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Patrick Bauchau: Film Comment Pg. 5

Secrets at Play - Patrick Bauchau

From Film Comment -- July/August, 1998
by Beverly Walker (continued from Page 4)

Though he has never formally studied acting, Bauchau's techniques are consciously drawn from philosophical inquiries over the years, probably starting at his father's knee. He refers in particular to Kleist's essay "On a Theater of Marionettes" and Paul Valery's treatise "Monsieur Teste" to explain his approach.

"Kleist's essay is of course about the bigger theater, the theater of life, but it applies to acting, too. When you're aware of the thread that runs through your back, you become the marionette as well as the puppeteer. As you follow the thread, deprived of volition, you can be graceful. Effort falsifies everything."

The idea of surrender, as he sees it, ties in with Valery's notions about anonymity. Valery believed an artist's name should never be known, so the art itself could be more purely appreciated. This poses an interesting dilemma for the contemporary actor: "An actor, in a certain way, is professionally invited to erase himself and endorse another individual - that is, the character. That's without a doubt the metaphysical appeal of the profession. Yet the most famous people in the world are actors.

"During my period of fundamental reshuffling, I investigated more clearly the proposition of acting, which is to act - to take upon yourself someone else's life and try, through some gestures and expressions, to make sense of it. From a metaphysical standpoint, acting is the richest proposition of all. It's so great to let go of one's own personality. I tend to act for the wall at the end of the set. I'm not especially camera- or audience-conscious. I can literally block out the entire crew and do my thing."

He rarely feels a need to view his finished work.

To those of us who find Patrick Bauchau an exceptionally compelling screen presence, his rising TV-Q is welcome. But mainstream Hollywood ought to make a place for this rare bird. In a earlier era, he would've become a "household word" - a more dangerous version of Charles Boyer, perhaps, or a Gallic George Sanders. In short, a star. Peter Wollen feels "Patrick is too powerful a presence to be in ordinary movies"; Tolkin, that he has been "wrongly exploited"; and the ever-rebellious Alan Rudolph, that Bauchau could never be a part of the "big, corporate, Hollywood propaganda machine."

But this is to ignore the global dimension of American movies (among other things). Hollywood's xenophobia is archaic and self-defeating. There aren't many actors who can believably stride across continents, comprehend new worlds, grapple with technology - and also enchant us. Philosophical predilections notwithstanding, Patrick Bauchau is a man of the silver screen who came to his maturity watching the movies of John Ford and Akira Kurosawa. He has survived his generation's considerable vicissitudes, deepened as a person, and reinvented an international career of distinction. He can certainly handle Hollywood.

Bauchau has settled, with Mijanou, into the chic Whitley Terrace section of the Hollywood Hills, just around the bend from Philip Noyce, another talent-in-exile. In his spare time he creates fantastical gardens, prepares gourmet-quality vegetarian meals, and holds court with young filmmakers from the U.S. and abroad, discussing the state of film art and ruminating on future projects. It's entirely possible the best is yet to come.

Beverly Walker is a Los Angeles-based writer currently completing a screenplay about the Sixties.

Image from The Music Teacher. K2-One/Radio-télévision belge (RTBF) [be], © 1988. Do not use photo without prior, written permission.