[interview] Gilles Lellouche and Alexandre Courtès, director of the movie Unfaithful

Alexander Short, one of the seven directors of the film ” the Infidel “, and Gilles Lellouche, one of the main characters, responded to questions from the animators of the show Judaiclap about this new film. “Infidels” is composed of eight short films on the theme of infidelity, with its hero, Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lellouche.

Is it that, as an actor, the cinema can afford to do it all? In reference to some scenes of the movie, is that in the movies, we can really let go, all show ?

Alexandre Courtès : Yes, even the worst.

Gilles Lellouche : Yes, yes. It is the very function of art in general. The film has a drift in recent years because it is associated with a business and a trade, but it is foremost an art, so you can do everything at the cinema, as you can do anything in painting, in literature, in the current of thought. It seems to me that this is the only field in which there is still a little free. I find that, on the contrary, in a time where we tend to while we prohibit, legislate on the rights of the essence, it is the art that is going to deliver us. The film is not a reaction to an era, but not far. In France, it has been demoted in terms of authorization, it allows more things. We left, with John on this desire, not to make a polemic, but to make a film free from any point of view. The format of the film is free in itself, since it is a film sketch, and on the inside it has a freedom of tone, there is humour and drama, so it is free at all levels.

Is it that you set limits not to be exceeded ?

GL : no, No, we don’t set boundaries at all, but John and I have a certain moral sense, we will say, so the limitations were inherent to the project. It would not have been able to go further than that, we were, say, at the max on our side ” punk “.

Gilles, you are, relatively speaking, the more romantic of the two accomplices, and physically more fragile. It is found in the various skits, why this constant in the distribution of characters ?

GL : I don’t know why it gives me this role, but I am very happy (laugh). In fact, we went on the fact that John and I wanted to do a duo but not on the principle ‘a strong, a weak. We wanted to make the two types equal. After we said that it would be interesting that even inside of these types to the libido overflowing there is a type that is not transformed by the desire, the flesh and the ass, and the other, rather an approach to the romantic, hence the conversation they have at the bar, one understands the other not. It was to find traits of character different to the inside of this duo. But it could have been interchangeable.

The film is composed of different short films, how was the adaptation to each director? It was a way of working that is different, or it was in the continuity ?

GL : All of this has happened much more simply than we could have ever imagined. The approach to convene a lot of filmmakers, so many egos, it could not be easy. This is party on of an urge, an impulse, all the world has followed, so it came very naturally. The most complicated part was the editing. From the moment you make a collective work, it is necessary to make it clear to everyone that they can’t do a skit of 47 minutes, it is necessary to comply with the rules. It was the only moment a little more complicated, and it is here that the egos resurfaced.

Is this to be included in a project with different developers could be complicated, y-a-t-it had a research competition to be an artist ?

AC : Oh no not at all. Anyway when I work, I try to make myself happy. When you are offered a sketch with Jean Dujardin, Gilles Lellouche and Manu Payet and Sandrine Kiberlain, you go for it. So I have not been very difficult, we try to have fun.

GL : there was no competition, rather, it was an emulation, a synergy. It gave tremendous energy to the project.

From where came the inspiration, it is lived, it has to do with friends ?

GL : Yes, it is my life to be 100% (laughing). No, not at all, it is fiction, pure and simple. We wanted, with John, to make a comedy for adults. The theme of the infidels seemed to us quite appropriate and John wanted to make a film skits for a very long time, so we went on this scheme. We started to work on this principle informally to see what it would give, we named the two authors, and we began to talk about anecdotes. We had about thirty ideas for skits, we have developed a twenty, then ten really caught our attention. There remains the eight to the finish.

Have you managed to convince easily the other players, some might have been reluctant to turn in this kind of movie ?

GL : We had no problem, on the contrary. In fact, we all want it, we all want to have fun, to caricature, to ridicule. We want to laugh with things as an adult. We want to talk about everything, we are free. There was a liveliness, a desire of all the world. One feels in all the actors a joy to do it. In France, it was a tradition we stick to roles that are close to what one is more, or less, so that there is nothing more pleasant than to go very far.

Gilles, what is your sketch favorite ?

GL : I think it is ” Lolita “. It’s part of a reflection that I’ve had with friends and I found it terrible, so this sketch came to me naturally. Or actually no, my sketch favorite and ” The question “. But I love ” The infidels anonymous “, it has been tried, it has been hard to find, we really worked the above, it was the hardest to write.

How was the shooting of the scenes ” intimate “, particularly the last one ?

GL : (laughs) there was no discomfort. It was heads or tails who was doing what, and I won (laughs). Finally, this is relative, but in any case I have not lost. We laughed a lot. It is so outrageous, it was hilarious that bothered. We had shells, protections are very elegant.

The Americans have they welcomed ?

GL : Yes, it went very well. It is very complicated to have the permissions, but once you have them, you are the kings of the world. In the sketch in Las Vegas, there was a scene where they dance on a car, we had a car dolly, put on a sort of truck, it took two pathways. The police was escorting, we did grilling on the lights to that it continues to rotate on the main road of Las Vegas, it was amazing. When you have the authorization to shoot, you do what you want, which is not the case in France.

The film is not banned or not recommended for children under 12 years of age, you really think that it is open to all public ?

GL : No, I think that it is not directed at all to the general public, I am quite surprised that there was no prohibition. It would not have been against a ban, I would have avoided to say in a promo, ” Do not go there with your children “. And when I say it, I really do. There is a warning, and seeing the good news, if it has eyes and a modicum of brains, we do not go there with mother.

The controversy over posters censored is visible on this link, as well as the entirety of the radio emission on the film !

You can find the review of the movie at this address.