Currently showing with Super-heroes in spite of himself, Philippe Lacheau and his band comment on the success of Spider-Man No Way Home on our microphone. “It restarts the machine. It proves that people want to go to the cinema”.
When a team of a superheroic comedy comments on the superheroic box of the moment! We asked Philippe Lacheau’s band, currently starring in Super-Heroes Despite Himself, to talk to our microphone about the success of Spider-Man No Way Home. The opportunity to also know, if according to them, a real French superhero film would be possible without adopting the tone of parody. Here are their answers.
Tarek Boudali introduces himself as “a fan of DC Comics, and especially Marvel“.”I’m not the biggest Spider-Man fan, but frankly when I saw No Way Home, I thought it was amazing. It’s one of my favorite Marvels now. It’s brilliant, whether in terms of special effects, screenplay, and dramaturgy too. The fact that we are almost at 7 million admissions, I find that extraordinary. This restarts the machine. This proves that people want to go to the cinema. We just gotta give them things to see.”
If people really want to see a film, especially young people, they go there.
“To see that there is this gathering, it shows that people need to see films they like and that when they feel like it, they can go to the cinema, complete Elodie Fontan. And us, being in the business, it feels crazy to see that.”
“It gives a lot of hopeadds Philippe Lacheau. This is what is hard for cinemas today. We’ve been on tour since mid-November, so we see a lot of operators, we talk a lot with them. This year-end success of Spider-Man, which is historically limited, was great for them. But what is terrible is that as soon as it starts up again, they are told: ‘well, you are no longer entitled to the confectionery’. It is unfair. But anyway, it gives hope. If people really want to see a film, especially young people, they go there. So that’s cool.”
A real French superhero film: mission impossible?
Super-heroes despite himself adopts the tone of parody to address the theme of superheroes. Rare are the examples of French films having approached this genre at first level. Is this mission impossible in France?
“I think that in France, we can make all kinds of films, really, launches Tarek Boudali. There are ultra-competent people, even more competent than the Americans in certain areas. It’s just that in France, we are not given enough means. For this kind of films, you need a lot of means.
“That’s the problem, it takes a lot of moneyadds Julien Arruti. Is the French market large enough to absorb this kind of cost? That’s the big question. Would the French superhero film in which we put millions and millions of euros, as they do in the United States, would it manage to be exported, and therefore to paying off, that’s kind of the question. But I agree with Tarek. In France, we have incredible talents, incredible directors, who are capable of that.”
You have to be more creative if you ever want to make real superhero films in France
“Beyond the directors, on the special effects side, we do incredible thingscontinues Tarek Boudali. Moreover, they are exported. They go to Canada to work in video games, or to the United States to work in Marvel type films. Stuntmen too. We work with top stuntmen who make American films. I say this very sincerely: in France, you can do anything.”
We can’t compete with them on the means, so we have to compete with them on the ideas
For Philippe Lacheau, it would be necessary to be clever in the axis to choose to achieve this. “The only way for the French to make real superhero films in the first degree, I think you have to be smart in the axis to choose. For example, when they made Joker in the United States, it was a bit of an arthouse version. It didn’t cost the fortunes of other blockbusters like Spider-Man, Avengers.
I think you have to be more creative if you ever want to make real superhero movies. Because we can’t compete with budgets of 300 million. But some do very well. We had seen Douglas Attal’s superhero film, How I Became a Superhero, which was successful, which was really good, really cool.”
“Either way, there’s no competition as to who gets the most effect, adds Elodie Fontan Indeed, by being original, you can make a very good French superhero action film. We have nothing to be ashamed of what we can do.” “We can’t compete with them on the means, so we have to compete with them on the ideas“, concludes Philippe Lacheau.
Super-heroes in spite of himself is currently showing.