Behind the scenes of the comedy “in bad faith”

Exerian day. In front of 23, rue Buffon, in Dijon (Côte-d’Or). Thursday September 12, 2024, 9:30 a.m. Well cut costumes and assured approach, Réginald and Edmond leave their notarial study and then go up in a sedan. “Do you go?” Asks the driver. The two men opine with their heads. “Cut!” We’re going to do it again! Lance Hélène, second assistant director. Before my eyes, around twenty people are busy. I am fortunate to attend the shooting of this fiction which features a provincial notary (Réginald) wanting to prevent the marriage of his daughter Athenaïs with a Golden Boy as rich as they are pretentious. Edmond, his loyal associate, will lend him a hand. What if Arthur’s arrival was the solution to their problem? Yes, but only if this new pretender agrees to become a good Catholic!

With Sabrina, the photographer who accompanies me in reporting, we can observe everything, provided we do not disturb the work of the teams . Around us, as in a hive, everyone accomplishes their mission, to the minute. Because in the cinema, time is money. I feel the pressure go up. The cinematographer and his assistants settle their cameras. The electros team brings up the light. The Perchman exchanges a head sign with the sound engineer. Accessorists repair the damaged bumper of the sedan. Lison, the script, takes note of the indications of director Albéric Saint-Martin. “The swing (Reservation of an upstream space filming, editor’s note) has been in place since 8 am this morning: we blocked the street to traffic to be able to turn seven sequences during the day, ”specifies Flavie, the production assistant who hands us the service sheet sent the day before to the teams. Indispensable to the fluidity of the filming, this document specifies the mission of each.

Régie, machinery, sound, image, decor and costume: five long white trucks are parked along the road. Flavie presents a few people to me, but for the moment, I cannot ask any questions to the director. Ultracotent, Albéric has his eyes riveted on the eyelet of his camera. “We are silent!” Hélène claims, while turning to small screen on which the shot images appear live, the combo. ” Engine ! Action ! Reality gives way to fiction. Like the team, we immobilize each other. Sabrina ceases to crackle her apparatus. Passers -by are stopped. Residents must wait until the end of the scene to get out of their homes. Vigilant, the team manages the unforeseen events, such as this recalcitrant noise of sander emanating from a work apartment … “Cut! We’re going to do it again! »»

Wide plan on the courtyard of a notarial study. End of the morning. “Four sockets for a sequence plan is little. We are super effective this morning, ”comments an accessorist while heading for the buffet, erected in the interior courtyard of the notarial study rented for filming. Sandwiches, fruit, candy, hot and cold drinks: the teams meet there to regain strength and chat. The character seen driving his car in the first scene is drinking coffee. He strangely resembles Hubert de Torcy, the film producer. “Yes, it was me!” I will see a few seconds in the image as a silhouette. It’s very fun. “Producing feature films,” it is a childhood dream, “he says. I entered the world of cinema through the door of distribution and I launched this film project from 2018, when we bought the rights of Pious battles of Réginald the book by Thomas Hervouët whose adaptation is. After seven years of hard work, we are finally there! »»

For this first fiction, the team must run 3.7 useful minutes per day – Against a little less than three minutes for average budget films. “Our cast is a clever mix between young first and experienced actors,” adds the producer. Precisely, tasting a sandwich, actor Philippe Duquesne (Les Deschiens, Babysitting, Alibi. Com) arises: “I interpret Edmond, notary -partner of Réginald embodied by my playmate Pascal Demolon (Kaamelott, fiasco) . Do you accompany me at the HMC? They have to ask me a false mustache! »I enter this intriguing proposal, without daring to ask what HMC is…

We cross a first piece where the costumes of the actors are suspended . “You are in the space makeup dressing hairstyle, the HMC, lights me in the daphne, chef-maquileuse, fuchsia and mutinous chvelwood. For actors, it is a space for concentration and confidences. Falling stress, detecting tensions and reassuring actors is part of my role on each shoot for twenty years! »Faced with the mirror, Philippe Duquesne has his eyes closed. He doesn’t seem tense: “warm and pro, this filming is soothing,” he comments. Daphne takes out from her case a pretty little mustache that she delicately poses above the actor’s lip. And the character of Edmond suddenly appears in the mirror …

TOC, TOC, TOC … perched on heels, a sparkling fifties arises by repeating his text: “” I recover a file in the archives. »» But what role does she play? “Ah! none! Me it is Sylvie, collaborator of the notarial study. In general, I manage customer reception. But my office is occupied by the actors. It’s very funny to observe a shoot. They moved a lot of things, just for two days. Come on! I have emergencies to treat … ”she launches, disappearing in the neighboring room.

Contrechamp, rue Buffon, 2:30 p.m. While two interior scenes are shot, Florian, 25, checks the stocks of consumables in the Régie truck. I am dumbfounded by the quantity of accumulated heterogeneous objects: dozens of umbrellas rub shoulders with trestles, boxes of cakes, sodas and armchairs on wheels … “With the decorative team, we always arrive upstream pursues Florian. We take care of all the logistics, the installation of the lodges, for example. Coming from the neighboring truck, a young man dressed in black, wearing a large leather hat, passes a head. He looks like Zorro with his strings tied on the belt. Wouldn’t he be the villain of the film? “I am Sacha, electro,” he thinks us. We follow it until the study where the team has just extinguished the spotlights and winds the cables carefully. The last scene of the day has just been filmed.

But Lison, script, always has its eyes on its notes: “” I have to stay focused all day on dialogues and sounds, it’s a big job . I also have to capture the indications of the staging team. My goal is to note the benchmarks and details of each scene in order to ensure the consistency of the story. I have to put in order what has been turned out of disorder, without there being any error. And if we forget to shoot a sequence, it will be my fault! “Yes, it will be your fault, Lison!” »Pleasure Yann, 45, accessorist, while putting his equipment away. “For a story to be credible, the sets must seem as true as the dialogues. The slightest detail counts. Look carefully at the notary’s plate at the entrance to the study, it is in the name of the characters in the film. Home production! He proudly announces.

In the courtyard, Pascal Demolon (Réginald) finally blows, after four scenes . “Tomorrow is the last day of this a little extraordinary shooting. I did not think I was so moved in Paray-le-Monial, when we played in the midst of real faithful. I was touched by their fervor and their desire to party together. These moments of grace, during the evenings for example, touched several team members, “he said, while joining his hotel.

Outside night. 8:30 p.m., near the covered market in Dijon. Tonight, I am invited to the cellar rebiffe ,, A restaurant close to the market run by a film buff. I find several members of the team there. “Like these delicious spaghetti, this filming has a particular taste, that of benevolence. Even if no one has ever tried to convert us of course! “Says the exuberant Manu, decorative chief, facing the producer and the financial director, amused. “Friends, let us remember the extraordinary moments lived together, especially at the Château de Rambuteau, near Paray-le-Monial. “Yann, the accessorist, said to me aside:” With the camera and machino teams, we preferred to sleep on site rather than at the hotel. Each morning, before working, we were going to bathe in the pond. This castle, it was “connected” with history. With his chapel and his decoration in his juice, he became a character in the film. “You had sympathized with the owner, a scholar passionate about history,” adds Hubert de Torcy. The producer claims the spiritual atmosphere of this romantic comedy. According to him, it is possible – and even essential – laughing subjects touching religion: Almighty bruce, The hilarious comedy of Tom Shadyac, is one of the brightest examples. “To our film which will make as many halls in theaters! »Conclude, in trinking, the joyful drilles.

Clair-Obscur in a mounting room in Boulogne-Billancourt, (Hauts-de-Seine) October 16, 2024. From morning to evening, for several weeks, installed against four screens, director Albéric Saint-Martin and Sylvie Lager, the righteous head, contrast on what can be accentuated, shortcut, even deleted to give meaning to the story. After those of the script and the production, editing is the third writing of the film. “With my new look, I take care of the coherence of the narration and to the rhythm, determining in a comedy,” explains Sylvie. “Yes, the rhythm is a lace work,” adds Albéric. Our editing choices, by their energy, will serve the modernity of this romantic comedy. Sylvie brings up the face of Romane in close -up, who plays the role of the fiancée. Turn the scenes out of disorder required a lot of concentration from it. “The staging team must help the actors remain in line with their character,” admits the director. The duo has only a few days to complete the assembly. I leave, with a velvet, to let them work.

Rear traveling avenue Mac-Mahon, in Paris, November 7, 2024. Tonight is a big evening. Two months after the end of the shooting, a test projection is organized at the Mac-Mahon cinema in Paris. In the hall, I greet the producer and the director, a little feverish. They have the stage fright. Will the public appreciate this work on which they have been working for several years? In the crowded room, the lights go out. Albéric and Hubert remain standing, in the shadows, to observe the reactions of the spectators. Phew! Laughter regularly fuse at the expected moments. On their faces, the relief can be read.

An hour and a half later, the Enlightenment turns on and the public fills a questionnaire which will be analyzed by the film of the film . Next step? In mid-January 2025 Car, before its cinemas released in May, the film was presented, out of competition, at the Alpe d’Huez International Comedy Film Festival (Isère). To accompany the birth of a film is to engage in a background race. Exhausting and magnificent, this collective adventure has already allowed them to surpass themselves. I look at the team that moves away slowly, on this beautiful avenue de la Ville Lumière. Mac-Mahon’s red neon lights go out one by one. But above their heads, that evening, the sky is always filled with stars.