Behind the illustrious name Johan Otto von Spreckelsen hides an unknown Danish architect who, in 1982, after designing “four churches and a house – my own”, went and won the international competition for his proposal for La Grande Arche de la Défense in Paris, which was completed in 1989, two years after Speckelsen’s death. French director Stéphane Demoustier has now created a monument for Spreckelsen himself in the form of the film The Great Arch [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Stéphane Demoustier
scheda film], which boasts a well-suited lead role for Claes Bang and which is premiering in the 78th Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section.

Cineuropa: Your script for The Great Arch emanates from Laurence Cossé’s well-received and award-winning account of Spreckelsen and his work, which was published in France in 2016, but which is yet to be published in Denmark, interestingly. Was it the book that sparked your curiosity?
Stéphane Demoustier: It certainly was. We all know La Défense and the arch but, somehow, Spreckelsen is a blind spot, and I wanted to know more about the man and what happened to him. The book is only available in French, and even in France no one knew about Spreckelsen beforehand. So he’s a mystery and very well-suited for a film, I immediately thought.

The fact that Spreckelsen abandoned the project due to conflicts of interests makes it even more interesting. In fact, there’s a parallel, of sorts, with another Danish architect called Jørn Utzon, who designed and later gave up construction of the Sydney Opera House.
Of course. But Utzon is still very famous. Spreckelsen is the antithesis of that.

Let’s talk about Claes Bang, who’s admirable in the lead role. How did he become involved in the project?
Well, first off I actually thought Claes was Swedish, because I first saw him playing the lead in a Swedish film, The Square, so he wasn’t an option, so to speak. When I found out he was actually Danish, I immediately wanted to know more about him, and was also attracted to his physicality. Then, when I met him, I noticed his dignified posture, which was exactly what I needed for the part, to capture the sincerity and really high ideals surrounding his creation. And the fact that Claes is pretty gigantic himself was good for the film from a physical point of view, because it immediately translates the difficulties he’s experiencing at coming to terms with the environment he encounters in France.

Seeing Michel Fau playing the part of François Mitterand drew out some hearty laughter in the movie theatre. He plays him like a classic, silent movie clown or something along those lines. Was that your intention, or your hope, even?
Totally. There’s something intricately satirical in the conduct of “The French Court”, whether it’s the monarchy or the republic, the king or the president, followed by a grand entourage – it’s almost circus-like. And Michel Fau is definitely brilliant at depicting the eccentric and the burlesque. I got all the humour I was looking for, but with an affectionate approach thrown in.

You also offer up scenes where baffled Spreckelsen/Claes Bang has to negotiate the cultural challenges of dealing with the French and with French procedures. Was this another act of “affectionate” satire on your behalf?
A foreigner’s gaze really opens up possibilities like this; it helps us to look at ourselves with perspective. Of course, we French know exactly what we are, as far as certain traits go, but we tend to forget this very quickly. Part of the attraction of this film was precisely the act of exposing this outsider to a political and social system that risked causing him a lot of grief.

Architects rarely appear as main protagonists in films, but the ones who are out there, ranging from Gary Cooper in The Fountainhead to Adrien Brody in The Brutalist, are pretty fascinating. Why do you think this is?
Because architecture has so much in common with cinema, I feel – in the study of space, of shapes, of politics, of human behaviour. On paper, it might look intellectual, elitist and uncommercial. But it’s certainly not when it’s up on screen.

What’s your relationship like with other types of Danish design, like furniture and lamps and the like?
I’m very familiar with it, as many of us are – Scandinavian design is world famous. Without being a great specialist, I’d say that Spreckelsen’s arch is very much part of the same aesthetic.