A year after making the trip to present three films in which he played at the Alpe d’Huez Comedy Film Festival, Antoine Bertrand is back in France as a juror for the event. The film December 23presented in official competition, received a warm welcome.
Antoine Bertrand had just come out of the first screening of December 23 at the Alpe d’Huez Comedy Film Festival when The Press got him on the phone Thursday. “There was a good slap after,” he assured, referring to the applause that rang out in the room. India Desjardins, scriptwriter of the film directed by Miryam Bouchard, also confirms that “the reception was warm”.
“We were quite impressed. Guylaine [Tremblay] is universal: it makes everyone laugh! “, rejoices the screenwriter, who made the trip to France with the film crew. She felt pride as she heard happy whistles amid the applause. And also a lot of relief.
She and the team did not approach this first screening outside Quebec with concrete confidence, despite the success achieved by December 23 in Quebec. The film, let us remember, quickly rose to the top of the Quebec box office in 2022 and crossed the 2 million mark in revenue. “We were starting from zero”, however illustrates the screenwriter.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The screenwriter of December 23India Desjardins, with the director of the film, Miryam Bouchard
India Desjardins even admits to having had a surge of anxiety before the screening. She wondered in particular if the French public would understand the film well. “There are a lot of jokes that have typically Quebec references,” she says. December 23 is also full of expressions from here that are not necessarily familiar to the French. The laughter and comments from the audience reassured her. The screenwriter has also noted with happiness that, even if the story she has knitted is camped in the holiday season, “the film can be watched well outside of Christmas”, as she says.
The presentation of December 23 in France is a first step in bringing the film to life outside Quebec.
We would like to export the movie. A projection like here can attract attention.
Patrick Roy, distributor, Immina Films
December 23 arouses interest in France since its selection at the alpine festival, assures the distributor Patrick Roy, of Immina Films, and discussions have even already taken place, both with a view to distribution in France and about possible new versions of the film in France or elsewhere.
The ideal viewer
The enthusiasm caused by December 23 also aroused a certain pride in Antoine Bertrand, who was seeing the film for the first time. In this regard, he is therefore on an equal footing with the other members of the jury chaired by the actress Karin Viard, a friend of his. “When I’m in Paris, I stay at her place,” he says. She calls me her Quebec teenager because she thinks I get up late…”
PHOTO AMANDINE GOETZ, PROVIDED BY THE ALPE D’HUEZ COMEDY FILM FESTIVAL
The jury: Stéphane Foenkinos, Camille Chamoux, Karin Viard, Bérangère Kief and Antoine Bertrand
The actor also judges that his distance with the middle of French cinema gives him perspective and places him in a favorable position in the jury. “I find that I am the ideal spectator,” he observes. I don’t know the actors or the directors personally. I have no preconceptions. “He admits in the same breath to be” good audience “, whether for drama or comedy. “As I know all the work that there is in comedies, he adds, I have a very great respect for the people who make them. »
“We judge with our heart,” he said again. There is no politics there. Karin [Viard]he is the most no bullshit whom I know in Paris. “And in his eyes, the other members of the jury are also” people of heart “. The Alpe d’Huez Comedy Film Festival runs until Sunday.