Cette musique ne joue pour personne (Love Songs for Tough Guys): an interview with Samuel Benchetrit

Cette musique ne joue pour personne is a portrait of the daily life of the workers of the working class of Dunkirk. You'd already shot Dog in Brussels, and Macadam Stories in Colmar… Do you feel the landscapes of the North lend a particular atmosphere to your films?

These are landscapes that attract me in a completely mystical way… There is something quite cold in the natural architecture, the skies, the light. And at the same time, we get a very warm and tender welcome from the people of the North. We even asked some local dockworkers to take part in a few scenes.

The cast includes François Damiens, Ramzy Bedia, JoeyStarr, Gustave Kervern, Bouli Lanners, Vincent Macaigne, Vanessa Paradis, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi… How did you choose the actors to play these everyday heroes?

I really made the film to work with them. I had already filmed with most of them. They all had something I liked about them to play these guys. I visualised this gang, which reminded me of my father's friends. Besides, they know each other well in life. The characters in the film form a kind of family: I relied a lot on their complicity, on their intimate connection.

Tenderness seems to have been the key word in the writing of this project… Was it also a guideline on set when directing your actors?

Yes, tenderness is what guides my life, beyond film. I'm very interested in tender relationships. The set was wonderfully tender, it's true. You would have thought that with these actors, it would have been crazy… It was that too! But we never lost the tenderness, the elegance, it was very pleasant. The film is about people in the face of tenderness. From the very beginning of the film, they are faced with a mess that they have to deal with, but they find a gentleness, a poem within themselves, to cope with it.

Music plays an important role in the film, right from the title… Did you see it as the most universal way to tell the story of the upheaval that the discovery of art brings to their lives?

Yes, music was my entry point. Or silence, which is also a sort of music that you can choose. Cette musique ne joue pour personne is the music of the heart, it is love, which plays from time to time, then stops. There are two kinds of music in the film: Gonzales' solo piano pieces, and variety and love songs, which can be found on the Nostalgie radio that Ramzy's character listens to throughout the film. The music really gives the film a rhythm, and injects a little more melancholy.

How are you enjoying this return to Cannes in the Cannes Première selection?

I am very happy to be here in Cannes, it is a very important festival. You see great films here, you come face to face with your peers. And there's a certain excitement to be back with the film team, even more so after the year we’ve just had…