Mathias Malzieu made several shots of his film A Siren in Paris on the quays of Île Saint-Louis -

Antoine Michelet

  • Mathias Malzieu has just released

    Le Dérèglement joyeux de la métrique amoureuse

    , a collection of poems illustrated by Daria Nelson (editions of the Iconoclast).

  • This fan of the Seine is about to buy a barge on the mythical river.

“The closer you get to the Seine, the more the rate of poetry increases.

Parisians, beware!

If you come across a crooner with a squirrel's mane on an electric bike at night, it could well be Mathias Malzieu.

The director, writer and singer of the French rock group Dionysos loves to wander near the docks.

It was in a café on Île Saint-Louis around a dish of spaghetti that we discussed poetry, its finest British dishes and Michel Platini.

From the Seine, a little too.

“It's Paris salt.

In the evening, when I return home on a skate or a bicycle, I see the reflections of the city in the water.

I find that wonderful, ”he laughs, with his red beard and fox sweater.

One year ago, Mathias Malzieu finished filming his film

Une Sirène à Paris

, on the Quai d'Orléans, located just behind us.

“The Seine is bridges: between the right bank and the left bank, between childhood and adulthood, between the imaginary and the real… That's all I love, bridges!

"

Lovers of Paname

Mathias Malzieu is a poetic man.

He likes to throw himself into the crowd in concert as if it was the last time.

And "tell stories".

All the time.

“He was a very contrasted child.

He experienced things in an extreme way, like a roller coaster.

He could be very sad or very happy, says Lisa, his sister.

Very young already, he was a wizard.

He transformed the ordinary into the extraordinary.

He wrote while twisting his neck to reality.

He had an incredible curiosity.

Even today, it has kept that flavor of childhood.

"

Originally from the Drôme, where he farted his first guitars and started the Dionysos group, he then moved to Paris.

His link with the capital was then tied after his bone marrow transplant and the attacks, which had a profound impact on him.

“I spent two years with people fighting to save my life with stem cells, cord blood stored in liquid nitrogen, and everything.

And there, there are guys who arrive with guns and shoot Cabu, what!

It was like an emotional bug.

"And above all, this" magical "flood during Euro 2016, where the plane trees had their feet in the water.

A very cinematographic Paris for this night owl on wheels.

“I felt like I was living in

Miyazaki's

Ponyo

.

There were ducks in the middle of the road roasting forbidden senses.

It was madly poetic.

"

Welcome to the "Flower Burger"

So fond of the Seine, that with Daria, his lover, he is about to buy a barge, which they will call the "Flower Burger", from the name of the boat-bistro installed on the quays in his film

A Siren in Paris

.

“I was afraid of the humidity in a barge, but I let myself be guided,” says the 27-year-old photographer, who joins us for tea.

Mathias Malzieu even plans to buy a giant inflatable paddle for eight people and take the boat license to have a drink on the river with his friends.

Below the illuminated Eiffel Tower, his friend Cali will not be the last to drink: “I am not at all surprised.

He would have told me he was going to buy a castle in Scotland or build a rocket to go to the moon, I would have believed it.

He's someone magical, ”says the singer.

Mathias Malzieu has kept his Peter Pan soul.

He is finally the owner of Captain Hook's ship, the dream of a lifetime.

All his savings will go there.

“I'll sign in a few days.

There are two months of work, but I hope to enter in the spring.

Inside, I'm going to make a cinema room with a projector and armchairs.

"From his 35 square meter apartment, he will now live in the" 21st arrondissement ", which designates all those who live on the water in Paris:" It's like a hiding place.

I am 10-15 minutes from the Eiffel Tower and I have the impression of being in the Bayou.

It turns me on.

"

Metamorphosis on the banks of the Seine

“He even told us that we would have a place to rehearse with the band.

This barge, he bought it as much for himself as for Daria, smiles Babet, Dionysus' violinist.

She came as a surprise, like a fairy.

These two met a year ago at Deux Magots, Boris Vian's favorite bar, on the centenary anniversary of his idol in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

At the edge of the Seine, they exchanged one of their first kisses.

From this union was born

The Joyful Deregulation of Love Metrics

, a collection of poems illustrated by photo collages by Daria.

The true story of love at first sight between a fairy with a Russian accent and "an apprentice poet who does the dishes".

All spiced up by the short erotic-comic texts of the leader of Dionysus.

The two lovers even recorded a song, called

Morning Song,

about their life together.

Our dossier on the Seine

“Mathias saw what he wrote.

It is obvious that what he will experience on the “Flower Burger” will inspire him for new creations ”, assure Cali and Babet.

The singer of Dionysus is also preparing two new books.

With the same vein of storyteller-rocker.

Mathias Malzieu talks about his way of seeing ecology You interviewed Mathias Malzieu, leader of the Dionysos group

20 seconds of context

The series "The new course of the Seine" was produced by a promotion of nine work-study students from the Paris school of journalism ESJ-Pro, under the direction of their trainers and the 20 Minutes team.

The subjects paint the changing relationship between Paris and its river, the image of which is upset by the constant improvement in water quality.

  • Culture

  • Music

  • Seine

  • Paris

  • Literature