[INTERVIEW] François Delisle (CHORUS)

François Delisle is not his first feature film but it is his sixth achievement CHORUS , which allows him to reach international recognition – many times awarded at canadian festivals, including The Meteor. CHORUS is this year in competition at Sundance and introduced to the 65^e Berlinale. On the occasion of its French release on January 20, 2016, we were able to interview the director and learn a little more about her brilliant film and extremely sensitive, which proposes to plunge into the intimacy of a couple faced with the drama.

READ ALSO OUR REVIEW OF THE MOVIE CHORUS

 

You originally wanted to co-write the screenplay, however, CHORUS was a project that you lived for a long time. Why have you started to write with four hands, and then given up ?

The basic idea was very quickly drawn in a text without dialogue. Subsequently, I wanted to test this idea in the worklant with a co-writer. A bad idea. The result was really too far away from my desire first. So, I came back to the base alone this time. The last version of the script was written very quickly, without hesitation.

 

You are the scriptwriter, director, producer and check also the photography and the editing of the film. How is there an implication if the total in a project ?

I don’t know. It is natural for me. Making a film is an experience of totale, and it absolutely must be. Also, I surround myself well. That changes everything.

 

 Isn’t it too difficult to leave his film ?

No. I’m not attached to the film once it is completed. During its launch at the festival of Sundance, last year, Ialready wrote my next movie.

 

Irene and Christophe are roles exceedingly domestic. How did you choose your actors ?

I already knew Sebastian because I produced a film in which he took a principal role. Seeing the rushes on a daily basis, Sébastien has become a must for me. For Fanny Valette, the path was more traditional. I met him at a casting session. There, there was a direct link between it and the lens of my camera.

 

What is there of the actors towards this type of interpretation of restraint ?

The basic situation is so strong and tense that everything had to be retained and dosed. It was obvious to all of us. Once launched on this path, the actors modulate as a function of this direction, and I still listening.

 

“Make a movie, it is a total experience.”

 

Ten years after the fact, Irène and Christophe are trying to find a balance that is very fragile. Irene, it even suggests that grieving is an absurd notion because it’s impossible. Do you believe still in the power of resilience and, ultimately, of rebirth ?

To live is to learn how to lose. In this sense, I croi– s that the characters have learned and grown at the end of this story.

 

You have managed to find a perfect balance between the intimate relationship of the couple that has been growing over the hours and the posture of each individual, and you will keep us kept in a ambivalence. We are witnessing the reunion of which we know that they will be a vital impetus in vain. Haven’t you felt like sometimes they find themselves, that they are overcoming ?

They are all mourning the loss of their son and also their relationship. A “happy end” was going against the movement of the film. But I don’t believe this to be vain. There is a gap between the two, which is reform to the end, but it is a space that they must meetthe same otherwise. A challenge. C’is also the place that I leave inx viewers tos to investnt the territory of the film.

 

Why have you chosen to leave open the scene where Irene found the mother of Blake ? We can guess the purpose of his visit, but this remains very implicit. What would they have to say ?

The’disability and the fragility of the criminal’s mother to return Irene to her own vulnerability. For this they would have been able to tell, I let you imagine…

 

The scene viewed by the torque of the confessions of the prisoner is unsustainable. Do you not fear that it creates a controversy ?

No. It was a rite of passage. It should be left to speak evil.

 

Have you ever investigated, met with prisoners and pedophiles before you write the character of Blake ? How were you inspired ?

No. It is going to draw this to the bottom of oneself. Exercise difficult and dangerous.

 

Have you ever draft a seventh feature ?

Yes. We complement each other in this time the financing for my next film titled” Cash Nexus and I am developing the scenarios of two other feature films.