On the occasion of the release of “Kings of the Track”, here are five things to know about this detective comedy with Fanny Ardant, Mathieu Kassovitz, Laetitia Dosch, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Ben Attal and Michel Vuillermoz.
What is it about ? Rachel, a sort of Ma Dalton, raised her sons Sam and Jérémie, and her grandson, Nathan, in the cult of scam. From lame plans to petty thefts, this friendly family of broken arms is always chasing the big deal. Chance or fate, during a burglary, they steal without knowing its value, a painting by Tamara de Lempicka. Céleste, a cunning and charming detective, and Gauthier, her faithful sidekick, set out in pursuit…
A desire for lightness
More of a comedy than his previous films, Les Rois de la piste marks a certain break in the work of Thierry Klifa. The filmmaker to whom we owe, among others, the thriller Everything Separates Us, explains: “There was a desire for lightness, that’s for sure, especially since we started writing it during confinement. There was also after Everything separates us and my documentary André Téchiné, rebellious filmmakertwo films that are quite loaded for different reasons, I wanted a story that was joyful, fierce, unexpected, sunny, furiously turned towards life and melancholic at the same time, with love, friendship, great shouting matches and great reconciliations.”
“Talking about the family in its most joyful and… most toxic aspects too. From this place that you are assigned at birth to the one that you take yourself to truly exist, at least the one that you “we choose ourselves to escape a certain determinism.”
Why The Musician?
Thierry Klifa had the idea of The Musicianthe painting by Tamara de Lempicka, thanks to the clip Vogue by Madonna, where this painting appears: “She is the biggest collector of Lempicka in the world. Her passion for her has exploded her popularity. She even has a copy of one of his paintings with her own image. The Musician was really stolen and detectives from the “Agence Artiaz, specialized in art, took seven years to get their hands on it. It was when they came across an article in Télérama recounting the investigation to find it that the idea was born.”
Manuel Moutier – 2023 – NOLITA CINEMA Ben Attal, Fanny Ardant and Mathieu Kassovitz
An evidence
With Les Rois de la Piste, Thierry Klifa made Fanny Ardant appear in the cinema for the first time. However, the filmmaker had directed it in the theater three times: “She was the first – I was still a journalist at Studio Magazine – who pushed me to become a director. Behind my shyness and my 25 years, without knowing me, she had guessed this desire which had driven me since the childhood. After A Life to Wait for You when I thanked her for encouraging me, she replied: “we only push those who are at the edge of the cliff”, Fanny, what… We worked a lot together and it was always done with joy.”
“Our three plays (The Year of Magical Thinking, Whole Days in the Trees, Croque Monsieur) were public and critical successes, so it was quite rewarding for both of us. We see each other often in life.”
Mathieu Kassovitz against employment
In the skin of the depressed son and under pills, Thierry Klifa chose Mathieu Kassovitz. The actor was initially unavailable, but was eventually able to take part in the filming. The filmmaker confides: “Mathieu is not afraid of ridicule. He did not hesitate to do too much, it even amused him, that’s what makes Sam so touching and endearing. We are so far from his usual register, from La Haine or The Bureau of Legends. That excited him. We talked together about the great era of American comedies, about Cary Grant, who was charm and class personified and who didn’t hesitate to walk around in his pajamas in The Impossible Mr. Baby…”
Note that Mathieu Kassovitz is filming for the first time alongside Fanny Ardant. The director of La Haine confides: “It was one of my dreams. To film with actresses like her, with the background, the career that they have, who have experienced what they have experienced, who have gone through what they have gone through, who have worked with all these directors and these actors, it’s magical… They’re real women, great actresses who rock. I love it, and with Fanny we even started to mess around very quickly, to make faces at each other during the reverse shots! I disrespected her, and she too, we were like kids…”
Nicolas Duvauchelle sings a song
With Les Rois de la Piste, Nicolas Duvauchelle reunites with Thierry Klifa after Everything Separates Us and Les Yeux de sa Mère. It was the actor himself who came up with the idea for the scene in the song: “It was planned for it to be a dance scene. I started working, I did two or three rehearsals with the rehearsal but for it to be really successful, it would have been necessary to do it a year in advance ! In addition, I found that it pigeonholed the character a little too much. I thought that through a song, especially for me who loves music, who has made music, who has already sung, we could convey a lot more things. I I’m not a good enough dancer to convey emotions like professional dancers do – and you don’t learn that in two months!”
“I talked to Thierry about it, I told him that singing would suit me better and he immediately said yes. We offered Alex [Beaupain] to write a song quite quickly and then we recorded it, even though I performed it live during filming.”