Stephane is anxious. And for good reason: the young motherless woman is about to meet her father for the very first time. However, if Serge welcomes his illegitimate offspring with open arms in his vast residence, it is different for his wife, Louise, and their daughter, George. Although, Stéphane quickly comes to find strange, even disturbing, the atmosphere that reigns within his new family. But besides, is Stéphane, herself, who she claims to be? So many questions that Sébastien Marnier has fun throwing at moviegoers in his insidious and seductive The origin of evil.
“The whole film follows Stéphane’s point of view, embodied by Laure Calamy”, explains the French filmmaker whom he met during his visit to Cinemania this fall.
“So that means that the public sees and discovers things with her, at the same time as her. And like Stéphane, the public will wonder if such a person is an ally or an enemy. Of course, I made sure that nothing was simple. »
This explaining that, in The origin of evil, several characters turn out not to be quite who they claim to be — not so much in terms of identity as in terms of intentions and motivations. In this respect, there is at work, in the film, a kind of perverse playfulness quite seductive.
“Building suspense, right from the writing stage, is an exercise that I love. I did it for my three films [voir les précédents Irréprochable et L’heure de la sortie]. In all my films, there are twists, and it’s true that myself, I love it as a spectator: being taken around, being surprised. In this film, I allow myself so many twists and turns that it intentionally becomes almost a soap. »
One “ soap “, yes, but infused with touches of raw violence and a very, very black humor: a nice mix.
“It’s an excessive story, not necessarily believable in everything, but it’s assumed, and above all, the surprises work in the narrative universe of the film. For once, very quickly, I wanted the characters to be antagonists in relation to themselves. By this I mean that, in real life, human beings are full of contradictions. Each has its monstrous, but also luminous and touching part. However, defending this kind of bias can make financing extremely difficult, ”suggests Sébastien Marnier about his film, a France-Quebec co-production (through the company micro_scope).
The Monster Ball
It’s a real ball of monsters that we are entitled to. Therefore, the question is to determine which of them is the least bad.
The talented cast sink their teeth into a plethora of out-of-the-ordinary roles. In Stéphane’s, Laure Calamy (Antoinette in the Cevennes) is perfect in vulnerability and underlying ambiguity, while in that of his “mother-in-law”, the too rare Dominique Blanc (so memorable in Queen Margot) opts for a theatrical game of circumstance, his Louise being constantly in representation.
In a score whose nature we will keep silent, Suzanne Clément (Laurence Anyways) amazes as usual (to be noted on the side of the Quebec contribution: the music of Pierre Lapointe and Philippe Brault).
“Some characters started to take shape even before the story was finished. And there is also the fact that the characters continue to evolve afterwards, depending on the interpreters chosen. In this case, it was Laure who said yes first, and it was from her that I composed the rest of the cast. I wanted to bring together actresses and actors from all kinds of backgrounds: subsidized theatre, independent theatre, auteur cinema, popular cinema… I wanted to, because, metaphorically, I had the impression that corresponded to what I perceived of this family: people who, apart from blood ties, have nothing to do with each other. »
thinking movies
The result is a bourgeois clan whose secrets and turpitudes end up revealing a rotten heart behind the luxurious facade: Claude Chabrol would have been jubilant, including at the end, who obliquely quotes Ceremony. In this case, giving the protagonist the first name of Stéphane, as in “Stéphane Audran”, undisputed muse of Chabrol, is not an innocent choice.
With its opening sequence set in a women’s locker room and its ingenious use of split-screen (split-screen), the film also claims loud and clear the influence of Brian De Palma.
“So the opening, yes it is Carrie, opines Sébastien Marnier. You know, my life revolves entirely around cinema. I saw, and I see heaps of films. In such a way that afterwards, everything, but then everything reminds me of films. For me, it becomes more guides than tributes. The cinematographic grammar that I use contributes to this desire to take the audience for a walk. My cinephilia is built around thrillers, horror and fantasy. For example, I was very impressed by this period of Hollywood cinema in the early 1990s, which was rich in dangerous, yet complex and fascinating female characters: Basic Instinct, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (The hand that cradles the child), Single White Female (Young woman looking for roommate)…”
To conclude Sébastien Marnier: “As much as I wanted, with this film, to say something about my vision of family and society, I wanted to offer a film that is completely enjoyable. »
With all this, you think you have guessed the bottom of the case? Look again!
The film The origin of evil hits theaters January 13.