2023-06-19 03:15:34
Lisa Tomasetti – Goalpost Pictures
Paul Mescal, here in “Carmen” by Benjamin Millepied.
CINEMA – Music in the skin. That, Paul Mescal already had before shooting in Carmenthe first feature film by the famous contemporary dance choreographer and former director of the Paris Opera ballet Benjamin Millepied, released in theaters this Wednesday, June 14.
For the purposes of this daring interpretation of Georges Bizet’s legendary opera, the Irish actor (Normal People, After sun) recently nominated for an Oscar had to add a string to his bow: dance. ” The preparation and the shooting were very hard “, we learn in the production notes.
The filmmaker, for whom Carmen cradled childhood, says he set the bar very high: ” I wanted to make a film that would be an immersive experience, which forces me to compose with movement, music and dance in a new way. »
The story takes us to meet a young Mexican woman who, while trying to cross the border, comes across an American patrol. When he is supposed to arrest him, Aidan, an ex-marine, saves his life and kills the soldiers. Together, they have only one option: to flee across the country. A road trip where each move, encounter or embrace is meticulously choreographed.
Check out the movie trailer below:
Melissa Barrera (Carmen) and Paul Mescal (Aiden) are both experienced singers, but have never danced professionally. They met in 2021 in Sydney, where they were coached within the Sydney Dance Company, a prestigious contemporary dance company.
Of ” high level athletics »
« The director being a great choreographer, it’s not like they only have a few dance steps to master.explains the producer of the film Rosemary Blight, once more in the production notes. […] They had three to four hours of rehearsal a day, for weeks. It was like high level athletics. The result is controlled, if a little confusing.
But for Paul Mescal, the training didn’t stop there. And for good reason, he also had to learn to box for a key scene of the film where, under the aegis of the American rapper The DOC, we see him – shirtless and with his fists – facing a man in a sordid parking lot for a handful of greenbacks.
« I’m not a boxer so I had to work twice as hard to get up to speedconfides the 27-year-old young man, a rising figure in cinema. Benjamin [Millepied] is a real boxing fan and I learned to love this discipline during the preparation. The efforts paid off. The stature of Paul Mescal has never been so imposing. A physique that should be beneficial to him for the future. Ridley Scott assigned him to the title role in his upcoming Gladiator. Change of atmosphere and era.
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