He’s My Man: The Incredible True Story That Inspired This Film About Leila Becht and Karim Leclouse

What is it about? Julien Delaunay disappeared on the battlefield during the Great War. His wife, Julie, does not believe he is dead. And when the press publishes a portrait of a man with amnesia, they will definitely recognize Julien. They find each other and learn to love each other again. But another woman claims that this man is her husband.

Two different facts at the beginning of the film

Guillaume Bureau was inspired by the following two cases for C’est mon homme:

• Collegno’s Amnesiac: In 1920s Italy, in a series of endless trials, two women fight over a man they claim is their husband, either a respected professor or a typographer collecting a mistress who has been sentenced to prison in absentia.
• The Unknown Soldier Alive: Meanwhile in France, a long legal series pits several families against an amnesiac soldier found on a station platform. When his photo appeared in the press, several families thought that they recognized Anthelm Mangin as a brother, son, father who disappeared during the Great War. The director explains: “You should know that after the war, up to 300,000 soldiers were reported missing. These are all families who cannot grieve. Those who claimed to be a “living unknown soldier” genuinely believed they had found a lost loved one. They were ready to reject the physical. differences.

A story of love and faith

The stories on which the film is based, according to the director, show this “Identity is not only a matter of evidence or science, but a matter of faith”. From this material, he did not want to make a historical film, but to tell an extraordinary love story. He adds: “My Man is a film where desire creates the law. In the end, the amnesiac frees himself from the truth imposed by the forensic and psychiatric institutions. He says: ‘This is me.’ , as far as giving it a soul. Only love can do that.”

shooting

This Is My Man was shot in Burgundy and Pays de la Loire, near Nievres, where the director lives. “In an environment I already knew, such as the Delaunay house, the collegiate church of Saint-Lazare or the abbey of Moutiers-Saint-Jean, where the asylum was reconstructed”. The team took several castles for the interior of the Pays de la Loire and set up a photo studio in a pottery factory in Sarthes. As for cabaret decor, it was found at La Flèche, an Italian-style pocket theater. “Splendidly located on the first floor of La Halle aux Blés and whose last fittings date from 1923”.

sources of inspiration

The director had references to François Truffaut’s L’histoire d’Adèle H, Jane Campion’s Shining Star, Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight and Christian Petzold’s Phoenix, films that he says go beyond the problem of reconstruction and recreate the world. own aesthetics. But his main source of inspiration is painting: this is the work of the Danish artist Wilhelm Hammershøy: “His drawings allowed us to present a sober and minimal reconstruction of the period. The interior is almost empty. Only rare furniture and accessories offer the function of the rooms.”

Find a love triangle

Karim Leclew was the first actor chosen by the director: “Karim has everything I was looking for in this character: a disturbing quirk, a face open to all interpretations, a wound in his gaze. His eyes are abysmal. Karim evokes considerable sympathy.” As for Louise Bourgoin, it was around the songs that Guillaume met Bureau because he wanted to experience singing and dancing in the cinema. Finally, Leila Bekht came to the project shortly before filming. The director did not immediately think of him, because he is associated with comedy: “But it was love at first sight. Our meeting revolved around Julie. When Leila talked to me about it, I got the impression that she always knew her, as if Julie lived there. There was already a predatory fire in her eyes. Crazy love.”