis Lavant
6. BBrooks, Xan (11 June 2012), "Kylie should be so lucky as film hits the jackpot", The Guardian
7. "Gagarine - Full Cast and Crew". TV Guide. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
8. Elsa Keslassy. (21 June 2023). "'Annette' Director Leos Carax Helms Self-Portrait 'It's Not Me;' Les Films du Losange Boards Project (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 21 June 2023.

External links

• Denis Lavant at IMDb
• «Cache-cache avec la mort» de Mikhail Volokhov. Mise en scène de Bernard Sobel. Avec Denis Lavant et Hugues Quester.
• CACHE-CACHE AVEC LA MORT / PARIS! PARIS! / LE CALVAIRE DE TCHIKATILO (Coffret VOLOKHOV : de théâtre contemporain russe - VO Russe - Sous-titres : français – anglais – DVD)