[interview] Camille Chamoux, Mona Achache and Joséphine de Meaux (THE GAZELLE)

Thees Gazelles is the second feature film of Mona Anache (The Hedgehog). Comedian Camille Chamoux (Born under Giscard) interpreter Mary, the main character. It is surrounded by Audrey Fleurot (Fonzy, the Untouchables), Anne Brochet (A castle in Spain, All the mornings of the world ), Naidra Ayadi (Polisse, Ready for anything) and Joséphine de Meaux (Our happy days, So close). Holiday parties, moments of questioning, of engueulade, the viewer is going to see this band of friends go through different phases.

Refreshing, funny, realistic, and that makes you want to party, The Gazelle is a movie which will be open from today, 26 march 2014 !

• Why discuss the celibacy in women in their thirties in particular ?

Camille Chamoux : single women in their thirties are often regarded as women poisonous or loseuses or a bit of both. We think that if they are alone and that they do not have children past 30 years, it is that there is a problem. And the woman thirty-year-old bachelor is so suspect in the eyes of his banker, her mother, couples, friends, anyone. It is part of this and then we worked on the question of celibacy and of the couple today. Overall, the film about the relations between men and women.

Mona Achache : … and on the emancipation of women.

•  Women can now go first in the morning…

MA : Yes, it is an example. We wanted to highlight this sort of violence of the exchanges between men and women. In the consumer society, even love and sex are in a relationship of force. There are rules, a code, to learn in this jungle of seduction.

• Celibacy leads in the main character a lot of difficult situations to live…

CC : Since women can choose the risk it is to be alone. When you break up with someone, you know what you lose but you don’t know what you’re going to win. But is it more painful to be alone than to be with a guy who does interest you more ? The willingness to choose, always go see everywhere, it is not a path to immediate happiness. Stay in a comfortable situation, but not exciting, it is also not a path to happiness. It is between these poles lies the possibility of achieving a form of development.

Joséphine de Meaux : When you’re single, you’re not in a box pre-set so you built really.

MA : In the film, the rupture is life-saving for Marie and Eric, no one is happy in the relationship. This is not a film to be moral, but we wanted to show the journey of a character, a journey that led to the moment when she is finally ready to be happy, outside of all he will be dictated, advised, her parents, friends, etc .. One comes out different, growing up, there was no turning back.

“Single women in their thirties are often regarded as women poisonous or loseuses.”

•  Mary takes advantage of advice from his friends than his family. Friends replace the family?

CC : today, it is true. The friends do not replace family in all areas, but it is the case in relation to the advice, the problems of daily life. It is network friendly, and non-family, who becomes the main contact.

Through the debriefing of standing between friends, they rescue her from situations that might seem pathetic, of situations of distress to be temporary. They talk a lot between them, it is a way of taking the power over all situations. Everything always ends with a debriefing between girlfriends!

MA : When the couple does not exist, it builds a substitute family with her friends. The intimacy that one does not share with a man, you can share it otherwise, building something else.

•  At what point are you based on your own experiences to build the characters?

CC : basically, there were 80% of the autobiography of Mona and me and the people around us. And then the actresses have taken ownership of their role in adding small anecdotes, their sentences of humour especially in the scenes of group. It is very close to the reality to achieve our goal: dive into the intimacy of women.

JM : In seeing the film, I found some situations pretty harsh, others more funny, touching, some tragic. On the time one did not consider. And it is very realistic, in life one is like that.

•  The festivals have a very important place in the film, it is a mark of our times?

MA : In the course of the fighting of these girls, these festivals are outlets. These are key moments in life, of abandonment, of letting go. It was important that the feasts are very realistic.

JM : It is the great interest of celibacy. Nobody is waiting for us in our home, there is a true freedom, anything can happen.

•  The film is about everything, but without being trashy or vulgar, you are-you set the limits?

MA : We do not set any limit. We wanted to film things that we know that are true. As long as one does not venture into the fantasies or the caricatures, we will always be protected from the vulgarity. We had no desire to be provocative, but rather to be faithful, sincere, respectful, to tell the story of our intimacy. The objective is to decrypt, understand, and laugh at our generation.

CC : It is a comedy of a generation. Our generation is partying like that, speaks like that, debriefing in this way. This is the reality of our exchanges, of our life.

•  Why did you want that the main characters are working with Pôle emploi?

CC : Pôle emploi is the metaphor of the law of supply and demand. When you have the choice, it becomes liberalism. It is capitalism, including in relationships. Men want women with more and more young people, and women always want more from guys. There is a report of the quantity. The girlfriend of my character says to him : “You are working in the pôle emploi, the law of supply and demand, you know what it is. It is the same for everyone “. This is not because I’m single and I’m pretty that I have found what I want. It is the same thing as in the work, this is not because you have degrees and that you are competent that you’ll take any job. Yes, there is work, but you want to work at a job that we match, and we want a guy who we match.

•  The mounting is particular, with flashbacks, flashforwards, situations interchangeable between the characters. Why have it mounted as well?

MA : This technique has appeared to us necessary at the time of installation. It went well with the idea of a film that follows the main character, trying to get into his head. It goes with our society, it is in our own generation, there is a place but it is already thinking of where we will be after, and then we think back at the place where it was before, we would have wanted to be elsewhere. It is the same in reports of seduction, we are a generation that zaps, who always wants more, elsewhere. The mounting works and gives a rhythm to the film.