2023-09-10 12:00:00
It’s the great (and very good) French comedy of the fall. With The Book of Solutions, in theaters on September 13, Michel Gondry signs a hilarious film which made the public squirm a lot, during the last Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, in Cannes. The story of a tortured filmmaker who refuses to watch the images from his latest film and flees to the countryside with his rushes. There, with his editor (Blanche Gardin, in a calm register that makes sparks in the face of the ardor of Pierre Niney) and his manager (very funny Frankie Wallach), he tries to find inspiration and make a film of odds and ends. pitcher.
He hires the services of an orchestra from the Cévennes to interpret the language of his body, takes three chairs and garden hoses to create a scene or makes a cartoon about a fox who wants to open a hairdressing salon… Pierre Niney dies the screen in this role of “filmmaker”. We laugh out loud. For his latest feature film, the director ofEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and certain clips from Daft Punk and Björk was inspired by his own story, he confides to Point. “This film fortunately does not represent the reality of my filming,” he explains. Interview with a reel esthete.
READ ALSOCannes: the clown Pierre Niney in the shoes of director Michel GondryPoint : What led you to write this comedy?
Michel Gondry: It is undoubtedly my most autobiographical film, ahead of The Science of Sleep[2006, NDLR]. I went so far as to film in the house in the Cévennes where the events happened. This film relates a moment of chemical imbalance during the filming and editing of The Foam of Days, ten years ago. I think I had a complex towards Boris Vian. I had put enormous pressure on myself. I imploded at that point. But you should not believe that this represents my productions, filming and editing! At the time, my son came to see me in the Cévennes. He told me later that he would have liked to make a documentary. It tickled me. I then started to write little notes on ideas, actions, events. I lined up these cards on the floor and saw that it was starting to tell a story.
You then decide to make a film about it…
I did it mechanically, without really believing in it. You never believe it when you start a film. So many projects fall through! Succeeding in making a film, in materializing ideas, is always a miracle. We go from the idea to the scenario, and from the scenario to the drawing, to the storyboard. Ideas are like bubbles that pass in front of you. We catch one. It turns into glass, materializes, then breaks when the film comes out. When we see the finished film, we can think that there is a purpose behind it. My only goal is to continue doing my job. That of making films.
READ ALSOCédric Klapisch: “The Hollywood strike is a gigantic wake-up call” With the tensions within the film industry and the strike of screenwriters and actors in Hollywood, is it harder to make films today than before?
It is not easy. There was the shock wave of Covid-19. Then the writers’ and actors’ strike in Los Angeles.
A historic strike…
It’s not as historic as that. American screenwriters are a bit like air traffic controllers in France. We are not very surprised when they go on strike. Today, famous actors no longer advertise watches in Japan, but for yogurts in the United States. Everything went down a notch. I shoot commercials for a living, and the competition has increased a lot. For films, it’s the same. But I’m lucky.
Generations after Scorsese and Coppola, like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, emerged independently. But they became worse and betrayed their early ideals.
Do you think that with the rise of streaming platforms, cinema is dead?
I don’t claim to be a film expert. I just note that Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola took advantage of the confusion of the 1970s, when the studios no longer knew the recipe for making hits. This allowed them to have access to big budgets and to make masterpieces from completely personal films. After that, the big studios took over the directors. We see it today with superhero films and remakes. Generations after Scorsese and Coppola, like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, emerged independently. But they became worse and betrayed their early ideals. Something annoys me in the United States: we don’t have the right not to be a fan of the group Kiss and of Star Wars. It’s like saying in France that we don’t like The four hundred Blows by Truffault. For my part, I like Back to the future. In my head, cinema is a cross between the Lumière brothers, Edison, Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey. They had the idea of observing movement as we observe bacteria or viruses. It is the machine that made it possible to restore the movement. Like Galileo who had the idea of taking a telescope and looking at the planets. As if we were inventing a new meaning for the human body.
READ ALSOEXCLUSIVE. Blanche Gardin: “And this is how humor disappears…”
Do you like shooting with old cameras?
I like both things. The digital format is now. It also has a lot of advantages. If I shot a film with old cameras, I would have the impression of making black and white, of being nostalgic. On the other hand, I still use my 16 millimeter format Bolex camera a lot. After more than sixty years of existence, it is still the most practical device for me to make animations. There is one perforation per image. No need for electricity. The Bolex also has a huge tolerance in exposure. What you need is for there to be a vibration somewhere when you film. Something that escapes us a little. A material, a grain of film that vibrates. Björk educated me on this subject. She was very tempted by nostalgia. But she said: “Nostalgia is one day a month. The rest of the time you have to think about the present and the future. »
Have you used your Bolex to The Book of Solutions ?
No, I shot with the iPhone, for the animations and the credits. I take a crate or a beam, I put clamps with a kind of bracket and I install the telephone. It is not an affect. I use hand making when it’s more practical. This allows you to resolve the problem on your own and immediately. It’s also a story of impatience. I can’t wait to see the result so I’m skipping a few steps for precision, professionalism and finishing. I also find that sometimes, when the form is less accomplished, the basic idea comes out better. For example, in the drawings or the clips I made.
What did you think of Justine Triet’s speech in Cannes on pensions?
I think it’s good that she used this platform of expression to talk about it. It’s horrible to have a so-called left-wing president raising the retirement age at a time when cinemas and supermarkets have fewer and fewer employees. In supermarkets, I refuse to go to the self-checkout. I have a proposal: a law so that the machines that replace people pay pensions. That way, we would think before replacing people with machines.
READ ALSOCannes 2023: Justine Triet makes the Minister of Culture jumpWhy did you choose Pierre Niney to play your alter ego?
I had to identify with the actor. Although he is much younger, he has a testosterone level that is somewhat equivalent to mine. He doesn’t carry his masculinity on his shoulders. Pierre Niney has a slightly annoying side, which I have too. He manages to remain endearing despite all his efforts to be unpleasant. Above all, he has perfect timing and diction. He tumbles in front of the camera, and we can immediately play with the nuances. I was lucky to have supercasting.
What is your next project?
It’s a musical produced and somewhat written by Pharrell Williams. He wrote the music. She recounts her youth, in 1978, in Virginia Beach, Florida. In particular, there will be nine choreographed songs. The project was postponed for a year due to the writers’ and actors’ strike.
Are you going to shoot series as is the fashion for many directors?
I’ve done it before. I do not like at all. In a series, the screenwriter tells you where to put the camera. This I cannot accept. That’s not what being a director is. We carry the film on our shoulders, we take responsibility. It is the technical choices that make a film special. And I love the ritual of the room. This waiting in the dark and sharing when the light returns. It is an act of resistance to the immediate pleasure of video games and sugar.
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