Bastien, 13, almost 14, he insists, is staying with his family near a lake. It should be an idyllic vacation, but the chalet, located in the middle of the woods, seems straight out of a horror movie. Worse: Chloe, 16, the daughter of the housewife, a friend of Bastien’s mother, seems determined to ignore him. But now between the two of them, a friendship, and perhaps more, hopes Bastien, is tied.
Chloé is fascinated by death, and Bastien by Chloé. From confidences to pilfered sips of alcohol, their differences fade away, revealing unsuspected similarities. However, like the lake which bears witness to the rapprochement of the two teenagers, the film Falcon Lakethe first feature film by Charlotte Le Bon, presented at the opening of the Festival du nouveau cinema (FNC) on Wednesday, hides many secrets under its inviting surface.
“Jalil Lespert, one of the producers of the film, who is also an actor and a director with whom I have already collaborated [sur le film Yves Saint Laurent]saw my short film Hotel Judith. He must have liked it, because he gave me the comic A sister, by Bastien Vivès, telling me that it would make a good first feature film, says Charlotte Le Bon. I read it without waiting and, for me, it was obvious that there was enormous cinematographic potential. Oddly, when I met Bastien Vivès to negotiate the rights, he accepted, but specified that he thought it was unsuitable. »
The story proved the author very wrong. “Yes and no, specifies the director and co-screenwriter (with François Choquet). The first two versions of the script did not work. It’s really when I started to move away from comics, to take liberties, that it took off. »
Sara Montpetit, who took advantage of a break from filming Maria Chapdelaine to audition for the role of Chloe, adds about the changes made from the source: “When I read the comic, I was a little traumatized, because it was very raw. The character was very… blonde, big breasts: everything that I’m not. But when I read the script, my fears dissipated, because I understood that Charlotte had completely appropriated the story, and that it had become something else. I think she put a lot of herself into Chloe. »
The young actress is in this case great in the film. The role marked her, in a good way: “What I like about Chloé is that Charlotte gave her real depth. She does not fall into nunuches clichés. She is full of contradictions, she has this hypersensitivity… She goes through a whole panoply of emotions and is never reduced to a simple object of desire in the eyes of a boy, as is often the case in films. coming of age. I also loved all this almost disturbing dimension, in his personality… ”
An atmospheric film
Both in terms of staging, incredibly assured, as acting, of a skin-deep sensitivity, as of the atmosphere, skilfully forged, Falcon Lake is a dazzling success.
Yes because Falcon Lake, under its exterior of an initiatory love story, is perhaps, first and foremost, an atmospheric film. With audacity that pays off, Charlotte Le Bon opposes this willingly dapper and sunny genre with an abundance of nocturnal scenes and vaguely sinister shots.
In short, for all these tenderly observed moments between Bastien and Chloé, it’s as if Falcon Lake was an unknowing horror movie, from the cabin setting to the woods style evil Dead (The Opera of Terror) to the marshy part of the lake, passing by these small paths which sink into the dark forest without you ever seeing the end.
Except that, precisely, all this is not fortuitous, Charlotte Le Bon knowing exactly what she does, and why she does it.
“I grew up with horror cinema,” she says. This is one of the new elements that I integrated into the project. My first real cinematic shocks came from horror films. I wanted that weird, quirky edge, but I didn’t want it to look incidental, ornamental, like an over-decorated Christmas tree. I wanted it to serve the story. I also used my own experiences as a teenager: me, my first sexual urges, it scared me. Other people’s sexuality scared me a lot… And there’s something terrifying about the idea of falling in love for the first time. »
Knowing this, why not evoke this “fear”, this “dread” and this “terror” in the image, through the compositions, the light, the music?
“It was only once I decided to go in this direction that the film found its color, with this kind of underworld evoked in the image”, notes Charlotte Le Bon.
The approach fixed, the choice to shoot on film was imposed in the process: “The Super 16, it gives a particular texture; it’s very sensory. The colors have a particular cachet, the blacks too… I wanted it to feel like being inside someone’s head, revisiting their memories. »
soul mirror
From the title, it’s obvious that the lake plays a major role in the plot. In fact, as we said at the outset, it is more than just a backdrop. Here, it is not the eyes, but the aforementioned lake which somehow becomes the mirror of the soul.
“I liked this recurring image of a smooth, shimmering surface: there is a game between reality and what is happening below, in this underworld I was talking about earlier. I was also adamant not to shoot any shot underwater, even if it’s often very beautiful. On the contrary, I wanted you to never be able to see what is happening underwater, to keep it very mysterious. »
Are you intrigued? Perfect ! Go see the movie, you won’t be disappointed. Ah and, good news never comes alone, Charlotte Le Bon confirms that her second feature film will be a pure horror film. We are already looking forward.
The film Falcon Lake is presented at the FNC on October 5 and 7 and will be released on October 14.