MeetFor years, the Marseille director has relied on the same technical team and has forged emotional ties with his performers. For “Chronicle of a passing affair”, presented at Cannes, he once again let himself be guided by his taste for others.
Head-to-head, face-to-face. In Chronicle of a temporary liaison, the new film by Emmanuel Mouret, presented on May 21 in the Cannes Première selection, before a theatrical release in the fall, a man and a woman love each other, without detour or commitment. “I liked the idea of two lovers who decide to see each other only for fun, without planning anything, caught up in the happiness of being together”, says the filmmaker, who chose Vincent Macaigne and Sandrine Kiberlain as interpreters. A simplicity that will become complicated very quickly. As often in the cinema of Emmanuel Mouret.
“It’s a bit of a family celebration. When Sunday ends, we know that we will meet again at the next birthday. » David Faivre, production designer
Imbroglios, misunderstandings, digressions, misunderstandings, awkwardness, trial and error, junk marivaudages and philosophical questions have been, for eleven feature films, the salt of his intrigues, of Let Lucy do it! (2000) to Mademoiselle de Joncquières (2018), by A kiss please! (2007) at The things we say, the things we do (2020).
In the films of the Marseillais, we talk about love more than we do. From “hypernarratives”, as he likes to describe these stories, always choral, lively, nourished by his readings of authors who have tried to decipher the feeling of love: La Rochefoucauld, Bataille, Lacan, Barthes or Jankélévitch… With, always, the question of the duration of passions , and fidelity.
An uninterrupted dialogue
Loyal ? Few directors are as good as him. At 51, Emmanuel Mouret still works with sound engineer Maxime Gavaudan, a high school friend, and trusts Frédéric Niedermayer, his producer for twenty years, from the same class of Fémis. “There is a long-term camaraderie between us, as if we were pursuing a job, a quest, from film to film”, he said. Niedermayer speaks of a “uninterrupted dialogue”. Together, they discuss the next feature film to produce, among the various projects that Mouret still has in mind, build the cast hand in hand. “He tells me the beginnings of stories and sees if I’m interested. And since he is a delicate boy, he does not continue if he sees that I frown, welcomes the producer.
In front of the camera, too, Emmanuel Mouret likes to get attached. His films of the 2000s, tangy comedies à la Woody Allen in which he himself played the actor, with his lunar letter student face, were often based on the tasty duo he formed with Frédérique Bel, a former model. with sharp comic talent. He also turned Cécile de France, Anaïs Demoustier, Virginie Efira, Laure Calamy, Emilie Dequenne… So many actresses who found sweetness in his gaze.
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