all the love of cinema from Cédric Kahn on the set of a hilarious disaster shoot

Making a film is the work of a lifetime; many, of many lives. Cédric Kahan recounts one of them with breathtaking humor.

Denis Podalydès and Jonathan Cohen form an incredible duo in Making of by Cédric Kahn, released Wednesday January 10. The story of a shoot full of pitfalls, the first plays a director at the peak of his career, but at the end of his rope, the second, a first-class egotistical actor. A white clown and an august on a platter: irresistible.

Love letter to the 7th art

We didn’t expect Cédric Kahn to direct a comedy, especially one so funny and hard-hitting, when we know his psychological dramas exploring couples and families. Here he films Simon (Denis Podalydès), a recognized director, on his new shoot which turns into a disaster, like a true love letter to his art.

Jonathan Cohen, one of our best comedy actors, plays him, accompanied by Emmanuelle Bercot, Xavier Beauvois, Valérie Donzelli, Stefan Crepon and Souheila Yakoub. You would think they all come from the Kahn family, even though they are in front of the director’s camera for the first time. This shows that there is a good feeling between the actors and the filmmaker, who has concocted a gem of comical, absurd, spicy and chiseled lines and situations.

Trousers

Making a film about cinema with the pretext of filming is a classic. Silence is golden by René Clair in 1947 is one of the major prototypes. A comedy already, but less “crazy”. Cédric Kahn lets loose and mocks with self-deprecation, as a testimony to his experience as a filmmaker, the actors (and his relationship with them), the producers, the technicians… with Dantesque precision. It results in a pantaloon that sometimes borders on burlesque.

Jonathan Cohen carries around his bewildered face, like a spoiled child of the cinema who plays the actor playing the role of a union leader, the antithesis of his status. Natural and disconcerting sincerity, he is opposite Denis Podalydès on whom all the miseries of the world fall: fair, sensitive, hilarious, and euphoric. Words that describe the film just as much. With Making of, Cédric Kahn has created a great film and a great comedy that will go down in history.

The sheet

Gender : Comedy
Director : Cedric Kahn
Actors: Denis Podalydès, Jonathan Cohen, Stefan Crepon, Souheila Yakoub, Emmanuelle Bercot, Xavier Beauvois, Valérie Donzeli
Country : France
Duration : 1h54
Exit : January 10, 2024
Distributer : Ad Vitam

Synopsis: Simon, a seasoned director, begins shooting a film recounting the workers’ fight to save their factory. But between the shenanigans of his producer, uncontrollable actors and on-edge technicians, he is quickly overwhelmed by events. Abandoned by his financiers, Simon must face a social conflict with his own team. In this hellish shoot, his only ally is the young extra to whom he entrusted the production of the making of.