“A beautiful race”, by Christian Carion, released on September 21, 2022, is a film regarding time which passes inexorably. A moving story, carried by the talent of Line Renaud and Dany Boon, but also by the soundtrack by Philippe Rombi.
The Cambrésien Christian Carion was this Friday, October 7, 2022 the guest of You are amazing to present his latest film, A great race, with Dany Boon and Line Renaud. Interviewed on the emotion conveyed by the film, the director of course highlighted the talent of the actors, but also the added value provided by the soundtrack.
“This is the story of an elderly lady, played by Line Renaudhe summarizes. She can no longer stay at home and calls a taxi to get to the EHPAD. She has to cross all of Paris and asks the taxi to make a detour and go through the places that mattered in her life, that she wants to see one last time.“
“There was a realch’ti connection(to be pronounced in English), between Dany, Line and myself, we really had a lot of fun making this trip.”
“We toured the world with this film, forty countries, and on all continents we see the same emotion. These two knew how to touch something that is universal.”
Dany Boon is a Bourvil, capable of moving from comedy to drama.
Christian Carion
Dany Boon, sober and amazing in this role once morest the current, is the pride of the director, who has already directed him in Merry Christmas and bet a lot on him: “He’s a great actor and I knew where I was going with him. For me, it’s a Bourvil capable of moving from comedy to drama, we don’t have that many in French cinema.“
As for Line Renaud, “she carries the film with all her heart“, so much so that at times, Christian Carion no longer knew if he was dealing with the character of the film or the 94-year-old northern actress.
“And then there is Parishe adds, city that I love and that I hate at the same time, it depends on the schedules. A marvelous Paris, which becomes more than a setting, the third central character of the film. And the songs make it all better.“
The music ofA nice race very present, is signed Philippe Rombi. He regularly worked with François Ozon or Christophe Barratier, composed the theme of Black Box by Yann Gozlan, with Pierre Niney.
He had already collaborated with Christian Carion in 2005 on Merry Christmas, for which he had been nominated for the César for best original music. He also composed in 2021 two titles for Sheila’s album Come from elsewhere.
“He worked a lot on flashbacksexplains Christian Carion, with a very 50s direction. We had to feel the American culture, the jazz, all these voices of black American women.“
In French cinema, music comes out of 25 years in prison!
Christian Carion
“I wanted there to be music and for us to hear ithe adds. In French cinema, music comes out of twenty-five years in prison! (Laughter) We have a complicated relationship between cinema and music in France… There was even a long period during which having recourse to music for one’s film was vulgar. It’s changing…“
For the section The audio portrait of the show You are amazingChristian Carion has chosen to highlight four essential film composers.
video length: 04min 16
The audio portrait of Christian Carion
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©FTV
1 – Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) pour Psychosis
For the Cambrai director, the shower scene in Psychosis d’Alfred Hitchcock wouldn’t make sense without his music,”an unbearable violin sound that freezes you“, and the American filmmaker owes a large part of his career to the creative genius of Bernard Herrmann.
“When we look at this scene shot in six days in 1960analyse Christian Carion, not much happens in the image, yet we find ourselves uncomfortable without really understanding why. Me, I can tell you that it’s clearly because of the sound ! It’s really a lesson, we should show this scene in all film schools.“
“They say that the sound is 50% of the film, continues the director, and that the images represent the other half. It’s wrong. The sound is much louder. It goes deep inside you, down to your unconscious.”
2 – Georges Delerue (1925-1992) for Contempt
“The music of the movie Contempt by Jean-Luc Godard is in people’s minds for eternityignites Christian Carion, his eyes shining. The Roubaisien Georges Delerue signed an eternal moment there, you listen to that, you are at the cinema, you hear Jean-Luc Godard, you hear Laurent Gerra imitating Jean-Luc Godard, it does not matter but we are above all in the temple of cinema as we love him, as I love him in any case.“
The director speaks in particular of Camilleone of the themes of the 1963 film, with Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli, adapted from the novel by Alberto Moravia.
3 – François de Roubaix (1939-1975), for The old gun
When Christian Carion saw The old gun by Robert Henry in the cinema in 1975, he came out whistling the music, signed François de Roubaix.
“When I hear that, he smiled, I see Romy Schneider and Philippe Noiret on their bikes. These are the happy days before the tragedy. This music is overwhelming. To hear it and have it in mind immediately, for me it is the mark of the greats. And de Roubaix was a great.”
4 – Ennio Morricone (1928-2020), for Mission
The music of the movie Missionde Roland JofféPalme d’Or 1986, instantly made Christian Carion cry, who even had tears in his eyes following a few seconds on the set of You are amazing.
“Every time I’m caughthe concedes. When Roland Joffé showed the film to Morricone, the latter refused to make the music, he said that the film was so strong that he didn’t need it. Finally, he was able to find his place and today the soundtrack is inseparable from the story..”
Christian Carion is the last French director to have collaborated with Ennio Morricone, for In May, do what you like, released in 2015. His encounter with the Italian composer was “unique, in every sense of the word” and he claims to have learned a lot from his contact.
“He intimidated me he says, we are very small compared to a giant like him. It’s just a monument of cinema. He’s someone who only lived for that. It turns out that he had children but we can say that his life was the cinema and this theme of Mission is one of his finest scores.”
We are very small compared to the giant that is Ennio Morricone!
Ennio Morricone, seduced by the script of the film, announces to Christian Carion: “I will do it. I said I wouldn’t do any more war films, but this one isn’t a war film because they are people who are looking for peace, so I’m going to accompany them..”
“At almost 90remembers the director, he was like a child, stressed regarding disappointing me. I said to myself that the very, very tall are first and foremost very, very humble. That’s the lesson.”
Christian Carion, who has been fighting for years for the relocation of a cinema in Bapaumesays to himself “sad to see that we have lost forty percent of the indoor audience since the pandemic” and hopes that people will return to the cinemas to appreciate the films – and their music – at their true value.
