In full fire: “a surreal end”, “thriller as original as it is full of suspense”… This is the hot film to see this week!

What is it about ? A giant fire ravages the Landes forest. Following an evacuation alert, Simon and his father Joseph leave their home but quickly find themselves trapped in their vehicle in the middle of this climatic nightmare. The blaze is getting closer. What to do ? Waiting for help…? Or will they not find a way out of this by going even deeper into the terrifying immensity of the burning forest?

Birth of the project

Quentin Reynaud shot En plein feu in the heart of summer 2021, in the Landes, one of the French forests most destroyed by fire in 2022. After the fires that had ravaged California (2018), then those that had declared in Australia (2019), the director suspected that due to global warming, this type of disaster would become widespread. He remembers :

“I then developed a fascination for fire stories (visual or written) because they made me realize that, whatever we do, we remain at the mercy of the elements and that, whatever the systems of protection or evacuation put in place by man, if we encroach too much on its borders, nature has the means to react with phenomenal force.”

“I am from Bordeaux and I know the forests of the Landes well which are, with those of the Var, most often affected by fires. Planted under Napoleon III on marshes, to dry them out, these forests are made up of tall pines When I started to imagine my scenario, these trees suddenly seemed to me to be the metaphor of a prison.”

The common point with Wes Anderson?

The shooting was not dangerous, but it was complex. Quentin Reynaud and his team shot on location in two different locations in the north of Landes, in the south of Gironde. They then settled in Angoulême in the studios where Wes Anderson had filmed The French Dispatch.

“Our production designer recreated approximately 80m of the real Landes road on which we had already filmed the beginning of the whole sequence where Simon and Joseph are in their cars stuck in the flames. It was much more practical for deal with light and fire”remembers the filmmaker.

Marie-Camille ORLANDO – 2022 – 10:22 PM – APOLLO FILMS – STUDIOCANAL – GAPBUSTERS – CINEMATOGRAPHIC PRODUCTION ALLIANCE

Reunion with Alex Lutz!

Since Paris-Willouby and especially 5th set, Quentin Reynaud had only one desire: to work again with Alex Lutz: “We have created quite strong bonds both. We support each other. One day, he said this sentence to me which upset me (I take back his words): ‘If you need from me, you tell me what time and where, and I’ll come.’ So I wrote the character of Simon with him in mind.”

Marie-Camille ORLANDO – 2022 – 10:22 PM – APOLLO FILMS – STUDIOCANAL – GAPBUSTERS – CINEMATOGRAPHIC PRODUCTION ALLIANCE

The fire paradox

During his research phase, Quentin Reynaud found a large quantity of GoPro videos shot by individuals, from their car surrounded by California fires. What struck him in these images was the calm of these people who were filming the fire (even though they had not the slightest certainty of getting out of it):

“I tried to reproduce in my film this attitude of calm which seemed quite crazy to me when you find yourself in such a situation. This situation can give the feeling that the film is not realistic, whereas paradoxically, the reality was even harder to believe”says the director.

Marie-Camille ORLANDO – 2022 – 10:22 PM – APOLLO FILMS – STUDIOCANAL – GAPBUSTERS – CINEMATOGRAPHIC PRODUCTION ALLIANCE

Construction of the scenario

Quentin Reynaud built his screenplay on the outline of a play. It opens with a kind of prologue, a face to face intended to make it clear that between Simon (Alex Lutz) and Joseph (André Dussollier), the bridges are broken: “Then comes a first part, very realistic, with the eruption of a gigantic fire which forces this father and this son to flee, both together, in the same car. The violence of their fear will break the psychological barriers and deliver them.”

“We are at this moment in the film, both behind closed doors and in the disaster film, the tragedy of men trapped by something daunting that overwhelms them and from which they do not know how to get out… A second part follows, which switches to fantasy and poetry, where, freed from his father and the weight of the unspoken, Simon decides to try, at all costs, despite the danger, to find the way that will make him get out of this burning forest”explains the director, adding:

“During this wandering, real or fantasized (the spectator can choose), he will come across irrationally distraught firefighters, and will revisit, as in a nightmarish dream, several episodes of his former family life…”