In the middle of filming a social drama that is the subject of a making-of, a filmmaker soon finds himself struggling with budget cuts.
A distinguished filmmaker, Simon (Denis Podalydès, excellent) is making a film about the true story of workers who fought in vain to save their factory. With his assistant (Emmanuelle Bercot, solid), he fights against the film’s producer (Xavier Beauvois, hilarious), who wants to convince him to give the audience a happy ending. Meanwhile, the film’s star (Jonathan Cohen, who overdoes it) interferes in the life of Jeff (Riad Gahmi, sober), the worker he plays.
In addition to facing the imminent separation from his wife (Valérie Donzelli, refreshing), Simon learns that the film’s budget has been cut by a million euros. In love with the lead actress (Souheila Yacoub, intense), Joseph (Stefan Crepon, the film’s revelation), a modest pizza maker dreaming of becoming a filmmaker, films what happens during the shoot at Simon’s request.
On a French TV set, Cédric Kahn (A better life, The Goldman Trial) claimed that comedy was not natural for him because, in his opinion, it required a certain distance between the director and his characters and that, for his part, he developed too much empathy for them.
It is therefore not surprising that Making of is a dramatic comedy with a social flavor where he questions the sacrifices that one can make, or not, in the name of art.
Leagues away from 8 ½a phantasmagorical love letter to Fellini’s cinema, and The American nightby Truffaut, despite some similarities in the way of mocking backstage games, Cédric Kahn would have rather been inspired by Living in Oblivionby Tom DiCillo, for Making of. This is particularly evident in the moments when Jonathan Cohen’s narcissistic character plays the role of the great humanitarian savior. In places, the producer’s shenanigans even evoke the delirious series Fiascoby Igor Gotesman, where Pierre Niney played a failed director.
Written with Fanny Burdino and Samuel Doux, who had also collaborated with Kahn on the screenplay for Prayer, Making of navigates with ease in the different registers: burlesque, tragicomic, scathing comedy and social drama. In the same way, the photography direction of Patrick Ghiringhelli (The Goldman Trial, The night of the 12thby Dominick Moll) slips fluidly from one universe to another, that is to say in Kahn’s film, in Simon’s, where we nevertheless linger a little too long, and in the making of Joseph.
While staging heated discussions between members of the various film crews, from actors to extras, including the little hands and other hidden artisans, Cédric Kahn takes as witnesses the workers, extras in the film within the film. In doing so, he judiciously reaches out to the various trades and professions in order to transform Making of into a powerful reflection on the world of work rather than a painting of the milieu.
Indoors
Drama
Making of
Cedric Kahn
With Denis Podalydès, Emmanuelle Bercot and Jonathan Cohen
1:58