Interview: Jury Member Isaach de Bankolé’s Photo Novel
Isaach de Bankolé has built his long career on making bold, judicious choices. He first came to prominence in Thomas Gilou’s Black Mic Mac, which won him the César Award for Most Promising Actor in 1987, and has been a close collaborator of Claire Denis from her debut film Chocolat, through to her most recent work, Le Cri des gardes (The Fence). He lives in the United States and has also worked with Jim Jarmusch as well as starring in the next film in the Dune series by Denis Villeneuve.
“Chocolat in 1988 was my first Festival de Cannes.”
It was with Jean-Paul Belmondo, François Cluzet, Claire Denis and Giulia Boschi. I felt like I was floating during the Red Carpet Ceremony, but it was also a moment of great joy and surprise to see Claire Denis’s first film in Competition. It was a way of sharing and celebrating a powerful joint adventure that began in northern Cameroon. This film allowed me to show that I had other strings to my acting bow.
“Our relationship has lasted from Chocolat to the present day.”
We meet up from time to time for family gatherings, and sometimes we collaborate on projects. We recently worked together on Le Cri des gardes (The Fence), an adaptation of a play by Bernard Koltès, and I discovered a different side to the way Claire works, maybe because that’s what the project demanded. We shot in a remote location at night, two hours outside Dakar and far from the hustle and bustle of the city. The difference with Claire’s approach here was for us to shoot in scripted order, which was a delight, especially since we were working to a precise shooting schedule, scene by scene. It was like being led by the hand.
“Black Mic Mac was a dual responsibility.”
It was about showing that the Black community exists, but also about avoiding caricaturizing it, without resorting to any kind of misery porn. We have a story to tell, and it’s a story like everyone else’s, with its ups and downs. It was important to show that, and it was my first major role. The casting was a long process. There were a lot of us. I don’t know what led them to cast me, but I said to myself, “Someone who knows nothing about cinema needs to be able to relate to this.” I wanted to show that I could play in the big league, and getting to share scenes with Jacques Villeret was an amazing experience.
“In 1999, Ghost Dog was a great adventure with Jim Jarmusch.”
I met him long before I met Claire Denis, right here in Cannes in 1984. I was working for Vidéo Club, France’s first video distributor, and my boss, Victor Bialek, sent me to Cannes. He told me, “You’re an aspiring actor; you ought to go…” And that’s when I discovered a film, Stranger Than Paradise, and I came out of it deeply moved and a great fan. I called my boss, told him about it, and he replied, “Don’t even think about it!” Because he only bought major American and French films. After that, I was walking along the Croisette and ran into Frédéric Mitterrand, who at the time ran the Olympic cinema. He gave me an invitation to a party in the hills above Cannes. I went, and that’s where I ran into Jim Jarmusch. There were 5,000 people there, but I managed to go up to him and say, “I saw your film, it’s great!” I had a small headshot photo with me, and he gave me his business card. I went back to Paris, a few messages went back and forth, then nothing.
Jim was in Paris for a week when Claire Denis was cutting Chocolat, and he stopped by to visit her in the editing room. That’s when he saw me on the monitor and said, “Wait a minute, I’ve met that guy before!” Then he got back to me with this film, Ghost Dog. He told me he was thinking of me and Forest Whitaker, that it was about two friends — one speaks French and doesn’t understand English, while the other speaks English but doesn’t understand French, yet despite that, they are best friends. He asked me to translate the dialogue into French myself, which was a massive responsibility. Then we shot Ghost Dog, we came to Cannes, and when the lights came up at the end of the screening, there was someone behind me hugging me, so I turned around, and it was Spike Lee.
I’ll tell you about meeting Ryan Coogler…
The film crew had been trying to meet up with me for several months. They explained that they wanted the character they were casting to have a lip plate. I was astonished. It was a strange idea and no way did I want to meet with the director and producer. I figured, “Let them go do their thing somewhere else…” At the time, I was doing the voiceover for a documentary about the war in the Congo in Kivu, with a couple of American directors. Between takes, over coffee, I mentioned it to Dan, the director: “You know the Black Panther crew? They contacted me…” As soon as I said Black Panther, he replied, “Wakanda?” I didn’t know what he was talking about, but then he explained that it was Marvel and Disney, the comic book, etc. All that time, I thought they meant the Black Panthers, the political movement, and I couldn’t see why they’d need a character with a lip plate. I immediately called my manager, Margareth Pollard. I told this story to Ryan Coogler the first time we spoke over the phone. Ryan is an incredible guy, he’s very open-minded. We were able to discuss the script, think about it and rework certain aspects before working together.
