It's a movie that no longer makes you look at an overcast sky quite the same way. In Acide, by Just Philippot (La Nuée), presented in Midnight Screening at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, Guillaume Canet and Laetitia Dosch play a couple in crisis, gathered around their daughter when fatal acid rain falls on the north of the France. Panting, the film is an apocalyptic thriller in which the fate of the characters, who fight for their survival, is a warning for the (possible) days to come, like a series like Black Mirror. The two actors lent themselves to the game of our "In-between" to talk to us about disaster movies, end of the world, end of shooting.
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In video, Guillaume Canet and Laetitia Dosch, on the poster of "Acide", by Just Philippot
Intimate disaster
Laetitia Dosch.-Can you tell the story of the film in a few words?
Guillaume Canet.-It is a very intimate story inside a disaster film: it is about a separated couple who will find themselves with their daughter to try to escape acid rain that is the consequence of pollution in the air and that ransacks everything, including skins. There is a real danger of death and therefore a kind of exodus, everyone tries to flee. This couple, who have been separated for a few years, do not want to be in a car at all at that time. The daughter, who left her father for a while, now needs him. And the father has only one desire, and that is to rebuild his life in Belgium. No one wants to be there.
G.C.-What was your reaction to reading the script for Acide? L.D.-L.D.-What seduced me was that it scared me when I read it, I was bad, and I thought we were going to have a good laugh making something that scares me. And then it was about ecology.
Apocalypse now
L.D. What is your favorite apocalypse movie?
G.C.-Thesons of the man by Alfonso Cuarón. It's a film that I love, that I find so intelligent, so well staged. For the record, it's still shots-sequences sometimes 10 minutes, with thousands of extras and very few special effects at the time, it's incredible. I also like The Road with Viggo Mortensen.
L.D.-In the event of an imminent apocalypse, how much do you estimate your survival time?
G.C.-It depends on the apocalypse, actually. That is a very interesting question. Would I be as heroic, generous, selfless as I would like to be, or would I, like this character in Snow Therapy, show selfishness, a willingness to get out of it and save my life above all? My inner conviction tells me that I would be extremely good. But I feel like extreme situations and fear can create ugly in people.
In video, "06400 Cannes" episode 2, our postcard since the Cannes Film Festival 2023
Climate threat
G.C.-What do you think of when you look at the sky now?
L.D.- When the sky is overcast right now, I'm happy, because there has been so much drought in France this year that it reassures me.
L.D.-How has shooting Acide changed your attitude and habits towards the environment?
G.C.- I already had an environmental conscience, which the film only reinforced. Just like my desire to be able to use cinema and stories to convey messages. And I think the film is a very good example: we can, through cinema and stories, deal with important subjects without giving lessons and without pointing fingers at things, but simply helping to raise awareness.
G.C.-What memories of filming Acidewill you keep all your life?
L.D.- My last day of shooting. It turns out that I was shooting in the Meuse, a port river still quite dirty, with a makeup a little repulsive. I was applauded because it was my last day: I am water out very happy, hyper moved, because I became very attached to the film crew. And nobody wanted to kiss me too much (laughs)!
