2026 edition - The garden star of the show

02. La lanterne des profondeurs

Garden by Mélanie Laurent and Philippe Berthomé

published at 06/02/2026

This garden, which celebrates the magic of cinema, is the result of a fascinating collaboration between a renowned actress and director and a master of theatre and opera lighting.

Hidden amongst the shadows of the foliage, a verdant cinema awaits those brave enough to venture within. A seat rooted in the ground, softly lit as if breathing with the forest, and images revealed through a veil of luminous water invite you to cross the boundary of reality.

Let yourself slip into a deep immersion, a descent into another garden, that of the abyss. There, the magic of the deep sea reveals itself in fleeting glimpses — elusive creatures, almost unreal colours, movements that seem to brush past you.

Here, nothing is quite what it seems — and anything becomes possible.

DESIGNERS

Mélanie LAURENT, actress, director, scriptwriter, producer and singer, Philippe BERTHOMÉ, lighting designer

FRANCE

Mélanie Laurent began her film career in 1998, playing a supporting role in The Bridge by Gérard Depardieu and Frédéric Auburtin. She has acted alongside Gérard Depardieu, Carole Bouquet and Charles Berling. She then did a number of films with directors such as Rodolphe Marconi, Michel Blanc and Jacques Audiard. Philippe Lioret’s film Don’t Worry, I’m Fine (2006) marked a turning point in her career, seeing her take out the César Award for most promising actress. She rose to global fame after being cast in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009), and soon after, in 2011, directed her first full-length feature film, The Adopted. Her second, Breathe, received critical acclaim at Cannes in 2014. The following year saw her direct Tomorrow in collaboration with Cyril Dion (winning the César Award for best documentary film in 2016). A positive, unifying road film, it is an account of their travels, journeying to ten countries to investigate climate change. In it, they meet pioneers reinventing agriculture, energy, the economy, democracy and education. By highlighting solutions, and the men and women involved in these, they offer an optimistic vision of the future, starting right from the shared experience of being in the cinema. The film eventually made it to theatres ten years later.

Among independent films, large-scale productions and plays, Mélanie Laurent also released a music album in 2011, En t’attendant, and was the voice behind characters in the Inside Out animated films in 2015 and 2024. Her most recent films have included The Mad Women’s Ball in 2021 and Wingwomen in 2022 (as director), and Joséphine Japy’s The Wonderers (as actress), which was selected for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

Trained at the École du Théâtre National in Strasbourg, lighting designer Philippe Berthomé has been involved in the world of theatre and opera for 35 years, collaborating with directors such as Stanislas Nordey and Thomas Jolly. He also did the lighting for Jane Birkin’s final concerts, the Fêtes Maritimes de Douarnenez sailboat festival, Angers Cathedral, and the restaurant spaces of Maison Troisgros, Hugo Roellinger’s Coquillage and Le Grand Chaume at the Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire. In 2024, he was responsible for the lighting for Noire, an augmented-reality installation at the Pompidou Centre. Following an off-site Villa Medici residency at the Murano glass school, he blew and created his own electric ‘light bulbs’. The night sessions of the 2024 International Garden Festival saw him create Rêve de cristal (Crystal Dream), a chandelier that was both imposing and delicate, placed on a pond, between air and water.