Nils Schneider. Who are his three brothers, Volodya, Alyosha and Vasily?

Russian names, laughing almond-shaped eyes, a straight nose, wavy brown hair… Between them, they make up French cinema’s new favorite siblings. Nils Sr., 36, has been on set for several years. We saw it Imaginary lovers (2010) by Javier Dolan, Sympathy for the devil (2019) by Guillaume le Fontenay or even What we say is what we do (2020) by Emmanuel Mouret. But above all, he won the 2017 César for Most Promising Male Black diamond. Recently, the French-Canadian also shared news with his partner of 5 years, Virginie Efira, about their second child, a little boy named Hiro, who was born in Paris on August 28.

The youngest Volodya, 34 years old, stands out as “accomplished drummer“and”serial director of short films“, writing Vanity Fair in a portrait dedicated to the Schneider brothers a few months ago. As for 30-year-old Alyosha, he appeared on the screen last spring Greek saladThe continuation of the trilogy The Spanish Inn directed by Cedric Klapish, and in the series Everything is fine, in Disney +, next to… Virginie Efira. And the thirty-year-old man is not limited to cinema. he who shares the life of Quebec singer Charlotte Cardin is also a composer and performer. The artist gives voice to his feelings in pop-folk ballads, especially on his third self-titled album released this year (his first in French). Vasily, the youngest, 24 years old, was recently revealed Almond trees By Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi.

Artists love their parents

The four brothers owe their artistic fiber to their parents. How we read Vanity Fair, their mother, Isabelle, who graduated in business law, dabbled in piano, sculpture, painting and is even a model. As for his father, Jean-Paul, he was for a time a principal dancer at the Grands BalletsClassiques de France, working with the stars of the Paris Opera, directing and choreographing. An environment is generally conducive to creativity. “He made us feel that anything was possible, if not always easy, if we worked. It was hopeful and lively,” the siblings summed up to journalist Pierre Groppo.

Very early, from Montreal, where they lived for a long time, the Schneider boys began to copy. “Cartoons, but also Harry Potter, the voice of Jaden Smith in The Karate Kid”, quotes: Vanity Fair. Apart from the cinema, where they step foot and dance. Finally, they occasionally dance at the Ateliers de la Brunante, a school founded by their father.

Family drama

However, the lives of Schneider’s sons have not always been rosy. It changed on September 8, 2003. On that day, Vadim Schneider, the elder of the family, died in an accident of the minibus that transported him to the filming location. 15/Aa series that aired in France on France 2 at the time. The actor, who was 17 years old, died next to another actress of the series, Jacqueline Linetsky, who was present in the same car with him.

Twenty years after the tragic disappearance of his older brother, Niels Schneider spoke about this drama “As an aside“, October 16. It was journalist Natalie Levy who questioned him on this painful topic. “There is a tragic incident in the history of your family: the accidental death of your brother Vadim in 2003. He was an artist himself. Then you get a little further into your acting career, things really take shape. Is it the art that allowed to overcome this grief, to live with it? The actor answers with emotion. “Yes. And it helped me. I was really pathologically shy as a teenager. I was not very strong, I was a rather fragile teenager. And then, the loss of my brother, who was 15 months older than me, I felt… I was nothing… I was devastated.” And how the theater helped him overcome this test. “I started acting to get closer to him, because he was the one who did theater and took lessons with my father. I was more into skateboarding, doing something else. Then finally, doing theater, with the circumstance of having a text, with the circumstance of being an organized world, that I knew what the other person would answer me, I had the right to live my feelings, my emotions. I had the right to express my emotions, and I was okay with that. It was a shock, a revelation. I told myself that real life is on stage.”

Alyosha was only 10 years old when his older brother disappeared. Since then, she has been constantly listening to the two CDs the latter gave her, Shania Twain and Robbie Williams, taking her first singing lessons with the late’s teacher and soon digging through his library where she discovers: Romain Garry, like Shakespeare,” he explains Set free . He remembers every day. “I was in identification. Because I was sure I wouldn’t make it past 17, every time I got into the car I said to myself, “maybe it’s there.” And then came my 18th birthday. I was in the chalet for a short film, I was still alive.” A life that undoubtedly has new beautiful surprises waiting for the Schneider brothers.

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