The feature film by Géraldine Danon, presented out of competition on Friday at the Cinéma de la plage, is attacked by the family of the sportswoman who disappeared in 2015, who accuse him of portraying her in an unflattering light.
It is not far from the place where the ashes of navigator Florence Arthaud were scattered in 2015 that the film will be screened. Flo , presented out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Friday 19 May. Géraldine Danon’s feature film, with a budget of 13 million euros, with some prestigious names in this cast (Alexis Michalik, Charles Berling and Stéphane Caillard, stunning resemblance in the title role), had to face many legal pitfalls.
Marie Arthaud, daughter of the sportswoman who died in a helicopter accident, first took the case to court to obtain a copy of the script. Request dismissed by the courts on April 18, on the grounds that “none of the elements produced does not confirm the fears it expresses of seeing the exposure [la vie de sa mère] in a degrading manner likely to injure his memory.” The film is an adaptation of a fictionalized biography (and claimed as such by its author, Yann Queffélec) of the navigator, victorious to everyone’s surprise in the Route du rhum 1990. A book ” not terrible, quite lyrical”plague Florence Arthaud’s brother, Hubert, quoted by France Inter.
The family struck by certain sequences
Yann Queffélec, co-screenwriter of the film, explained his intentions in the Lebanese daily The Orient By Day : “We are more on the side of the novel, of a fiction since it is about a person who becomes a character. (…) My book tries to tell not his story but a beautiful story, how a person rises to the rank of character in our imagination.” The director Géraldine Danon, connoisseur of the sailing world, claims to have detached herself from the book: “It’s a very free adaptation (…) because I wanted the film to always be from Florence’s point of view”declares the wife of navigator Philippe Poupon to West France . “A work of fiction (…) not a documentary”adds producer Manuel Munz on the airwaves of France Inter.
The family of the “little bride of the Atlantic did not appreciate several scenes in particular. The film is “libelous from the opening scene”, fulminates on France Inter, Hubert Arthaud. This relates to the serious accident suffered by the navigator when she was 17 years old. ” Florence is driving, a bottle of rum in her hand. She is completely drunk and therefore, she causes this accident, when the reality is that she was in the back”reports his brother, who had access to the scenario. On France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, he adds that the teenager ” didn’t drink a drop of alcohol and worked on his labs [travaux pratiques] all day. I would even say that of the three children, it was the most serious.”
/2023/05/17/6464bebf27d96_gettyimages-967130556.jpg)
The relationship of the skipper to alcohol is the subject of a bitter debate between the film crew and the family. On the one hand, the director Géraldine Danon defends herself in West France : “I don’t think she had a problem with alcohol. She is someone who had a bulimia for life and, inevitably, in this case, alcohol sometimes exalts situations. But it was a report fun with alcohol.” On the other, the brother, Hubert Arthaud, who described his sister on France Inter as “A little no limit, both in the party and in a storm, but it’s not at all a character who is a basic alcoholic…”
A film “à la ‘Voici'”
In addition, the family questions the closeness between “Flo” and the director. “It was just a friend who came to the house from time to time, but no more than that”assures Hubert Arthaud to France 3. For her part, Géraldine Danon claims to take advantage of a “strong connection”. “With Philip [Poupon] we met at the wedding of Florence, who was my son’s godmother”she slips on France Inter.
“It is very delicate and hypocritical to try to commercially exploit the image and the story of my mother by making believe that it would be a question of paying homage to her when the promoters of this film project have none of the qualities required for this purpose, nor any legitimacy”, denounces Marie Arthaud, who regrets in The Team (article for subscribers) primarily a commercial operation. “A movie at Here is “even sweeps Hubert Arthaud on France Inter.
The small medium of the sailors also raises the eyebrows in front of this project. Olivier de Kersauson, portrayed in the film as one of “Flo’s” lovers, had little taste for the idea. The Team describes one of the scenes: Flo, a white suit, walks towards a rural altar, where Olivier de Kersauson embroiders around the one who makes his heart vibrate, whom he is going to choose and marry. She thinks she’s the chosen one, he says another name.” The skipper-writer, who registered his name, even tried, through his friend Gérard Depardieu, not to appear in the film, which producer Manuel Munz confirms to the sports daily. In vain, the character is present on the screen.
The magazine reporter Sails and sailboats Didier Ravon, present during Florence Arthaud’s victory at Pointe-à-Pitre in 1990, was able to see the film in preview and claims to have “adored” even if “some scenes force the line a little. (…) Purists and other demanding biographers can always cry wolf.” The general public will be able to get an idea on November 29, the date of its theatrical release.