actor by K.O.
 

Posted on 12.10.2024

The son of two lawyers, he had dreamt of becoming a painter or a basketball player before developing a passion for the dramatic arts, ‘a science’, he would explain.

© Olivier Chassignole

The artist is already familiar with Lyon; in 2011, he had introduced one of his favourite films, The Island by Kaneto Shindo (1960), a minimalist work of striking beauty in black and white, devoid of dialogue. Del Toro had just finished shooting Savages by Oliver Stone (2012) and that year had nothing else to ‘sell’, other than the emotion and pleasure he’d experienced years earlier upon discovering the cinematic jewel of staggering lyricism. The Lumière Film Festival plans to pay tribute to an actor who is, first and foremost, a genuine cinephile. You can count on him to meld into anonymity amongst the crowd in Lyon to discover the treasures of this 16^th edition. For our part, we'll be running from theatre to theatre to see him, probably more than once, in Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, one of the four movies selected to honour his presence.

Benicio del Toro's earliest memories of cinema date back to his Puerto Rican childhood. He was six when his ‘viejo’, as he refers to his father, a business attorney who was more into Westerns, took him to see a James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton, 1974). Not too long thereafter, he would play the villain in another 007 motion picture, License to Kill (John Glen, 1989), but of course, at the time, he was unaware of it. At age ten, he claimed that Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1973) starring Steve McQueen ‘impressed’ him. He was also impressed by the exciting atmosphere created by the screening, “that feeling of ‘being’ in cinema, surrounded by the crowds, with people ‘shushing’ each other before the lights went down...

© Jean-Luc Mège Photographies / Institut Lumière 2008

Coming from a family of solicitors where a love of the law was king, the kid swiftly got off to a rocky start. Until age seventeen, he’d played basketball at a high level, yet soon found himself taking acting classes at the Stella Adler school in New York. “After seeing a play in college,” he explained to the daily El Pais,”I discovered that acting wasn't about shouting and gesturing - which I was very good at - but that it was a science in its own right, which had its own rules and followed a logical process. So I wanted to dig deeper into the subject And I'm still digging - I feel like a boxer who never achieves perfection by landing that decisive blow.”

The colossus is modest. After all, how many times has he floored film critics with indelible performances? The first was in Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects (1995), followed by Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000), which earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. A decade later, once again with Soderbergh, who had become a friend, Benicio del Toro surpassed himself by bringing Ernesto Guevara back to life in Che. Delivering a series of jabs and uppercuts that left the Cannes Film Festival jury dumbfounded, he won the contest for Best Actor, obtained by ‘K.O.’ ‘’Che believed you had to be crazy to become a revolutionary. But the same can be said about acting,” he wittily remarked upon the film's release.

He has total confidence in his craft, to the extent that he doesn't mind playing the ‘angry Latino’, as he has often done, “as long as the roles I'm offered find their value in their complexity.” His performance in Denis Villeneuve's Sicario is a prime example. “And then, being identified as ‘Latino’ fills me with pride”, he has repeatedly declared. He returns to Puerto Rico on a regular basis and holds dual American and Spanish citizenship. “I've never worked with Almodóvar, but I would love to.”

Carlos Gomez

Master class
Meet with Benicio del Toro
Monday, October 14 octobre at 3pm at Pathé Bellecour
With the support of 

Screenings

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Terry Gilliam (1998, 1h58, Prohib. ages -12)
Comœdia Sun 13 9pm | Pathé Bellecour Mon 14 4:45pm |
UGC Confluence Tue 15 9:15pm | Pathé Vaise Sun 20 4:30pm

Che: Part 1 – The Argentine by Steven Soderbergh (2008, 2h14)
UGC Confluence Sun 13 2:45pm | Institut Lumière (Hangar) Fri 18 7pm
Che: Part 2 – Guerilla de Steven Soderbergh (2008, 2h15)
UGC Confluence Sun 13 5:45pm | Pathé Bellecour Sat 19 9:45pm


Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian) by Arnaud Desplechin  
(Jimmy P. (Psychothérapie d’un Indien des Plaines), 2013, 1h57) 
Lumière Terreaux Mon 14 11am | Institut Lumière (Villa) Wed 16 4:45pm |
Institut Lumière (Villa) Wed 16 5pm

Sicario by Denis Villeneuve (2015, 2h02, Prohib. ages -12)
Institut Lumière (Hangar) Sun 13 5:30pm | UGC Confluence Mon 14 8;30pm |
Lumière Terreaux Tue 15 9pm