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You are very young, 23 when you shot LE CHIGNON D'OLGA, how did you come to make this first film?
- I’ve dreamed of making films since I was a child. After taking my baccalaureat, I went on several shoots as a trainee. I also started doing film studies at the University of Saint Denis.
I stopped after the two-year diploma (DEUG), the minute I had the opportunity to direct my first short, three years ago. I had this chance because it wasn’t an expensive project: there was only one day’s shooting. After that, I directed two other shorts, still on a tiny budget: never more than two days filming. So I wrote my screenplays under those conditions and that’s probably why I was able to go so fast. Then I met the producer Joël Farges. He liked my shorts. I gave him the screenplay of LE CHIGNON D'OLGA which I had written in the meantime to read, and he had faith in me.
What inspired this film?
- I can’t say for sure. First of all I thought of the friendship between a boy and a girl, then I was immediately reminded of the images in Chaplin’s THE CIRCUS, like an echo. Then I started thinking about bereavement. And very quickly, I felt I absolutely had to tell this story, without my realising at first how personal it was. Contrary to what people think, you don’t find a subject, the subject finds you.
Besides, I was also very keen to work with Nathalie Boutefeu, who was in two of my shorts.
The death - and the way each member of the family experiences this loss, this bereavement - is at the heart of the film but it is expressed in a very restrained way.
- I’m not sure at what point in the film you actually realise the mother is dead. I wasn’t interested in explaining things. As a spectator, I always prefer not to understand than to understand too much.
I wanted all the repressed suffering to be shown through everyday, sometimes joyful scenes.
In this family, on the surface, everything seems fine. They talk a lot, but they don’t communicate.
This is true of a lot of families. Often, we aren’t aware of the brutality of this rapport. That is why
I chose a light tone. I like lightness. I like what is hidden beneath the surface.
In your characters one senses a link with childhood…
- In life in general, the link with childhood is something that is infinitely important to me. I like to preserve that link, I find that it continually colours our behaviour, our feelings, our relation to the world.
In the film, the character of Julien is on the brink of adulthood. The death of his mother hastened that stage. His sister, Emma, has definitely left her childhood behind her, probably too soon and too abruptly, for very quickly, and despite herself, she has taken her mother’s place in her father’s eyes. As for the father, he has never managed to grow up. And each of them, in their own way, is looking for love.
Was your decision to film in the summer related to this quest for love?
- I was very keen to shoot in August, when there’s a strange atmosphere before the return from holidays, and for it to be set in this remote area of Beauce that’s deserted because the entire population is on holiday. I wanted it to be as if time had stood still. I feel it is the right atmosphere for the pain of bereavement, the secret emotions of each person, the transition to adulthood and the awakening of love.
Besides, I’m very fond of the Beauce region. I find its flat landscapes very filmic.
Was the screenplay very tightly written?
- Yes, but I tried to free myself from it when we were filming. It’s always more fun, and more interesting, if you’ve done all the work beforehand. It sometimes happened that at the last minute, I decided not to film some of the sequences that were in the script, or I thought up new ones an hour before shooting. Sometimes, of course, they were no use, and I edited them out. But in any case, it enhanced my own exploration of the project. This exploration remained limited, however, because all that costs a lot of money, and I also had to pretty much keep to the schedule. I never felt frustrated, in fact. I found ways of taking little liberties according to the means I had to hand.
In some scenes too, the actors improvised. It is always enjoyable to try that sort of thing. It’s not a matter of just doing one’s own thing. Whether the scenes are tightly written or not, real freedom of movement comes from working with the actors before filming. I don’t mean rehearsals, but readings, discussions about the scenes and the parts. Thanks to that preparatory work, once we’re on the set, I love being surprised by the things they come up with. I also like it when an image is born at the suggestion of one of the actors. I even prefer it.
Tell us about working with Nathalie Boutefeu.
- Nathalie is an incredibly generous and creative actress. She’s been there from the beginning, as she was in my first short. She’s taught me a lot. We have a very close bond. She helped me when I was writing. She patiently read dozens of drafts. Even if she’s never written a line of a screenplay, it was a real collaboration. Her support has been invaluable. On the shoot, she was a real ally. I hardly needed to tell her anything, she knew the film and each scene so well. This type of rapport enriches the work and makes it enjoyable.
How did you select the other actors?
- As for Serge Riaboukine, I virtually wrote the part for him, even though I didn’t know him.
I adored him in a lot of films. As well as having a strong personality, I find he’s one of those actors you are immediately drawn to. They open a door, and that’s it, you love them, before they even open their mouths. A bit like Raimu, or Dalio. So I offered him the part, and he accepted it.
I had to search for the other characters. I worked without a casting director, and I’m very proud of it! I took the time to meet hundreds of actors myself. That’s how Hubert Benhamdine and Florence Loiret-Caille ended up in the film. It’s Hubert’s first film, and his ‘inexperience’ was very enriching for my own. I learned loads of things, directing him. Florence had already done several films, in particular with Claire Denis. She’s very intense, and very generous. She constantly amazed me.
I was also delighted to team up with friends like Marc Citti and Isabelle Ungaro, with whom I had already worked.
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