Little Zoe loves horses. Normal, since she was born in the stud farm of her parents – literally. In fact, her mother once gave birth to her in a hurry even though, just next door, her father was helping a mare to give birth. After having developed an almost close bond with one of their filly, Tempête, the child sees a future as a jockey. But now misfortune strikes, compromising Zoé’s dream. However, thanks to the support of her parents, her passion and her resilience, she will manage to get back in the saddle. Directed by Christian Duguay, Storm features, among other things, Pio Marmaï in the role of the papa jockey. We spoke to them both.
“It was the producers Maxime Delauney and Romain Rousseau who approached me with the book Storm at studby Christophe Donner”, explains Christian Duguay, met during an interview organized earlier this fall, on the occasion of the Cinemania festival.
“It was about the world of horses, which I know well — I made the film Jappeloupwhich talks about show jumping, which is up my alley since I used to compete with my father… In short, I was initially a little skeptical about the idea of revisiting the equestrian universe in another film. »
Except that upon reading the novel, the director of Montreal origin changed his mind.
“I immediately liked the central theme of resilience. Not just the resilience shown by Zoé, but that of this family, shattered by this mishap, but which is recovering, rebuilding itself… This setting struck me as interesting. »
A bubbling thing
In collaboration with his co-screenwriter Lilou Fogli, Christian Duguay appropriated the original dramatic material in order to make a film closer to his desires and concerns.
“I created the role of Sébastien, who has a mixture of autism and Asperger’s, and who is the character who brings us into the intimacy of the relationship with the animal: what is called equitherapy. I changed several other elements. For example, the main character was originally a little boy, not a little girl. And there is the relationship with the father… This father who loses his means, so the mother takes over… Me, I have a teenager, and there are times when I don’t know how to handle her. »
“Philippe, the father I play, is a guy who has a lot of modesty, intervenes Pio Marmaï. And I admit that I hadn’t necessarily realized that when I read it. I felt it while discussing with Christian, then during the shooting… We worked on a fairly tight, fairly simple game… But it really struck me when I saw the finished film. He is a rather silent, discreet character, but who has on his shoulders a sum of astronomical events. »
The star of the long-awaited blockbuster The three Musketeersby Martin Bourboulon, where he plays Porthos, previously seen in Audrey Diwan’s films but you are crazy and The eventconfides that he wanted to take part in the adventure from the outset.
Philippe, the father I play, is a guy with a lot of modesty. And I admit that I hadn’t necessarily realized it when I read it. I felt it while discussing with Christian, then during the filming… We worked on a fairly tight, fairly simple game…
“I always start from the principle that I need to have a meeting. By that I mean as much with the filmmaker as with the story as with the character. I need to feel that there is something unassailable in writing. In the absolute, a film which will function, it rests on strong pillars, which reside in the scenario. And reading this film, what struck me is that there is a very strong spectacular and cinematographic dimension, and at the same time, a rather brilliant intimate part too. That is to say that there is this treatment of the family, of the nucleus, with Mélanie [Laurent] and the girls [June Benard, Charlie Paulet, Carmen Kassovitz, successivement], and this physical, sporty aspect, which I challenged myself to do without resorting to doubles, as much as possible. »
Pausing, pensive, the actor continues: “It’s a set, in fact. There was something seething in there. It’s not the kind of script I’m used to reading in France. In addition, with Christian, we had known each other for a while, so it was easy. »
Mastered popular cinema
If Pio Marmaï appreciated the screenplay so much, the fact remains that, upstream, it proved difficult to write.
“The first drafts were difficult, remembers Christian Duguay. Because I didn’t want to write a film that was naive or banal. By dint of getting into it, exploring this life course, which spans 15 years, I believe, I hope, to have arrived there. We are in modesty; we try not to be too demonstrative. »
The period covered also implied, as Pio Marmaï mentioned, the employment of three actresses to play Zoé at three different ages: an additional source of anxiety for the director.
“How do you make sure that you stick with the character all the way, with three actresses? These were big challenges, but I think I took them well, given the reactions of the public. It’s popular cinema, but in which there is a mastery”, argues – rightly, we specify – Christian Duguay.
Christian Duguay who, for the record, has had several lives in the cinema since obtaining his degree in this field from Concordia University in 1979. Rich, his career is worth going back to for a moment. A Steadicam pro, he first made a career in this capacity in various American television films. Without abandoning this specialization (he remains, at 65, the Steadicam operator on all his films), he moved on to directing commercials and music videos, before shooting a plethora of Canadian-American productions of science fiction and action during the 1990s.
After a series of opulent television films in the 2000s, he settled in France where, since 2013 and the film Jappeloup, he has become an expert in the fairly niche register of large-scale family blockbusters. As shown by Belle and Sébastien: the adventure continues, A bag of marblesand now, Storm.
To conclude Christian Duguay: “It’s a film which has its momentum, which has its course, its rise… I’m happy with what we’ve done. »
The film Storm hits theaters December 21.