FRANCE
2013 / WORLD PREMIERE
1H34 – IN FRENCH
Synopsis
France in the early 60s. Simon, a wrestler, wears a white mask. In the ring, he is known as "The Specter". He suggests to his friend Victor who has just returned from combat to be his adversary in the ring and wear a black mask, and be known as "The Slaughterer of Belleville".
But for Victor, still shaken from his experience in combat, this is too much : for once in his life, he would like to be the good guy, the one people cheer on. Simon then suggests they switch masks. But it proves less easy to fool the rest of wrestling crowd...
director: David Perrault
screenplay: David Perrault
cinematography: Christophe Duchange
editing: Maxime Pozzi-Garcia
sound: Thierry Ducos - Rémi Gauthier - Guillaume Leriche
production design: Florian Sanson
music: Julien Gester - Olivier Gonord
cast:
Denis Ménochet
Jean-Pierre Martins
Constance Dollé
Philippe Nahon
Pascal Demolon
Alice Barnole
Yann Collette
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Biography
David Perrault
French nationality.
Born on June 25, 1976 in Angers (France).
Filmography
2013 NOS HÉROS SONT MORTS CE SOIR
2013 NO HABLO AMERICAN (S)
2009 ADIEU CRÉATURE (S)
2006 SOPHIA (S) |
production
MILLE ET UNE PRODUCTIONS
Farès Ladjimi
Tel. + 33 (0)1 47 70 44 70
milleetune@free.fr
distribution
UFO DISTRIBUTION
Stéphane Auclaire
Tel. + 33 (0)1 55 28 88 93
William Jehannin
Mob. +33 (0)6 64 22 79 40
william@ufo-distribution.com
ventes
SND
Charlotte Boucon
Mob. +33 (0)6 76 18 52 82
charlotte.boucon@snd-films.fr
Why were you interested by a period you haven’t known and by such a specific genre (French wrestling in the sixties)?
The film was born from a picture of the famous wrestler The White Angel, drinking wine in a bar. With his mask. I was struck even if didn’t know anything about wrestling. When making research, I realized all those heroes have been forgotten. I’m interested by things which disappear and have been erased. In that case, it’s a lost mythology. The White Angel is almost a superhero in a Jean-Pierre Melville film.
The film could have been called To the wonder…
There’s an obvious sense of wonder in that picture. How could people believe into these naïve fights at the time? I also intended to find a sense of wonder in cinema, which has been kind of lost in France. French cinema has difficulties to use its own mythology, except using French New Wave. In the film, I try to mix so called “quality cinema” from the fifties and French New Wave, as if the conflict between them never existed. I take upon myself its transgender feel. That goes from the RKO B-films to David Lynch.
It’s a film made by a film buff but which stays very modern…
I didn’t want to make a pastiche. As for Godard or Tarantino, I wanted to twist the genre films codes. To have some distance. To make a “pop” film. My characters actually embody the tension between the old and the modern. The men embody a sad, outdated manhood. The women are the voice of reason.
Our artistic director Charles Tesson says the film looks like “a Jacques Becker film filmed by Wong Kar-wai”…
I’m fine with that. I also see the film as the Sixties fantasized by a modern young man. Or a mix of Rocky and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
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interview by Léo Soesanto |
