There was a time before, when Emmanuel Mouret himself was acting in his own films, kind of French romantic comedies, Let Lucie do it (2000) to Whim (2015), a fitting role of clumsy ingenuity, which collapses with many blunders in the round of feelings. And then, with Mademoiselle de Joncquières (2018), retreated behind the camera, devoting himself entirely to the other actors, of which he brings together subtle combinations in each film. Find the director on a street in 13e arrondissement, in Paris, is, during a brief hallucination, to return to his former character: playful hair, nose in the wind, dreamy half-smile, jacket and scarf of the post-student, from the past master, but without having ‘ the air.
Three friendshis latest feature film, shown at the Venice Film Festival in Septemberis a romantic escapade for three female performers – India Hair, Camille Cottin and Sara Forestier – ranging from laughs to tears. “If the basic plot was rather tragic, I didn’t want to turn completely into melodrama.confesses Emmanuel Mouret. Rather, they combine seriousness with fantasy, with comedy. Like Leo McCarey or Billy Wilder, we go from the serious to the light – and start only with the movies we love. In painting, we would speak of contrast, in music of counterpoint. »
The original idea could be found in the Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han, in The Transparency Society (PUF, 2017), a modern ideal that he opposes to a true society of trust. “He made me believe that in love, trust is not even based on total transparency. »
In isolation
From one term to another, in fact, a space suitable for Mouret’s imagination opens up, that of amorous inconsistencies and the circulation of desire. In his films, one relationship always hides another, each couple makes a domino and shoots towards the triangle. “The modern individual is still deeply dividedspecifies the producer. On the one hand, society requires him to honor his commitments, on the other hand, taking into account his own wishes. » How to reconcile the two? “This question is always of interest to fiction. It’s the same in a couple movie or a gangster movie: the one who follows the rules of the clan, what happens the day he’s forced to shoot his best friend? That’s where cinema begins. »
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