Many are unaware that France is the reigning champion in the creation of roses (especially in the Lyon region). Science coupled with an art, that of mixing the pollen of the father plant with the pistil of the mother plant. Depending on their colors, their scents, their robustness, the hybrid seeds become flowers that sometimes win prizes in competitions. This is the theme of The fine flower, dramatic comedy starring Catherine Frot. After postponements due to the pandemic which disrupted its release schedules, here it is in our theaters on Friday.
Pierre Pinaud has made award-winning short films, including the Caesarized Crumbs in 2008. His comedy-drama Tell me about yourself, with Karin Viard in 2012, propelled him to feature films. This time he dedicates The fine flower to his horticultural mother.
“I have had a passion for flowers since childhood”, explains the filmmaker by Zoom from Paris. His grandparents had given him and his brother part of their garden, and the two boys had designed it as an ideal place, with its colorful and fragrant beds, its rest areas.
“It takes seven years for the earth to regenerate, seven years to grow a rose,” explains the filmmaker. The mystery of its making is what the film tells about the power of the rose through a work that I wanted to be beautiful. In this universe, there are tools, a language. The rose, everyone knows it. Its aesthetic potential is enormous, but here we discover the gestures of its creation. »
The fine flower features Ève Vernet (Catherine Frot), a famous rose designer on the verge of bankruptcy. His secretary brings in, through a social reintegration program, three workers with no training in horticulture, who will ultimately help him get out of the hole. One of them especially, Fred, an immigrant delinquent (fantastic Melan Omerta!), will allow the lady of the roses to get closer to her employees, beyond the class barrier, so opaque in France. The filmmaker, admirer of the films of the British Ken Loach (he was inspired by his film The part of the angels), is interested in social themes and saw in it the opportunity to capture the realities of the margins.
“The parallel between certain stages in the creation of roses, in areas of resistance, and those of this elitist woman in front of three non-professional people, social outcasts, is at the heart of the film, specifies the filmmaker. It is also an archetype. »
A fruitful universe
Pierre Pinaud had admired the cesarean of the film Daisy in The flavors of the palace, by Christian Vincent, head chef to the President of the Republic. He was looking for a very French actress, earthy, endowed with that manual precision that Catherine Frot knows how to bring to her most diverse roles. And why not in the hybridization of flowers? His interpreter learned a bit about the issue during the adventure. “We had the impression that Catherine had been a rose designer all her life,” says the filmmaker.
Pinaud is a gardener at heart. He shared his passion with me. It’s a world… We feel very small. I also sought the truth of the character.
She didn’t like roses, discovered that each had a different scent, some sweet, some strong. “Pinaud is a gardener at heart. He communicated his passion to me, explains Catherine Frot. It’s a world… We feel very small. I also sought the truth of the character. Becoming this condescending lady who doesn’t consider working with these people required a hard-to-find accuracy of tone. These humans have nothing to do with each other. But a complicity is created around their wandering. »
Melan Omerta, the interpreter of the other pivotal character, Fred, the filmmaker had discovered him and found him charismatic in a short film presented at the Césars. But he will have long sought his rare pearl: “He had to be both macho, rebellious, sensitive, with breath. Melan is a rapper by profession and he is the one who sings and raps in the film. He had read the script in two hours, passed the auditions. »
“It’s a mysterious phenomenon, but there are born actors like him,” adds Catherine Frot. Afterwards, over the course of a career, one builds, but the grace of the beginner is magic. »
Pierre Pinaud wanted to film at the Dorieux, in Montagny, a small family business run by a real creator of roses from the center of France. “It was partly done in the real greenhouses, but we had to rework the exterior and interior of the buildings for the purposes of the staging. »
They also shot in the Parc de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, which has hosted a major rose competition since 1907, which required crowd scenes with a hundred extras, to recreate the spirit of this event. Thus, the film makes us discover all the cultural importance of the rose in a traditional France which opens before our eyes like a flower.
The fine flower hits theaters May 6.