For his new film “BDE”, available on Prime Video, Michaël Youn goes even further in schoolboy gags. He recounts the explosive filming of the film.
In each of his films, Michaël Youn seems to go even further. This is also his primary motivation: to push the limits of disorder.
In BDE, his fourth feature film behind the camera, he sets the bar high. The director is inspired by the evenings that punctuated his time in business school to stage this schoolboy comedy where all shots are allowed.
“It was during these years of study that the Michaël that I have become was born, that of Morning Live and Eleven Commandments”, he explains at the microphone of AlloCiné.
BDE (acronym for the Student Office, editor’s note) tells the adventures of four old friends who, during a ski weekend, find themselves face to face with more than a hundred students from their old school, in the middle of a Spring Break celebration.
In the casting, Michaël Youn summons Lucien Jean-Baptiste, Héléna Noguerra, Rayane Bensetti, Lola Dubini, Ludovik or even Vincent Desagnat, his partner who has followed him since his debut.
“This film is the synthesis of all our nonsense and all that we have experienced during all these years“, he launches. Other personalities join the band, such as Manon Azem, Tomer Sisley, Michèle Laroque, Gilbert Melki or the rugby player Sébastien Chabal.
I was happy to see that my character took it seriously
On screen, the director strings together gags and even allows himself a dance number under hallucinogens, a snowmobile chase, an exploding cabin and a scene with a bear. All without a moment’s respite.
For Vincent Desagnat, who has known Michaël Youn for a long time, nothing surprised him when he read the script: “I was rather amazed by all the nonsense that he could write and I was happy to see that my character took it seriously.”
For chaos to be possible on screen, everything has to be organized and thought out. “The most complicated was to manage 14 actors at the same timespecifies the director who also plays the main role. You have to occupy all these people at the same time and give them something with each take..”
Michaël Youn has a grueling memory of the shoot: “It’s a film that was made while running. For there to be so much energy on the screen, there had to be some on the set.” In front of BDE, we can take his word for it.
BDE is available on Prime Video from February 24.