Day 4. and adding. On this occasion, with two independent productions, two projects conceived outside conventional industry financing systems. Con Alice, director Josephine Mackerras introduces us to the life of the middle-class couple formed by Alice, name that gives title to the film, y François. This couple's life is going relatively well, until everything starts to go completely wrong when she discovers that all her checking accounts are empty. After a visit to the bank to find out what happened and after spying on his papers, Alice discovers that François has spent all his savings on luxury prostitution. And what is perhaps more serious: because of all this, The family has stopped paying the mortgage on the house they live in, and Alice and her son are in danger of being evicted. Desperate, Alice must find a solution to her financial problems., which will take her precisely to one of the escort services houses that François frequented.. Thus, A series of adventures will push her to practice the oldest profession in the world in a high-class environment.. But far from seeing all this as a defeat, Alice's new profession will provide her, not just the economic freedom you need, but your personal freedom.
Alice arises from the determination of director Josephine Mackerras to produce her debut feature herself. “She sent me the script., I read it and saw that it was a current topic., and I agreed to be the production director.”, told in yesterday's session at the Babel Eugénie Gressier, who would perform these functions for Mackerras in his feature film debut. After these first contacts between them, Gressier began looking for the technical team with which to develop the project. The limited financing conditions, would not affect, however, to a result whose lack is barely noticeable on the screen. “The truth is that we had a very small budget for filming and what I did was get in touch with a film crew that I had met at school and with whom I had an almost family bond.. The director of photography, For example, he managed to do the filming with only two light sources. And the actors behaved really great in very tough filming conditions, especially the two protagonists, "that made us dream", commented Gressier.
The choice of the duo of leading actors would determine a work that places a good part of the meaning and intentions of the plot in them.. “At first, The actress selected as the protagonist was not Emilie [Piponnier], but once Josephine met Emilie she said it had to be her because she gave the profile of that woman, both fragile and strong, that appears in the movie”, explanate, again, Gressier. The choice of actor Martin Swabey, who would play François, It was another of the successes of this work for the team. “Martin plays a current character who is the pervert-narcissist. He spent weeks preparing for the character, he even lost a lot of weight. Martin is an actor who works a lot on his own body, which also has an impact on the psychology of his character. In fact, in the scene where he violently confronts Alice, The entire film crew was deeply affected by his presence.. But then he finished and said, "Well, now I'll have a coffee.", comments Gressier, between laughs.
Despite the topic it addresses, Josephine Mackerras wanted to keep Alice a balance between the drama suffered by the characters and a certain tone of comedy in order to distance the viewer from any excessively Manichean or sordid vision of prostitution. “This film was created as a mix of cultures because Martin, the protagonist, he is belgian, I am French and Josephine is Australian. There was like this, input, a mix of styles in a film in which, besides, “Everyone got involved”, commented Eugénie Gressier in front of the audience at La Mostra. “The movie looks like Josephine, to his character, because she has a severe side and, at the same time, has a very funny side. I really like that you can hear laughter in the room even though the movie is a drama, But that is closer to reality because in reality comedy and drama also mix.". This treatment, It would also affect the entire planning of the film. “That sense of subtlety that the film has is very important and that appears clearly in the sex scenes., that rather suggest than show. Josephine wanted to stay away from that other treatment, much cruder, What does prostitution have?. “She wanted to treat him in a light way with a certain restraint.”
In the words of Gressier herself, All of this has not prevented the film from having certain distribution problems.. “There is a debate now in France to see if prostitution work should be made a regulated profession because, otherwise, “What appears is this other prostitution that is on the sidewalks of the capital”, commented. After a first showing at the Saint Tropez film festival, The film has not yet had a commercial distribution in France, country of origin of the film, a lack that Gressier associates with its quality of independent production that does not have the support of a typical production company.. “In France, In order to distribute it, it must have a seal that indicates that there is a production company.. So, on the one hand, It's a bureaucratic problem. And then, It is true that it has not yet circulated in festivals for two reasons. The first is because French producers have a lot of reluctance towards independent films.. Y, besides, because the topic is still taboo”. Despite these additional difficulties, In those countries where the film has been shown, the reception has not failed to spark some enthusiastic controversy.. “The tape has been seen, For example, in Uzbekistan, where Emilie won an acting award. And there the reactions were different depending on whether they were men or women.. The men asked her why the character did not stay with her husband, while the women said: excellent, He is a character that gives us freedom, offers us fresh air. In general the film has been well received especially because Josephine does not impose a point of view, but because it tries to explain why this woman comes to this option of practicing prostitution and how she comes to enjoy this new freedom.. When the film was seen in the United States they told us that it is a new vision of the practice of prostitution where it does not appear as something dirty.”
With other codes, both dramatic and formal, On this fourth day the film was presented You deserve a love, new French production that tells the life of Lila, a young woman whose life is altered when she discovers that Rémi, her boyfriend, He has a relationship with another girl. From that moment, Lila begins a journey through the streets of the city, jumping from relationship to relationship in search of a love that can't seem to be found anywhere. With these pieces, director Hafsia Herzi weapons, in his feature film debut, a collage of situations that want to be a sketch of your generation. A story that, Herzi herself said, goes from the particular to the universal, induced, first of all, “because of my own feeling of incomprehension regarding love. But I have realized that it is a universal feeling that passes through generations and different people.”
The script of You deserve a love is the result of a personal investigation by the director into that feeling of loss that assails those whom, ever, have felt dominated by these emotions. “This film is the result of a great work of research and study. The investigation has come into the love sorrows that cross both the rich, as poor. There are people who come out of it and there are people who don't.. It is a kind of sociological study. When the film has been screened at Cannes and other festivals, I have received the testimony of many people telling me that they had also been there. After its premiere, In France they stop me on the street and thank me for having reflected that feeling, which makes me happy because I have not betrayed him.”
As in the case of Alice, Once again we are faced with a production carried out with limited financial resources, circumstance that was going to condition both the filming and the final result of the film. “The filming was very peculiar because we only had a thousand euros as a starting budget. I spoke to the actors and told them that I would pay them if the film was shown. We borrow the decoration, For example, and I had to negotiate everything. The film was shot in three five-day periods., between july, August and September. We didn't have money, nor distributor, but fortunately the film was selected at Cannes”, commented Herzi. To carry out your project, the collaboration of a cast that, in many cases, He was facing his first job in front of the cameras. The director's own choice as the film's leading actress was motivated by the same financing conditions., as Herzi revealed in his meeting with the press and the audience of the contest. “Ten years ago I made a short film in which I also acted and I promised myself never to do it.”. In this case I was thinking for several days what to do., but the problem was self-production. Think, I can take a risk and call someone, but there was a risk that the filming would take forever. So, I told myself: I launch myself. This has given me a great sense of independence., and how I was the one who composed the character through the script, I knew when things were going or not.. The truth is that it was a hell of a job., I almost went crazy, but, at the same time, I had to get energy from wherever I could.” These conditions, however, allowed Herzi to find the right tone: “what I wanted to show was the France of today, today's. I wanted to make a film without taboos, unlimited. Y, in fact, it seems like that, although it was fully structured. Although it seems that the dialogues are free, "It's not like that."
