The new life of Paul Sneijder, a particularly intense shooting

Thierry Lhermitte has become a rare actor. Also, the broadcast of a recent film starring the ex-Bronzé is synonymous with pleasure, as the actor gives in each of his performances. That of The new life of Paul Sneijder, this Wednesday, February 1, 2023 on Arte, offers the demonstration. Directed in 2016, three years after his flamboyant role as a clone of Dominique de Villepin in Quai d’Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier, the ex-comparess of Christian Clavier, Gérard Jugnot, Josiane Balasko, Marie-Anne Chazel and Michel Blanc collaborated there with director Thomas Vincent. The latter adapted there a formidable novel by Jean-Paul Dubois, entitled The Sneijder case. A book set in Canada…

Drama with humor

There is always in Dubois’s novels an offbeat, almost surrealist humor, a humor of despair that softens a fairly dramatic existential backdrop. This was the case in his masterpiece, A French life. It is also with The Sneijder case. The story is that of Paul Sneider, a middle-aged man who survived an extremely rare elevator accident in which his eldest daughter, born from a first marriage, died. Although when he wakes up in the hospital he has no memory of it, Sneijder is deeply traumatized. He begins by no longer supporting his wife, a frenzied materialist who thinks only of the lawsuit linked to the accident and the money they will be able to earn from it, and sole mother of their two sons. Which only think of themselves. When Paul, who has become quite asocial, completely changes his professional orientation by taking a job as a dog walker, he arouses misunderstanding and then contempt from his family. The only being who could understand him, his daughter, having died, Paul Sneijder will get closer to her by trying to overcome his phobia of elevators…

Polar cold

The action of the book, like that of the film, takes place in Canada. Filming took place in Montreal, during a particularly cold winter. Thierry Lhermitte liked to think that the rigor of this wintry weather, stinging the skin, echoed the intimate cold felt by his character. The director, Thomas Vincent noted, for his part, the temperatures of – 30° that the film crew had to face: “We were equipped with shoes with heated soles, the heat of which can be increased with a remote control. However, filming in the cold is much more painful than filming in the heat. We don’t get used to it. Time passes more slowly, we want to get it over with. You have to resist the temptation to rush to get home faster to warm upUnfortunately Thomas Vincent and Thierry Lhermitte could not warm up to the box office figures. Despite good reviews, and weighed down by a budget of nearly 5 million euros, The new life of Paul Sneijder gathered in France only 136,000 spectators. It is time, and amply deserved, to give it through this broadcast a third life… and a second chance.