en français | time schedule | feature films | short films | program [PDF]

2007 Festival Feature Films (March 30 - April 1)

French director Philippe Lioret presents this screening of Je vais bien, ne t’en fais pas.

director Philippe Lioret screenplay Philippe Lioret and Olivier Adam from the novel by Olivier Adam producer Christophe Rossignon (Nord-Ouest production) starring Mélanie Laurent, Kad Merad, Julien Boisselier, Isabelle Renaud running time 110 min parental guidance

Description
When she gets home from vacation, Lili, age 19, learns from her parents that her twin brother Loïc has left home after a huge fight with their father. When she hears nothing from Loïc, Lili ends up convincing herself that something has happened to him. Consumed with worry, she stops eating and goes into a dangerous decline [depression]. She is hospitalized but it’s not working [does not help] and Lili is letting herself slip away, when finally, a letter arrives from Loïc. In the letter, he apologizes for the lack of news, and says he’s been going from town to town, doing little jobs here and there, and he criticizes his father whom he holds responsible for their sad little life to which he has decided never to return. Lili gets better, leaves the hospital and goes to look for her brother. But what she discovers goes beyond all understanding.

The film is based on the novel Je vais bien, ne t’en fais pas by Olivier Adam.

[Client question – do we need English translation?]

« Tout est écrit, mais avec une très fine économie de dialogues, un sens consommé du sous-entendu. Et réussir un portrait de jeune fille qui ‘fasse vrai,’ sans caricature ni détails surécrits, est plus subtil qu’il n’y paraît »
 – Télérama - Aurélien Ferenczi

« (...) cette histoire débouche sur un mélange d'intensité et d'émotion qui est le plus beau cadeau que l'on puisse faire à des acteurs et des spectateurs »
 – Le Parisien – Pierre Vavasseur

« Une délicatesse précieuse. L'interprétation est au diapason »
 – Télé 7 jours – Julien Barcilon

Congratulations to all those in the film Je vais bien, ne t’en fais pas: Mélanie Laurent for her 2007 César nomination for Most Promising Actress, Kad Merad for his 2007 César nomination for Best Supporting Male Actor, Philippe Lioret for his 2007 César nomination for Best Director, César nomination for Best Picture and César nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, Olivier Adam for his 2007 César nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

director/screenwriter/sound engineer
Philippe Lioret

actress
Mélanie Laurent

actor/screenwriter
Kad Merad

actor
Julien Boisselier

Interview with Philippe Lioret (director)

Olivier Adam’s book is much darker than the film but I found something simply and deeply human in it, as well as the possibility to direct characters who could be our parents, our brothers or our sisters. Through the story,“Don’t worry, I’m fine” reveals some extraordinary feelings from ordinary people. It also heals with the difficulty we all have saying we love one another, whether it’s through modesty, shyness or sometimes lack of generosity. I now realize that that’s what all my films deal with, in their own ways. Furthermore, behind the portrait of this family, Olivier’s story makes you hold your breath just like a thriller does and in the end, reveals a totally unexpected dimension.

Real life, our lives, sometimes might seem flavorless but that’s where true feelings are found hiding, and if you can manage to reveal them, helped by strong and precise dramaturgy, they are the breeding ground for the best films I’ve ever seen. There’s no point in artificially over-nourishing a film’s context in the hope of putting people off the scent if the starting-point is not realistic. 

Reuniting a family

I’d seen Mélanie Laurent in Rodolphe Marconi’s “The last day” in which she was remarkable. Then I saw her again in Jacques Audiard’s“ The beat that my heart skipped” in which she had a minor role, but one in which she truly shined. I didn’t have time to meet other actresses because she stood out immediately. The moment we met, I was seduced by her intelligence, her vivacity and the little flame that burns inside her, and I gave her the script. She called me back that evening to tell me she absolutely wanted to do the film. She talked to me about it with a great deal of sincerity, without any fawning. She was even prepared to give up another project she was already involved with. Then she talked to me about Lili with such precision that it was obvious she had already really connected with the character. There was no going back. It was impossible for me to imagine anyone else. She trusted me, so I decided to do the same and not make her audition. Often, shooting was quite difficult for her. The role was a tough one, even on a physical level and I was particularly demanding, worse even. But at the end of the day, what she brought to the film was impressive. She is a great actress and a very lovely person.

Kad is another story. I didn’t know him, but he was one of the first people I thought of for Paul and it was at the César awards that I met him for the first time. I’ve always felt he had a real depth to him, that kind of thing “comic” actors often have. With Kad, the comic side only comes out to mask his modesty. When we were shooting, he’d make us cry with laughter before the clapperboard, at which point he’d radically change to slip into Paul’s character, which left him immediately after we cut. He is a kind of transformist and he has this devilish precision when he has to put across an emotion in a look or a moment of silence. 

It’s been awhile since I first noticed Julien Boisselier. Julien and I got along very well. He is a hard worker and someone who turns up on set with his heart wide open.
Once you’ve found the right actors for the right roles, you have to help them get as close as possible to the characters and then make way for their personality. When I see the film today with hindsight, I think we are so right and so intense that I owe them a great deal. A very great deal.