On the occasion of the release of “Cyclades”, here are five things to know about this female buddy movie led by Laure Calamy, Olivia Côte and Kristin Scott Thomas.
The Cyclades by Marc Fitoussi
With Laure Calamy, Olivia Côte, Kristin Scott Thomas…
What is it about ? As teenagers, Blandine and Magalie were inseparable. Years passed and they lost sight of each other. As their paths cross again, they decide to take the trip they’ve always dreamed of together. Direction Greece, its sun, its islands but also its galleys because the two former best friends now have a very different approach to holidays… and to life!
Ruthless mafia in “Only God Forgives”
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Marc Fitoussi adored Kristin Scott Thomas as Ryan Gosling’s mafia mother in Nicolas Winding Refn’s violent Only God Forgives (2013). The filmmaker thus knew that she was going to be able to transform herself to embody Bijou, “an important character, both horrifying at first glance, brittle, and even quite infected with his companion”he says, continuing:
“But it’s also a link between Blandine and Magalie. It’s thanks to Bijou, who fears a recurrence of her breast cancer, that Blandine can begin to put her own suffering into perspective. It’s still Bijou who tells her about Magalie’s past. I would have hated it if it were Laure who revealed it. We would have fallen into pathos, but modesty plays a big role in their story.”
“Their reconciliation could not go through this confession; through a re-reading of events, yes. Saying things is always my fear when I write. Concealing, initiating leads, I love… The key is always in what we do not know.”
An optimistic and sunny comedy
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After Maman a tort, a winter and rather disenchanted dramatic comedy released in 2016, Marc Fitoussi wanted to write an optimistic and sunny comedy. The memory of friendships made when he was younger then quickly imposed itself:
“We’re all tempted to reunite with our childhood friends. We think we’re going to laugh like we used to, that we’re going to break the monotony of our adult lives. Personally, I’ve always found that fashion that consists in forcing these reunions via dedicated sites was a decoy.
“As I am a little bit cruel in what I like to tell, my first idea was to bring together two women, ex-best friends thirty years ago, and whose reunion ended in shipwreck. Obviously, the story got a little more complex…”
“I always start from very simple, almost trivial events but, even when embarking on a project of pure comedy, I can’t help but be a little serious and a little serious in places… I do that seemingly nothing; never frontally”says the director.
Fans of the “Big Blue”!
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Marc Fitoussi makes his heroines relive their youthful passion for Le Grand Bleu by going to visit Amorgos, where Luc Besson shot part of his film: “I was fourteen when Le Grand Bleu came out and I found the film rather long and boring.”
“But, some time before I started writing, I happened to have stayed in the Cyclades. I stopped in Amorgos and there, I discovered that this island is entirely dedicated to Luc Besson’s film. Great change of scenery!”says the director, continuing:
“The taverns broadcast images of it on the big screen, the music of Eric Serra is in all the hotels, even the café du port renamed with the name of the film. That the phenomenon persists in this way beyond my generation amazed me . Something had to be done with it.”
Difficult shooting
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Filming proved to be complicated because of logistics (the team had to regularly move from one island to another) and the climate (the presence of terrible winds, especially in the Kerinos part, when Blandine and Magalie drag their suitcases on the road before hitchhiking):
“My sound engineer and his indispensable boom operator, Thomas Berliner, had to fight like lions to get a decent direct sound. “recalls Marc Fitoussi, adding:
“Like this sequence of argument where they are going to join the surfers before Laure sings Words by FR David on the ukulele: we then had to change islands and all the equipment had to leave by ferry at 11 p.m. sharp. This race against the watch inevitably created stress.”
Prestigious film references
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Prior to filming, Marc Fitoussi reviewed films featuring female duos such as Thelma and Louise and Dangereuse in all respects. He remembers : “In the end, I pay her a discreet tribute by making Laure wear the kind of African bracelets that Melanie Griffith wears in the film.”
“I also saw Sideways by Alexander Payne, because of the dissonant duo formed by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church and We stole Jupiter’s thigh by Philippe de Broca because I might not have shot this film in Greece without this film that I loved to see and see again when I was a child.”
“Finally, I saw films about the sorority, including Everything that shines and, on a more serious note, Four months, three weeks, two days by Cristian Mungiu. But, deep down, I realize that, as always, I don’t get much out of this research.”