Director Emmanuel Mouret knows how to choose places conducive to the development of his dialogues. As in this liaison where two lovers pour out between Paris and the Yvelines.
“We had to be able to shoot two very long sequences, with a lot of dialogue. So we needed space, to allow the movement of the bodies.” (Emmanuel Mouret, on “Chronicle of a temporary affair”.) Photo Pascal Chantier – Moby Dick Films
Posted on March 14, 2023 at 5:30 PM
Pwide lan on a couple walking in the night. The (future) lovers, Simon and Charlotte (Vincent Macaigne and Sandrine Kiberlain), walk along a brick wall. Is this a hospital? of an abbey? Parisians familiar with 14e arrondissement know this building: the Saint-François convent in Paris, rue Marie-Rose, belonging to the Franciscans.
Emmanuel Mouret, director of Chronicle of a temporary liaison, saw in this enclosure of pink stone “something quite graphic” and beautiful enough to let it engulf the screen, and strike the viewer’s retina. “I always have Woody Allen’s films in mind, and this wall echoes an architecture that we could find in New York. »
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r “Chronicle of a temporary affair”, a comedy worthy of a vintage Woody Allen
A choice in the form of a cinephile wink made hand in hand with his faithful team, Laurent Desmet in photography and David Faivre for the sets. How do you decide to shoot in one place rather than another? This is the question that was asked to Emmanuel Mouret in a café on 12e district this time, where the filmmaker recalls the main issue inherent in this type of intimate film: “We try to shoot them over a limited number of days, and to bring together as many sets as possible within a fairly tight perimeter. »
A great admirer of Éric Rohmer’s cinema, Emmanuel Mouret recalls that Claire’s Knee or Pauline at the beach were made in a very small economy. “I’m not sure that Rohmer ever rented a place for his shoots. He always made do with the houses offered to him. And what I like in cinema is to play with constraints, not to submit to them. To, on the contrary, bounce on it. It is also chance that makes the film. »
Charlotte, Simon and Louise in “Chronicle of a passing affair” (Sandrine Kiberlain, Vincent Macaigne and Georgia Scalliet). Pascal Chantier – Moby Dick Films
Chance, again, has for example changed the social status of Louise, embodied by Georgia Scalliet in Chronicle of a temporary liaison, with whom Simon and Charlotte intend to spend the night. She lives in a sublime residence in the heart of the forest, which she could never have bought with her simple teacher’s salary… Malice of the script, she was therefore joined by an architect husband who was not planned at the start.
In reality, this decor is that of the Louis Carré housedesigned by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, in Yvelines. “Finding this place took a very long time. For the sake of variety of places, Louise had to live in the suburbs. And with her, we had to be able to shoot two very long sequences, with a lot of dialogue. So we needed space, to allow the movement of the bodies. »
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In addition to the economic constraints, finding the maximum number of sets in a limited space and avoiding excessively costly logistics, the choice of the city in which the story takes place can be fundamental. “To quote Rohmer again, the issue of Paris and its suburbs is very important in Full Moon Nights. In most of his films, moreover, sentimental issues are often linked to geographical issues. In the case of Chronicle of a temporary liaison, one of the things I was sure of was that I didn’t want to shoot in a southern city. »
Emmanuel Mouret, filmmaker from Marseille, has indeed already anchored several of his films in his hometown. He pursues : “I found it more beautiful that this story was not bathed in golden light with the sea and the beaches around it. But in a completely urban and rather gray setting, even if that does not mean that the result is gray! » His next film should be shot in Clermont-Ferrand, a city inscribed in a volcanic region. Undoubtedly reflecting the torments of the characters…
r Chronicle of a temporary liaison, by Emmanuel Mouret, on Canal+, Tuesday March 14 at 9:10 p.m.