Pascal Duquenne
Pascal Duquenne ( born August 8, 1970 in Vilvoorde ) is a Belgian theater and film actor. The disabled athlete who came with Down's syndrome to the world, was known to a wide audience through his repeated cooperation with the film director Jaco van Dormael. For Van Dormaels movie The Eighth Day (1996 ) he received the Best Actor Award at the International Film Festival of Cannes.
Biography
Training and working with Van Dormael
After attending a regular kindergarten Pascal Duquenne moved to a special school, where he was introduced to the sport. First he had success as a disabled athlete. He has performed at the age of eleven years at the Special Olympics in appearance, the ten other participations in the long jump and running and swimming competitions followed. For his country he won twelve medals, including a gold medal in swimming competitions. Parallel to the sport Duquenne began already to be interested as a child for music, dance and acting. Funded by his teachers in 1985 he was a member of the known disability theater group Créahm ( Créativité Handicapés mentaux trisomiques ) and participated in theater tours. There he discovered the film director Jaco van Dormael, the 1991, the first film role entrusted to him. In Van Dormaels award-winning drama Toto the Hero Duquenne mimed the brother of the title character, Célestin, who happily spends his life despite his disability. The small role in the award-winning film earned him praise from critics. So was one film critic Günther Bastian Duquenne the scenes with the " deepest and most moving " of the entire film.
Five years after the filming of Toto the Hero Van Dormael developed the script for the drama on the eighth day (1996) and wrote Duquenne the lead role of Georges in the body. The young man with Down syndrome will be housed after the death of his mother in a home for the mentally handicapped. There, but no one is able to respond to his needs, feelings and ideas, and so he takes refuge in his thought. Through a nighttime traffic accident the naive and stubborn young man makes the acquaintance of the egocentric adman Harry (played by Daniel Auteuil ). Meanwhile, professional success has led to the family crisis and separation from his wife and their children. Despite initial problems Harry soon finds solace and close at Georges. Duquenne mastered the difficult eighteen week long filming and synchronized Also, even after what he had failed in his feature film debut. When learning of the text he was supported by the wife of film director. She spoke to him his text on tapes that he bugged for months on headphones.
Triumph in Cannes
On the eighth day was in the favor of critics and audiences and brought Duquenne together with his Kodarsteller Daniel Auteuil 1996 Best Actor Award at the International Film Festival of Cannes from. It was the first time that an actor with Down syndrome received a grand prize at a film festival. At the same time Duquenne ended after four years of his education at a conservatory in Brussels, where he was the only disabled student. After the triumph in Cannes he had in common with Auteuil is a welcome guest in French television programs like 20 heures, and the disability became the focus of the media. Likewise Duquenne traveled around the world to showcase Van Dormaels film. In the same year he also received the most important film prize awarded to Belgium with the Joseph Plateau Award. In Germany, the Süddeutsche Zeitung Duquennes lifted acting skills out: " Duquenne himself suffers from Down's syndrome, but Van Dormael has not made him the subject of a cinéma - vérité speculation, but makes him act like any other professional actors also, precise, controlled and with the visible joy in the exercise of his craft. " the New York Times spoke of a " vestigial power " whose advantage lies in the spontaneity and authenticity. On the other hand Negative votes designated staging by director than kitsch and drew parallels to the autistic drama Rain Man.
After the success of his first major role rejected the parents Duquennes, where he lived in Vilvoorde, for the time being all of the following role offers from. Even projects from Hollywood hit from the parents because their son did not speak English and several months would have been on their own. In 2002, he moved into her own apartment in the center of Brussels. There emerged three houses in which 19 young people with Down syndrome live independently and be cared for. Was supported the project from the trisomy 21 Elterninitiative Le jour huitième, named after Duquennes hit film under the direction of the director Jaco van Dormael standing. In 2004, Duquenne for his merits as an actor and disabled athletes awarded the Belgian Order of the Crown, and was elevated to the rank of Commander. In the same year Duquenne took a guest appearance on the French TV series Commissaire Moulin (2004); two years later, followed by a supporting role in the Belgian thriller The Room (2006). His life has not changed much today. He regularly devoted to sports activities and participates in competitive swimming for the disabled. He is also working with the theater group Créahm remained loyal, but dedicated to the greatest possible extent of other fine art. Duquenne excited today for the engraving technique and painting. His paintings have been exhibited publicly in Brussels.
Beginning of January 2009 Duquenne was recovered as a face of the French campaign of mobile operator Data protection. The advertising slogan Cet Homme Est Différent (German: " This is different " ) and his appearance in TV commercials culminating in a public discussion of whether the disability of the 38 -year-olds should be used for commercial purposes. Contrast, support was expressed advertising campaign for French disability organizations as UNAPEI. That same year, Jaco van Dormael put him again as an actor in his film Mr. Nobody (2009) a, who received an invitation to compete in the 66th Film Festival of Venice.
Filmography
Awards
International Film Festival of Cannes
Joseph Plateau Award