Les Accomplices: This movie was supposed to star this great actor who died in 2021

What is it about? Max, a ruthless 50-year-old killer, discovers that he has a problem: now the slightest drop of blood is lost. His future in the profession is compromised, he will have to retrain… but it’s not so easy when his only professional skill is killing people… They are helped by some young neighbors, Karim and Stefan, who can’t imagine for a moment who they are dealing with… Max , despite himself, is attached to the young couple until his past catches up with him…

Jean-Pierre Bakri and Jamel Debussy came close!

Originally, Jean-Pierre Bakry was to play Max and Jamel Debussy Karim in Les Complices: “Jean-Pierre and I started working on the project, then, in the end, Jean-Pierre turned out to be too old for the role. I took over the script, rejuvenated the characters… Meanwhile, there is Jean-Pierre Pierre. dead His disappearance upset me, as it upset many – it still worries me.”Cecilia Rouault recalls.

Scientific fact…

Cecilia Ruot herself falls into the apple when she sees a drop of blood. This is a disorder of the reptilian brain that believes death is imminent in the presence of blood, causing a drop in blood pressure and heart rate, leading to weakness. The director explains:

“It’s both awkward… and very funny. I wondered under what circumstances it might become really problematic, and I found out: If I had to kill people to survive! Max playing. Francois Damiens, born ; A contract killer who loses blood and is therefore no longer able to ply his trade.”

where does the movie take place

Cecilia Roux wanted Les Complices to be set in Paris. But when he watched Better Call Saul while writing the script, he finally changed his mind. He recalls: I envied their monstrous sets, thought they had colossal playing spaces.

“I had an epiphany: I had to shoot the film elsewhere, in a series that we have never seen. I took my script with this aim in mind, thinking of Lac du Salagu, an artificial lake near Montpellier: strange, deserted. A place where earth is red, water is green, and space-time is canceled.

“With this logic, we continued to use fake number plates and fake road signs so that we were not in France. The weather helped us with strange skies alternating between black and windy, accentuating the doomsday atmosphere. .”

“Also, we decided to ban the color red in the film. Apart from blood, there is no red in the costumes or sets. It helps, I think, to create a special atmosphere.”

The revelation of Laura Phelps

With Les Accomplices, comedian Laura Phelps finds her first major film role. It was William Lebgill, who starred with her in a short film, who suggested his name to Cecilia Rua: “Laura is a little bulldozer who is in a hurry, who doubts, who is very afraid, who is not very afraid. She has boundless energy, a rare intelligence”– says the film director. He continues:

“On the set, William and her, who we felt were bound by a strong friendship, were able to create a believable couple. Karim and Stephanie love each other very much, but they are not in romantic or romantic love, but in partnership. Their goal is to have fun together, it seems to me that it can Let there be love – not a matter of life and death, nor a sum of big statements…”

Inhumanity at work

Both Karim and Stefan work for an evil real estate company. Through the latter, Cecilia Rouault also addresses in Les Accomplices the unfortunate social dimension of this professional field:

“It’s not good to live in this company! A friend who works in such a company told me about the hierarchy that reigned there: managers at the top, employees in the middle, zero level, reception and . . . below, call centers with a view of scooter wheels.”

“If you go around Paris, you will see people working from windows set up on the sidewalk. To emphasize, I decided to put the call center right in the parking lot. To show the humiliated people, the inhumanity at work.”

“There, we’re really at the bottom of the basket. A murderer in the strict sense of a murderer in a metaphorical sense in this society made me question the place of morality. Of course killing people is immoral, but what about a society that allows people to humiliate others?