Vincent Perez. “When I was young, I was afraid to disappoint my father.”

The meeting takes place in the small living room of VIII^e A district of Paris where the Chinese art of serving tea is practiced. Vincent Perez pauses periodically to pour yellow tea into delicate porcelain, taking care of each gesture as if to capture the moment. Before appearing in film, he was an artist and photographer with a keen eye. For years, he flexibly moved between several artistic fields: actor, director, screenwriter.

For his new and fourth feature film, this beautiful maniac wrote two thousand pages of notes and spent months painting each scene frame by frame. A question of honor, co-written with his wife, the writer and director Carine Sylla, tells the thousand-year history of sword fighting in France before the practice was completely abandoned after World War II. Set in 1887 and carried by brilliant actors such as Roshdi Zem, Guillaume Gallien and Pérez himself, the story depicts an era in moral revolution. It highlights an extraordinary woman on the fringes of a male-dominated world, ahead of her time, whose existence has been forgotten by the history books; Marie-Rose Astien, played by Doria Tillet. This feminist who studied medicine, campaigned for the right to vote, ran the magazine The woman of the futurewas the first woman who fought a duel to defend her ideas.

Madame Figaro . – What interests you in the art of fencing?
Vincent Perez. – It’s a discipline I discovered early in my career when I played Laertes Hamlet, at the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, produced by Patrice Chérault. For four months we rehearsed the sword fight scene between Hamlet and my character. The power issues crystallized there captivated me, and I began to study the history of fencing. In my film, which takes place at the end of 19^e century, these kinds of challenges were still tolerated while the world developed along with industrialization. I’m drawn to major turning points in history, but I’m most interested in the design of period fiction; the past reveals something about the present. Originally, I wanted to make a film that would focus on the codes of masculinity and masculinity during this period, to understand how the legacy that we carry within us developed.

When you were young, were you given a model of masculinity?
I had as an example my father, a man of gentle but emphatic authority whom I greatly feared. I was terrified of disappointing my father. Then my masculine identifications took me to the cinema and meeting a Swiss artist who was like a second father to me. His name was Pierre Giesling. It was he who opened the doors of art for me and gave me wings. He taught me to draw because I wanted to be an artist, then he encouraged me to take up photography, which I still do today. Art was an escape for me. It was a place where you no longer had to fit into a male archetype from another era. These shackles did not suit me and I had to get rid of them at a very young age. I was feminine, sensitive, and I wasn’t interested in power games between guys. So I felt isolated. I closed myself in my imaginary world, which always saved me.

In A question of honor , it is not only about men. Marie-Rose Astier is an ardent feminist, a crazy modern. How did you discover it?
Researching the newspapers of the time, I discovered that this woman, a valiant feminist, had very violent clashes of ideas with the editor-in-chief of the paper. A small magazine, a certain Ferdinand Masi (played by Damien Bonnard). Marie-Rose Astier was criticized even by the feminists of her time because she demanded freedoms that were outlandish for the time, such as equal pay, women’s right to vote, and their access to all studies and professions. He wanted to repeal the statute that forbade women to wear pants. She was also a talented artist, violinist and composer. While writing the script with Karine Silla, we fell in love with this character.

What I regret about this era is the lack of freedom of speech. He is too susceptible to judgment on social media

Vincent Perez

You said that the more the script developed, the more Marie-Rose Astier became involved in the film…
At first he had only two scenes. But we felt the need to pay tribute to him. He wrote pamphlets and articles in newspapers. He wanted at all costs to have a fight against this backward and insulting journalist, Ferdinand Masin, who ridiculed and humiliated him. He did not allow this to happen, publicly provoked him. He even slapped him during a political meeting. In the film, he fights her. In fact, although he has fought many times against women, he has never had the pleasure of facing Massey with a sword. He didn’t give her that chance, probably out of fear of losing. We then wanted to stage this fight as a symbol of his victory against the narrow-mindedness of the time.

The film pits Marie-Rose Astier against a charismatic swordsman played by Roshdi Zem. What is their relationship like?
They know each other. There is a deep, egalitarian bond between them. The character of Roshdi Zem is a bit of my male fantasy. he has the greatness of the character’s soul in him. seven samurai By Akira Kurosawa. He is not afraid of this woman’s strength. It is a story of love and friendship. When I met Karine, my partner, she was my best friend, my confidant, before she became my wife…

What evolution do you see in the relationship between the sexes?
I have three girls and one boy. Tess, 20 years old, who is Pablo’s twin sister. 24-year-old Iman, who is a model and actress. And my daughter-in-law Roxanna, 34 years old, a wonderful artist whom I consider mine. I feel that the post-MeToo era gives them more freedom and protection. However, I find that freedom in a male-female relationship is more complicated. it looks for its tracks. We are at a turning point. I, for one, notice that boys my son’s age have a hard time being spontaneous. They are afraid of making mistakes. A rebalancing is taking place between the two sexes. women are gaining a place in society, which is welcome, but men have yet to find theirs. What I regret about this era is the lack of freedom of speech. He is judged too much on social networks, where people hide behind pseudonyms and humiliate him. We get the impression that we are hearing background noise, like the sewage of society being poured out. Reputation is as important today as it was in the late 19th century.^e century… We just invented other tools to hurt someone, to bring someone down.

A question of honor , With and with Vincent Perez, Damien Bonnard, Doria Tillier… Released on December 27.