At almost 86 years old, this sacred monster of French cinema confides that he still has so much fun. He is currently filming in Béziers some sequences of his next feature film entitled “Finally or the madness of feelings”
A film crew arriving in a place to shoot a film is always an event. And when the director is none other than Claude Lelouch, the fans are bound to be there.
For his 51st feature film, the filmmaker offers himself a tour of France which passes through Béziers. A great first, the director had never filmed in the Hérault department.
My last film with a dream cast
At 85, the author of the emblematic A man and a woman (Palme d’or at Cannes in 1966, twice Oscar winner in 1967) Adventure is adventure (1972), fromItinerary of a spoiled child” (1988) or more recently from The virtue of the imponderables thinks it might be time to stop. “It’s bound to be one of the last films I’m going to do, at my age I don’t have much left to do, so that one, I called it ‘Eventually’. Plus, it’s a phrase that everyone uses. In fact, it’s going to be called ‘Finally or the madness of feelings, there is a subtitle. It’s also a very musical film with a dream cast. So I’m very, very happy and having a lot of fun.” confesses Claude Lelouch.
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Béziers, Avignon, the 24 hours of Le Mans or Mont Saint-Michel, the 51st Lelouch will take spectators on a real tour of France. And as always, the director surrounded himself with a group of friends. The cast of this new choral film includes Kad Merad for the title role, Elsa Zylberstein, Sandrine Bonnaire, Michel Boujenah and Christophe Lambert.
As with Lelouch’s other films, music will again be an important character in Eventually. He asked trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf to compose the soundtrack and his friend Didier Barbelivien to write four songs.
Adaptation
On the ramparts of Béziers that day, the temperature rose a notch. But it takes a lot more to stop the director at fifty films. He plays the scenes, directs his actors, participates in each shot and has a very personal method to avoid heatstroke. “I adapt to hot and cold! In 60 years, I have shot in all conditions. When it’s hot, I adapt to the warm and when it’s cold, I adapt to the cold. I always put ice cubes in the cap, that way it refreshes the brain.” says Claude Lelouch.
Its secret of longevity would therefore be its ability to adapt. The proof is on the set where the latest shooting techniques are used for the production. For this new film, he shoots with cameras but also drones that capture aerial images.
“Claude Lelouch really likes to distort space and show something mysterious and phantasmagorical in each sequence. This one must be in a rather particular way and have a very mysterious side. Here, we are on the road to Compostela and we are in the magic of what could be a dream or reality”, says Maxime Héraud, chief operator.
“Life is my screenwriter”
The story of this new Lelouch once again summons reality and dreams. The plot follows the course of a brilliant lawyer (Kad Merad) who loses the ability to lie following a health problem and who leaves to find his freedom with his trumpet on the roads of France. He will meet a woman, meet Jesus and his apostles and a whole gallery of colorful characters.
Eventually will talk about love, friendship, health and money. “This film is going to mix genres. I like to say that I work with a funny screenwriter called life, and this film will be the result of all these observations that I have made since I was born”, confided the director in an interview with the American magazine variety (in English).
The release of “Finally” is scheduled for 2024.