Michel Hazanavicius affirms it: “the only goal of
Coupez!
is to laugh.”
Worn by Romain Duris and Bérénice Bejo, this comedy retraces the wobbly and horrifying filming of a zombie film.
At the crossroads between his previous films on cinema
(The Artist, Le Redoutable)
and his cult comedies
(La Classe Américaine
and the first two
OSS 117), Coupez!
promises to count in the eclectic filmography of the French filmmaker.
To discover
To listen > our Scandals podcast "Kate Moss: sex, drugs and rock'n'roll"
Madame Figaro
.
– What was your favorite part of this adventure?
Michel Hazanavicius.-
The sequence shot, because shooting 32 minutes without interruption remains a technical feat to which was added here the difficulty of creating a failed zombie film.
I who always try to control everything and optimize everything to make it the best possible, this time I had to make a bad Z movie. Mastering this fiasco was both the most complicated and the most interesting.
In video, the fourth edition of the Madame Figaro
cinema dinner
Cut!
pays homage to
genre films.
Do you find that we lack it in France?
I do not believe.
We were bad for a long time, but I feel like the platforms have revived the genre.
I'd be lying if I said I'm an aficionado of this form of cinema, but it's a good thing it's coming back because a lot of people love it.
Which actor is Romain Duris?
I had fun with him, because he is not in the resistance, he trusts and turns out to be right all the time.
He's not trying to be funny, he knows the film stands up precisely because it's not trying to make people laugh.
Your daughter Simone is also in the cast… What pleasure did you have in directing her?
A huge pleasure!
I loved this adult relationship with her, apart from all the reflexes of the family cell.
Exchanging in a professional setting allowed me to rediscover it.
Full screen
On the set of
Cut!
with Romain Duris.
Lisa Ritain
What was your reaction when you learned that the film would open the Cannes Film Festival?
I was very happy and surprised, because I was expecting a work of international scope as the opening, not my comedy, whose sole purpose is to make people laugh.
How is your animated film,
The Most Precious of Goods?
I'm making the animatics, a phase where we pose the attitudes of the characters in order to structure the game. It's a very long but fascinating process.
Zombie films, animation… Where does this taste for risk come from?
For me, there are two types of creators: those who dig the same furrow and polish a stone for years until it finds its perfect shape, and those who flit around, like me.
I'm curious to go and see different forms and to have the impression of making a first film each time.
Cut!
, by Michel Hazanavicius, with Romain Duris, Bérénice Bejo, Finnegan Oldfield… Released on May 17.
Cannes Film Festival, May 17-28.
