Iris and the men, by Caroline Vignal | Husbands, wives, apps

Four years later Antoinette in the Cévennesfilmmaker Caroline Vignal once again directs actress Laure Calamy in Iris and mena sparkling comedy where a woman feeling neglected by her husband discovers dating applications with delight.

Dentist at the head of her own practice, married for 22 years to Stéphane (Vincent Elbaz), mother of two exemplary daughters, Iris (Laure Calamy) has everything to be happy… except that nothing is happening in the family anymore. bedroom. Having heard about the situation during an encounter at school, Sylvia (Olivia Côté, who played the wife of Calamy’s lover in Antoinette in the Cévennes) suggests that Iris sign up for a dating app. From then on, the notifications multiply on the phone of the wise forty-year-old who will take pleasure in slumming.

“I wanted my character not to have one lover, but a multitude. And I wanted it to go well, that’s what mattered to me, a bit to go against all those stories we’ve been told where, when a woman has a lover, it ends tragically. There is no tragedy at all, no drama, no drama ! », explains Caroline Vignal, met in January at the Unifrance Rendez-vous in Paris.

The question of adultery

If she joyfully deals with adultery, the filmmaker is careful not to want to promote it or to suggest that it is the ideal solution to spice up a life as a couple stuck in the daily grind. “As bizarre as it is, what does Iris find in this solution? A part of herself that she has completely lost. This is mainly what the film is about. Things are not said very much, it remains a little implicit, but we understand that beyond the fact that they no longer make love, she and her husband also have difficulty speaking to each other, they no longer communicate a lot. In fact, by looking elsewhere, Iris brings life back to her home, so everyone wins in the end. »

Having in mind a character older than Laure Calamy, the director finally gave in to the temptation to work again with the actress she had directed in Antoinette in the Cévennes, where she played a woman who goes on vacation to the same place as her lover, who took his wife and their child there. In the role of the husband, she deliberately chose an attractive actor.

“I told myself that it would reinforce the mystery because for me, beauty has nothing to do with desire. And so, the fact that he is handsome, it says something about, precisely, the fact that we can get lost and that it’s not because he’s lost his bearings or whatever. she doesn’t want him anymore. It is also not the fact that Stéphane is teleworking, as is the case for many people now, and that the intimate and work spheres are completely mixed. That’s it, it’s just life that causes this. »

What pleased Caroline Vignal in the choice of actors was the difference in size, a little less than 30 centimeters, between Laure Calamy and Vincent Elbaz, and between the energy of the first and the placidity of the second.

She is faced with someone who is like a white clown, who doesn’t say much, who is a little amazed by her sort of permanent display of madness. Having someone in front of you who isn’t confrontational makes you even crazier. That’s what makes the sauce rise.

Caroline Vignal, filmmaker

We know the song

It was after a friend, newly single and a fan of dating apps, told her that “it was raining men” that the filmmaker had the idea of ​​writing Iris and menwhich almost was called It’s raining Men. Currently being written, with screenwriter and dialogue writer Noémie De Lapparent, Caroline Vignal took on the challenge of including the song It’s Raining Men, from the Weather Girls, covered by ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, in the film. She therefore adapted it into French for a scene where Iris sings about the happiness available to her.

“It was really cool to do!” It was a big fantasy of mine to do musical theater. I wrote one a long time ago that I didn’t manage to do because it was very expensive, and here I am, I gave myself this gift of shooting this musical comedy scene. I had already seen Laure dancing at parties and I knew that she is a very physical person. She put a lot of effort into it, she worked a lot with a choreographer and with a person who helped her sing. Laure takes great pleasure in working and she communicates this to us. »

Apart from this musical number, Iris and men is based on research that the filmmaker carried out by registering herself on a dating site so that her story is anchored in reality. History does not say whether she met the rare pearl there, but Caroline Vignal describes the experience as fascinating.

“I had never been on a dating site. It’s a bit like falling into a world where, suddenly, everywhere, there are men who are potential lovers. It’s Alice in Wonderland! What’s quite exhilarating if we don’t feel attacked by it and we use dating apps in a, let’s say, recreational way, and not to look for true love, is that we are in control. It’s not like when you get hassled in the street or when you get hit on. It allows a freedom that we wouldn’t necessarily have. I feel like I’ve discovered, thanks to dating apps, a way of relating to men, called having sex friends, which I find brilliant and which seems quite new to me. As we see in the film, everyone gives, everyone takes, and there are no victims. »

In theaters March 29

The travel expenses were paid by Unifrance.