While “Le Grand Bain” by Gilles Lellouche is broadcast tonight on TF1, a look back at the filming of the film, which required the most intense physical preparation from its actors.
In Gilles Lellouche’s Le Grand Bain, broadcast this evening on TF1, eight men with a morose and routine daily life take on the crazy bet of founding a synchronized swimming team, a singular and demanding sport for which they will be ready to give their all. (The true Swedish story that inspired the film was adapted a second time with Watch Men Swim.)
Like the protagonists who evolve in the basins of this comedy (presented at Cannes “out of competition” in 2018), their interpreters had to undergo intensive training before passing in front of Gilles Lellouche’s camera.
Indeed, the apprentice swimmers of the Grand Bain (namely Benoît Poelvoorde, Guillaume Canet, Mathieu Amalric, Félix Moati, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Philippe Katerine, Alban Ivanov and Balasingham Thamilchelvan) discovered the demanding discipline that is synchronized swimming with Julie Fabre, choreographer of the women’s Olympic team.
As Gilles Lellouche later confided in the press kit for his feature film, before reaching the level sufficient to shoot certain scenes of the film, some of his actors literally had to start from scratch, and even sometimes downright… learn to swim!
StudioCanal
“I will spare you the fact that Balasingham ThamilcheLvan, whom I had found during a wild casting, had lied to me – in fact he did not know how to swim – and that Félix [Moati] meanwhile, couldn’t bear to put his head under water while playing the prop!”thus confided the director, specifying also that for the most difficult synchronized swimming movements, and in particular those which involved bringing the legs out of the water, he had called on professionals:
“(…) For everything legs out of the water, I had understudy, because even after seven years of training, it’s very complicated.”
However, the eight actors of Big Bath spared no effort, and had to go through a long and intense preparation before filming:
“They trained like animals for 7 months, once or twice a week, they amazed me! The most athletic was Guillaume [Canet]. But at will and rigor, it’s Mathieu [Amalric] who wins ! As for Benoit [Poelvoorde]he is an excellent swimmer but… dissipated.”
Studiocanal GmbH – Mika Cotellon
Indeed, as well as Gilles Lellouche also told it on the microphone ofEuropean 1 before the film’s release, Poelvoorde almost threw in the towel because of the pace of training, but especially the distance to travel to get there from his home, located in Namur.
“The second week [de tournage]Benoît Poelvoorde calls me and tells me that he wants to abandon the film [pour ces raisons de distance et de cadence]“explained the filmmaker.
By an incredible chance, the choreographer Julie Fabre had a sister practicing exactly the same discipline, and living 10 kilometers from the comedian, that she was therefore able to take care of during her training. Enough to allow him to arrive prepared on the day of the shoot.
(Re)discover the first teaser of the film…