intensely 
 

PostED ON 11 OCTOBER 2025

Sean Penn makes films the way one debates, the way one fights. Portrait of an idealist.

©  Working Title Films / DR
Dead Man Walking (1995)

He has nearly 80 films to his credit since his debut in Taps (1981). With a career spanning 45 years, he’s no worse for wear, except for the expression lines etched across his forehead, revealing a man who is chronically troubled and worried about the state of the world. His world: America. Sean Penn's films invariably tell the story of his country, but always go against the grain of the official narrative. This is true of every film he has directed, starting with The Indian Runner (1991), which is as bleak and disillusioned as Highway Patrolman, the Springsteen track that inspired it. Set against the backdrop of Vietnam, it tells the tale of a pair of brothers on opposing sides in a debate about their homeland and its supposed values. The works featuring Sean Penn hold up the same distorting mirror and reflect his deep unease; after Bad Boys (1983) and At Close Range (1986) he is branded ‘the new James Dean’. Both of these films portray him in a dehumanised America that calls for rebellion – tearing everything apart. It hardly costs him anything. After all, he is a Rebel with a cause in real life. Quick to pick a fight.

Although the 1990s and 2000s were not exactly tranquil years, they cemented his dramatic talent and his unique ability to be intensely Sean Penn. In Brian de Palma's Casualties of War, he played a frontier soldier; in Tim Robbins's Dead Man Walking, he incarnated a racist on death row. He became a veritable award magnet, sharing the privilege with Jack Lemmon of having been honoured at the three most prestigious film festivals: Cannes, Berlin and Venice. And the Academy Awards? Five nods, two wins, and counting... if the buzz created by his acrobatic performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's recent One Battle After Another is anything to go by. In the film, playing a hot-headed soldier, Sean provokes both fear and laughter. He channels this duality thanks to the stunning versatility of his craft, previously achieved in Carlito's Way (1993) alongside Al Pacino. 

Sean Penn says that acting involves ‘building a cage’ whose contours are defined by the script. ‘And if you've done your job well—which has been more or less the case for me at different times,’ he explains, ‘you can move freely within it.’

Sometimes, such intensity works against him, especially if he is not on the same wavelength as the director. ‘I don't like any directors,’ he stated a few years ago. ‘I don't get along with any of them. They're whiners and have no point of view.’ Any exceptions? Dennis Hopper, who directed him in Colors (1988). And Clint Eastwood (Mystic River, 2004). ‘One of the rare legends who doesn't disappoint.’ Sean Penn claims he became an actor ‘thanks to Robert De Niro’, who, like him, was born on 17 August. And his admiration for actors is selective: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Daniel Day Lewis – ‘the greatest ever seen on screen’. The affection Penn has for Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson is well known. Sean named his son Hopper Jack. It's his way of thanking the anti-heroes of Easy Rider (1969), the œuvre that inspired him to exist against the tide.

Carlos Gomez

Masterclass
Meet with Sean Penn
On 13 October at 3pm at the Pathé Bellecour movie theatre

Exceptional screening - Into the Wild
Introduced by par Sean Penn
On Sunday, 12 October at 3pm at the Halle Tony Garnier

Screenings 

The Indian Runner by Sean Penn (1991, 2h07, Prohibited ages -12)
Institut Lumière (Hangar) Sun12 7.30pm - Screening preceded by 11'09"01 - September 11 - Segment USA by Sean Penn (2002, 11min) | UGC Confluence Mon13 7.15pm | Pathé Bellecour Fri17 8.30pm | Institut Lumière (Villa) Sun19 6.15pm | Institut Lumière (Villa) Sun19 6.30pm

The Crossing Guard by Sean Penn (1995, 1h51)
Pathé Bellecour Mon13 8pm | Lumière Terreaux Tue14 8.45pm | UGC Confluence Thu16 6.45pm

Dead Man Walking by Tim Robbins (1995, 2h02)
Comœdia Mon13 10.45am | Pathé Bellecour Mon13 4.45pm | Lumière Bellecour Wed15 8.30pm | UGC Confluence Thu16 10.45am