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Festival Schedule and Program

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2011 Festival Feature Films (March 24-27)


Mon Pote

Festival directors present Mon Pote

director Marc Esposito screenplay Marc Esposito, Jean-Luc Levesque starring Édouard Baer, Benoît Magimel, Diane Bonnot, Léonie Simaga, Atmen Kelif, Riton Liebman, Albane Duterc, Lucie Phan, Françoise Michaud, Solo, Jean-Michel Lahmi, Rémi Martin, Alexandre Le Provost, Julien Hérichon
running time 1 h 45 min general audience

Synopsis

Victor is the editor of an automobile magazine. One day, he is invited to talk about his work at a local prison. After the talk, one of the prisoners slides a letter in his pocket. His name is Bruno; he’s a former robber and a recidivist. He is a fan of Victor’s magazine and asks for a job as part of the work release program. He would spend the day at the office, the night in prison. Victor accepts. A friendship develops between the two men: The story line, taken from a true event, is about a second chance and a common passion.

director/screenwriter
Marc Esposito

2010 Mon Pote
2007 Le Cœur des hommes 2
2006 Toute la beauté du monde
2003 Le Cœur des hommes
1992 Patrick Dewaere (documentary)

screenwriter
Jean-Luc Levesque

2010 Mon Pote

actors
Édouard Baer

2010 Mon Pote by Marc Esposito
  Hitler à Hollywood by Frédéric Sojcher
  Poulet aux prunes by Marjane Satrapi, Winshluss
2009 Une exécution ordinaire by Marc Dugain
2008 Les Herbes folles by Alain Resnais
  Barons by Nabil Ben Yadir
2007 Passe passe by Tonie Marshall
  Seuls Two by Éric Judor, Ramzy Bedia
  Un monde à nous by Frédéric Balekdjian
  Crosse by Liova Jedlicki
2006 Les Brigades du Tigre by Jérôme Cornuau
  Je pense à vous by Pascal Bonitzer
  Molière by Laurent Tirard
  J’ai toujours rêvé d’être un gangster by Samuel Benchetrit
  La Fille coupée en deux by Claude Chabrol
2005 Combien tu m’aimes? by Bertrand Blier
2004 Le Rôle de sa vie by François Favrat
  Double Zéro by Gérard Pirès
  Mensonges et Trahisons et plus si affinité… by Laurent Tirard
  Akoibon by Édouard Baer
2003 Le Bison by Isabelle Nanty
  À boire by Marion Vernoux
  Les Clefs de bagnole by Laurent Baffie
  Tournez la page by Sophie Leys
2002 Astérix et Obélix, Missions Cléopâtre by Alain Chabat
  Cravate club by Frédéric Jardin
  Édouard est marrant by Riton Liebman
2001 Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite by Pascale Bailly
  Miskina by Nicolas Lartique
2000 Les Frères Sœur by Frédéric Jardin
  La Bostella by Édouard Baer
  La Chambre des magiciennes by Claude Miller
  Betty Fisher et autres histoires by Claude Miller
1999 Rien sur Robert by Pascal Bonitzer
  Chico notre homme à Lisbonne by Édouard Baer
1997 Héroïnes by Gérard Krawczyk
  Qui va Pino va sano by Fabrice-Roger Lacan
1996 L’Appartement by Gilles Mimouni
  Cameleone by Benoît Cohen
  15 sans billet by Samuel Tasinaje
  Velvet 99, l’espion au ventre de velours by Olivier Kuntzel, Florence Deygas
1994 Parlez après le signal sonore by Olivier Jahan
  Raï by Thomas Gilou
  Fast by Dante Desarthe
1993 La Folie douce by Frédéric Jardin

Benoît Magimel

2011 Des vents contraires by Jalil Lespert
2010 Mon Pote by Marc Esposito
  Forces spéciales by Stéphane Rybojad
2009 Sans laisser de traçes by Grégoire Vigneron
  Les Petits mouchoirs by Guillaume Canet
  L’Avocat by Cédric Anger
2008 Inju, la bête dans l’ombre by Barbet Schroeder
2007 24 mesures by Jalil Lespert
  La Possibilité d’une île by Michel Houellebecq
  Seuls Two by Éric Judor, Ramzy Bedia
2006 Fair play by Lionel Bailliu
  L’Ennemi intime by Florent Emilio Siri
  La Fille coupée en deux by Claude Chabrol
2005 Selon Charlie by Nicole Garcia
  Truands by Frédéric Schoendoerffer
2004 Trouble by Harry Cleven
  Les Chevaliers du ciel by Gérard Pirès
  La Demoiselle d’honneur by Claude Chabrol
2003
 
Les Rivières pourpres 2 – Les anges de l’Apocalypse by Olivier Dahan
2002 Effroyables Jardins by Jean Becker
  Errance by Damien Odoul
2001 Nid de guêpes by Florent Emilio Siri
  La Fleur du mal by Claude Chabrol
2000 Lisa by Pierre Grimblat
  Selon Matthieu by Xavier Beauvois
  Le Roi danse by Gérard Corbiau
  La Pianiste by Michael Haneke
1999 Les Enfants du siècle by Diane Kurys
  Elle et lui au 14e étage by Sophie Blondy
  Le Saut de l’ange by Camille Guichard
1998 Déjà mort by Olivier Dahan
  Une minute de silence by Florent Emilio Siri
1997 Warning by Nicolas Klein
  Juste au-dessus des lois by Sauveur Msellati
  No Happy End by Olivier Mégaton
  La Première Fois by Lionel Abeillon-Kaplan
  Papa by Laurent Merlin
1996 Les Voleurs by André Téchiné
  15 sans billet by Samuel Tasinaje
1995 Putain de porte by Jean-Claude Flamand-Barny, Delphine Quentin
  La Fille seule by Benoit Jacquot
1994 La Haine by Mathieu Kassovitz
1992 Les Années campagne by Philippe Leriche
  Toutes peines confondues by Michel Deville
  Le Cahier volé by Christine Lipinska
1989 Papa est parti, Maman aussi by Christine Lipinska
1988 La Vie est un long fleuve tranquille by Étienne Chatiliez

Interview with director Marc Esposito

Mon Pote is inspired by “a real-life story.” Is it a story that happened to you?
The idea for Mon Pote, or at least its beginning, came from a story that happened to me. When I was the directing editor of Première, in the mid-’80s, I responded to an invitation to give a speech about my job as a film journalist at the Bois d’Arcy prison. Mon PoteThere, exactly like in the movie, a prisoner placed a letter in my pocket. He wrote to me about how he would like to work with me, with us. If we hired him, he could be part of a work release program, meaning that he would be able to leave the prison every day in order to work, and if everything went well, his sentence would be reduced. We hired him … and we made a good decision! After Jean-Luc first worked at Première as a layout designer, he became, a few years later, a layout designer at Studio Magazine, where he eventually became the artistic director. The next part of the story, even though it is inspired by this experience, is only pure imagination and the invention of the scriptwriter. … I followed this formula at the beginning of the film, both because it was true and because I did not want to be told, “A gangster who becomes a layout designer, that does not happen! You always see the positive side of life. Life is not like that.” But yes, sometimes life can be that way.

In the credits, it says that you have written Mon Pote “with the collaboration of Jean-Luc Levesque.” When and how did he join in?
It was our meeting that gave me the idea for the film; therefore it appeared to me impossible not to cite him in one way or another. Even though he was not a car thief, and I had to make up a lot of things, his story inspired much of the script. His comments were used not for the script or the unfolding of the plot, but in dialogues and “lived experiences,” such as how prisoners lose the habit of closing doors. … Using the phrase, “With the collaboration of …” appeared to me to be the fair statement. In this whole story, it is he who has the most merit. He left prison every morning, came to work with us, and at night, he returned to prison.  Then, he affirmed himself as a layout designer, then as an artistic director. … It is an itinerary that he can be proud of. It appears normal to me that his merit should be recognized, and when I proposed to him the idea of revealing his identity at the end of the film, I believe he was happy.

On the visual composition, you want us to forget as much as possible that we are watching a film.
The most important thing to me is to give a feeling of life, not of a show. Each time that this is possible, the characters are in fact shot from the front and not somewhat offside like in most of today’s movies. I try to capture a moment of life in the most objective way possible, from the front, because I want us to not feel that there is a camera, a microphone and a whole team in the background. Mon PoteThis frontal view is not very popular; it was used by former cinematographers and we find it a lot with Pagnol, of whom I am an absolute fan, and with Bergman, in his films from the ’70s and ’80s, Scenes from a Married Life, Autumn’s Sonata, Fanny and Alexander. To re-watch their movies, these past few years, really forced me to stay radical for Mon Pote, like for previous films, on its frontality, on its fixed shots and on sequence shots. It is this type of simple shooting, with the fewest number of different frames that best suits me as director, even if as a viewer I also like really different films, crazier in their forms and more spectacular. … Additionally, it is very exciting to film a comedy like a dramatic film, with few shots. There are less than 1,000 of them in the movie; it is very few for an hour- and 45-minute comedy with action scenes, a car chase and fights. Jean-Marie Poiré or Tony Scott would have done 5,000 with the same script!

It is with this same concern of capturing life that I use three cameras, including for the dialogue scenes with two seated characters. One camera is used for each character and another used for framing both characters. I want the actors to act at the same time and not one after the other, and the whole scene to be all in one breath. I do not want to lose an actor’s emotion that only exists in a long shot. It is up to us, the visual team and me, to manage the placement of the cameras and to capture everything at once. This includes shots with movements. We are looking for a system that allows the actor to move without difficulty within the frame. Pascal Caubère, the operating chief, is pulling his hair out since these are enormous constraints but it is wonderful when we succeed. This way of working adds an extra pressure to the actors — and it is not bad! — because it’s not the same at all to know the lines of an entire scene versus saying them sentence after sentence, and it is not the same to do 12 takes of a three-minute scene and 12 takes of the same four-second line! The goal is always the same: to create a moment of life and to capture it in the least visible way possible and in a way that most closely resembles life itself, so that we are left with a feeling of reality.

Did the racetrack pose any particular scene setup problems?
What slowed me down from making the film 10 years ago was a source of excitement this time, just because I wanted to shoot this race in a style completely different from what we are used to seeing. Let’s just say that I drew my inspiration more from Pialat than from John Woo! How to shoot a race with the fewest number of shots possible and in the most realistic way? It was an exciting question. I wanted it to be modest, compact and short, without giving the impression of being in a different movie as if it was felt from the inside of the car as if the spectator was really with Victor.

In Mon Pote, we find not only your style of visual setting, but also this way of having the spectator empathize with your characters, and highlighting the best of them.
It is not premeditated! I already have the feeling that I can only be interested in people who I love and who I want to like. All the ideas that come to me are ideas for stories where I like the characters. But the fact of highlighting the best of them, it is done unconsciously. I never think of it. I have an idea, I start to work, I do not have a plan and I rarely have more than two or three scenes planned when I write the first draft and things flow somewhat naturally.

Interview with Benoît Magimel

What attracted you when Marc Esposito proposed Mon Pote to you?
The story of this man who reaches out his hand to help another pull through touched me; I like stories of friendship in films. The fact that it is inspired by a real event gives the film another dimension. I liked this character in search of redemption, searching to become integrated in the world again. I read Bruno as a bright character that carries with him the joy of life, despite the complexity of his past. … I like the contradictions that he has inside, but at the same time, he knows exactly who he is. He is a good guy who wants to get out of a rut in his life. I also like the shamelessness of these characters who open up to each other — that is what I liked in reading the script. The story of this man, in part fantasy, shows that we can travel a hard course, serve time in prison and still be someone whom others can believe in and trust.

The fact that Bruno is inspired by a real person, whom you were able to meet, did that change the way you understood him?
I met Jean-Luc Levesque rather late. Our meeting confirmed what I thought about the character, the way that I imagined Bruno. I wanted him to find me credible, regarding his past. Well, I hope he did. We did not speak much, he is a modest man, discreet, but very nice, a smile always on his face.

If you were only able to keep one moment or one image from this entire adventure …
I very much liked the scenes on the rooftops with Édouard, all the exchanges, confessions, moments between us two, with the pleasure of working together, it was the best. But filming at Magny-Cours racetrack was also a great moment for me. … I really loved it. I had already driven in a Ford formula but this was no comparison. The F3 that I also drove next to the F1, it was a night and day difference. I found it more impressive than flying in a “mirage 2000” in Les Chevaliers du ciel!!

Interview with Édouard Baer

How would you define your character Victor?
Actually, a bit like Sautet’s characters. People who are self-made men, good bosses, good fathers, good husbands, but who are also a bit closed off because they know that otherwise there is a chance they could slide in the wrong direction. People who prevent themselves from falling into their faults, their vices and their little bit of insanity. You can feel some flaws in them, some cracks into which weaknesses could rush. The arrival of Bruno is going to unlock all of this. Victor is someone who guards himself from being too moved or affected by anything in life and then this guy arrives in his life, this tough  jailbird, but who will also lower his guards with Victor. Bruno is a man of trust, of fidelity.  He does not complain and even if he has done wrong, he has decided to take control of his life; Victor cannot help being moved by him. He recognizes certain aspects of himself in Bruno and he feels as a big brother toward him. … At the same time, they are not falling into sentimentality. It’s important to me that Victor never accepts to be thanked by Bruno, for example, and succeeds in avoiding gushy situations skillfully.  They are characters who are emotionless, who avoid anything that may become too emotional or too effusive.


 
 

 

 


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