Raphael Kennard, The Rising and Pervasive Value of French Cinema

At only 30 years old, Raphael Kennard has already starred for Quentin Dupierre, Michel Hazanavicius, Jacques Audiard, Cédric Jimenez or Jeanne Heri, and this year he has no less than four films and a series. Spotted in the series HP: In 2018, when he played an intern in a mental institution, he chained roles and genres, especially standing out as a villain. Family businessThe Igor Gottesman series worn by Jonathan Cohen on Netflix or in military uniform. third war Against Leila Bekhti and Anthony Bagion. Moreover, it is the latter that Rafael Quenard finds in his first leading role in the cinema A breaking dogJean-Baptiste Duran’s first film.

In the video: the trailer A breaking dog (2023)

The story follows two inseparable childhood friends, Sha (Anthony Bagjon) and Miralles (Rafael Quenard), who spend their days in a small village in the south of France. The balance of the tandem is suddenly undermined by the arrival of a young girl (Galatea Beluji) in the village. “My character, Mirales, is someone I know very well. He tells about me, my childhood friends, from college. When I heard about this movie project, I was so eager to get this role that I emailed the director. I think I wrote him 600 letters in one month,” the actor admits. He adds: “Jean-Baptiste Durand is a great filmmaker because he looks for poetry with great simplicity in the strangeness of life. The film tells about provincial youth, suburban life, which I was a part of, and which is rarely represented in cinema.”

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Born in Jerez, near Grenoble, Raphael Quenard grew up surrounded by his three-year-old brother and his 21-year-old younger sister, “the best people on Earth and the ones I’m closest to,” he says. His mother works in an insurance company and his father, now retired, works in a construction science and technology center. “My parents are exceptional because they instilled in us the value of hard work, the importance of working hard.” With a master’s degree in chemistry in his pocket, Raphael began work as a researcher, but quickly moved into politics. “I had a really childish view of the universe and saw politicians as actors rather than people who should be directing our lives. I wanted to put on a show in front of an audience, and I thought politics would satisfy that desire, but I realized that the show is really only a small part of the job. The young man has been cultivating this taste for the scene since childhood, particularly with his passion for football. “I played the field for 16 years and loved picking up cards to feel the excitement of the public. It is this same evocative atmosphere that I look for in cinema today.

Taste of words

After saying goodbye to politics, Raphael Quenard moved to Paris, where he discovered the association 1000 faces founded by the director divine, Huda Benyamina, which promotes the integration of young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods, suburbs and rural areas into the world of cinema. He puts on “slightly underground” short films that he doesn’t encourage anyone to watch, he says. His talent led him to communicate with various casting directors, directors, but also producers such as Hugo Selignac (Bac Nord, November, Le Grand Bain, Apprentice…) with whom he shares his love for singer Jules and who encourages him to switch agents. With a taken twist, the young actor quickly stands out in comic roles or in the skin of smooth talkers like Fragile By Emma Benestan or A breaking dog. “I’ve always been fascinated by the outcasts, and I think the best tool for equality is eloquence. It is one of the only things that can be found in all social circles. I like this quote from Rene Schar. “The words we speak know things about us that we don’t know about them.” “And since he’s a young author himself, he’s currently writing a ‘new genre romantic comedy’, but also a novel he describes as a ‘true-killer comedy’, for which he’s looking for a publisher…Rafael is a relentless worker; “Too often we tell flashy success stories, when flashy success inevitably becomes a sham if there is no work behind it. I recently saw a documentary about Orson Welles that fascinates me, and when I see what he accomplished, I marvel at his genius. Apart from the actor Citizen KaneThe young actor says that he is inspired by Michael Shannon, Steve Buscemi, Woody Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey, as well as Depardieu, Belmondo, Gabin, Ventura, Paul Preboist, Serge Regiani or Yves Montagne.

The (fake) problems of the rich

True to the hyperactivity of some of his masters, Raphael Cuenard continues to make one film after another, and the public will find him in Jeremy Rosen’s con film on Netflix in early July, then Yannick By Quentin Dupierre with Pio Marma and Blanche Garden. Why are you smiling? Against Emmanuel Devos and Jean-Pascal Zadie, but also in the Arte series by Letitia Masson. He also reunited with Jonathan Cohen for the purposes Sentinel, a comedy by Hugo Benamosig and David Caviglioli. An unusual genre that suits this laughing young man, always ready for a joke. “When I was little, my friends and I would spend evenings telling each other about the problems of being rich, which we didn’t have. One was telling how his yacht was lost in Dubai Marina, another was telling about his horse problem or even his multinational company jumping… And we ended up abandoning each other without telling an ounce of truth.” Happy memories for the enthusiastic thirty-year-old who is about to join the production of Gilles Lelouch’s second film love fu where he plays the younger brother of François Civil. Raphael Quenard promises to continue his wonderful rise.

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