In theaters since Wednesday, “Super-bourrés” is an offbeat comedy between “SuperGrave” and “Les Beaux gosses”. Discover five things to know about this French feature film, in which a French politician makes an appearance.
What is it about ? Last day before the end of high school. Janus and Sam have to bring drinks to participate in the end of the year party. While rummaging through Janus’ father’s cellar looking for bottles, they discover a strange machine…
The casting
To find the role of Janus, a classic casting was carried out and enabled Pierre Gommé to be found. For the character of Sam, the process was a little more difficult, as the director recounts: “We wanted a young woman who embodies something authentic and we used a wild casting. I knew we had a chance to find her in the women’s rugby teams, around Agen, and the video of Nina [Poletto] caught our eye.”
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As for the grandfather, the team was looking for an emblematic interpreter of the south-west and the older generation. “We racked our brains and came up with the idea of Francis Cabrel and John Lassalle. In the end, we used Cabrel titles for the soundtrack and Lassalle willingly accepted to play the grandfather because it amused him. He shot for a day and he had a blast! As a born storyteller, he was simply asked questions and, once launched, there was no stopping him. So we shot and edited part of this sequence like a documentary!”remembers the director.
First feature film
Super-Bourrés is the first feature film by Bastien Milheau, who trained at FEMIS in the Screenplay Department, where he developed several feature films. Super-Bourrés is the continuation of his graduation project.
He was inspired by the unlabeled bottles at his grandparents’ house: “They seemed mysterious to me, and, of course, we weren’t allowed to drink them when we were little, but adults enjoyed them during family meals. I thought it was a good story to talk about of a coming-of-age ritual – and it was a good engine to move the plot forward.”
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A familiar setting
The director chose to set Super-Bourrés in the countryside, a rural setting in which he himself grew up: “It was reassuring, for a feature debut, to talk about things I know, and talking with city friends, I was struck by how much we had had different experiences. For someone who grew up in the countryside, it was adventurous to have parties: you had to take a car, adopt certain strategies and set up all the little logistics. It is something that is familiar to me and that inspired me to write characters that I have known and that I still know. I also wanted to embody a region. In this respect, the question of accents arose from the start in order to be able to anchor the story in a territory that I know GOOD.”
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A story of friendship
Sam was originally a male character. Bastien Milheau explains: “Intuitively, I had told myself that they were two boys and I had imagined their journey as childhood friends: when we are small, the sex difference is not very important, but in adolescence , jealousy arouses ambiguities and raises the eternal question of a possible friendship between girls and boys. Even if Sam is ultimately a female character, he wanted to make Super-Bourrés a story of friendship, without switching to romantic comedy.
Take Shelter – Cine – Zinc
References
Among the films that influenced him, Bastien Milheau cites teen films such as La Folle Journée by Ferris Bueller, SuperGrave, American Pie, Les Beaux Gosses, but also comedies. “which assume a melodic dimension”such as The King of Staten Island and Green Book, “whose subject is very strong and the end moving while being extremely funny”.