After “La Famille Bélier” and “#Jesuislà”, director Eric Lartigau returns with “Cetété-là”. In theaters since Wednesday, this learning story retraces the holidays of two pre-adolescent girls.
That Summer by Eric Lartigau
With Rose Pou Pellicer, Juliette Havelange, Marina Foïs…
What is it about ? Dune is 11 years old. Since always, every summer, she crosses France with her parents to spend the holidays in their old house in the Landes. There, Mathilde, 9 years old, is waiting for her. An unfailing friendship. But that summer will not be another summer. Last year, Dune and her parents didn’t come. We haven’t told her why, but she feels that something has changed. Her distant mother, the arguments between her parents, Mathilde who is slow to grow up, the heady smell of the pines, the sand which is no longer so soft, the ridiculous horror films, the love affairs of the local teenagers, everything puts Dunes on alert. She wants to understand, to know. That summer Dune will grow.
Adaptation
Magali Bragard/Treasure Films
That Summer is from the graphic novel of the same name by Jillian (drawings) and Mariko Tamaki (screenwriter). Released in 2014, the book received the prestigious Eisner Prize in 2015. Eric Lartigau was thrilled when he read the comic and immediately called his producer Alain Attal, who had sent him a copy, to discuss an adaptation.
The director and screenwriter proceeded as he had done on The Man Who Wanted to Live His Life, based on a novel by Douglas Kennedy. “I work in stages: first, I read without notes. Then I come back to it, I stabilize everything that I like, and I draw the general idea towards which I want to bring the story and the characters. […]”.
After purifying and synthesizing the original text, he forgets it to tell his own story: “The idea is to respect the author’s plot, and to maintain consistency with the work – otherwise, What’s the point? You might as well start from a blank page… But the story, I tell it in my own way.”
Four-handed writing
Magali Bragard/Treasure Films
Eric Lartigau co-wrote the film with Delphine Gleize, director of La Permission de midnight and Beau Joueur. He had directed her in #Jesuislà. They met in 2017, when he sat on the Advance on Revenue Committee, before which she presented a scenario. He proposed to her at the exit to work one day with him on a next film. They have since become friends.
Lartigau says: “I have known Delphine for a long time, and for me, it was obvious that this scenario would be written with her. She has a humor and a detachment that I adore, and at the same time, a great ability to be in the present and to analyze, in a very fine way, the world which surrounds us. And her look is done without judgement: she is of a deep humanity.”
The cast of children
Magali Bragard/Treasure Films
To find the interpreters of the two little girls, Dune and Mathilde, the casting director Elsa Pharaon posted announcements on social networks. Among the three thousand messages she received, she viewed a hundred tests during confinement. Rose Pou Pellicer and Juliette Havelange immediately stood out.
“We organized a first zoom, and then the three of us met in Paris. We started by discussing everything and nothing. I wanted to hear them talk about their desires, what animated them, their centers of interest… It was a joyful, light, very funny moment. They were very fresh and little by little, the shyness went away: it was super pretty to watch. about thirty minutes, I took my camera and I started filming. When I left, I knew I had my duet”, recalls the director.
find parents
Magali Bragard/Treasure Films
This is the third time that Eric Lartigau has directed Marina Foïs, after A Ticket to Space and The Man Who Wanted to Live His Life. About his ex-girlfriend, he says: “What I like about her is her ability to listen, her intelligence of the character, and her strength of proposal. She has, moreover, a range of a game that makes her very easily go from drama to comedy: her face can be luminous, or hard, completely closed.”
As for Gael García Bernal, he had met him at the Lumière Festival thanks to Thierry Frémaux: “We spent whole nights laughing, I liked him a lot right away. He has an interiority, a form of mystery, and an always very beautiful view of people… He is fundamentally good, but his character had to be so to remain, despite these two complicated years, with Sarah, and to always be in love with her. […] And then Gael brought a bit of foreignness, of strangeness, with this Spanish language so sensual, so alive, so singing – it’s so sexy to hear them talking, Angela and him”.
lead children
Magali Bragard/Treasure Films
Eric Lartigau returns to the precautions he took with his two main actresses, ten years old at the time of filming: “Speak loudly, shout, make big gestures, we avoid: we are not with wax objects , but for them, the intensity would have been multiplied by ten. However, apart from the fact that it is out of the question to damage them, you have to be careful not to disturb their concentration. At this age, it is the main problem: they have to be completely there, otherwise, all of a sudden, the gaze goes away, on the face, nothing is imprinted, there is nothing.”
The work plan was stretched by ten additional days, because the young actresses could not legally work more than six hours daily. They were accompanied by a coach, Lucas Lecointe, who “was with them night and day and had created a tailor-made program for them, extremely varied, made up of games or exercises, so that they were alert, without be exhausted. Let them be on time in the morning, but rested.”