“Everything is connected”: why did this actor wait 13 years before returning to the cinema?

What is it about? Francois, future academician, famous writer. With a surgeon wife, a circle of high-ranking friends, his life would be complete happiness if he did not suffer from the terrible back pain that poisons his existence. When François, by sheer luck, meets the incredible Martha with healing hands, his back pain is alleviated.

He becomes addicted to Martha’s hands, which soothe him more than any painkiller. An amazing friendship develops between these two characters, allowing them to finally embrace the best that life has to offer.

After 13 years of “give, give”

After Giving, Giving (2010), Isabel Mergo did not return to directing because she was too busy with theater: “Everything happened, including the times when you needed to breathe a little, to take care of your loved ones. Being on the boards is my place, the place where I feel the best. In all this, no irritation with the cinema, where I came from. Realized by chance, almost twenty years ago, when Michelle Blanc asked me to shoot “I You’re Very Beautiful”, which I wrote the script for.The director confides.

The birth of the project

Isabelle Mergo had to solve a big foot problem a few years ago. After consulting many specialists, who concluded that the evil was in his head, the filmmaker went to see a healer (although he is from a family of allopathic doctors!): “I actually got lost on the road to Normandy, like in the movie, saw his poster, showed up at his house, and when I came out, I was no longer limping.”

“From that starting point, I developed the story by wanting to pit two people who are gifted with their hands, one because he writes, the other because he heals. Two people who don’t have much in common. I wanted this intellectual to become someone. Who becomes addicted to Bonesetter . So it came, I wrote very quickly, without a plan, I had dialogue, I didn’t really know where I was going. Without a planned ending.”he recalls.

Tandem choice

Isabel Mergo first thought of Lambert Wilson because of his elegance. Then he chose Josiane Balasco on the popular side. “And she said yes. I like this duo, you can believe it. Josian is obviously more cultured than Martha, but I think they share a form of elegance from the heart. I had the opportunity to have two film personalities who knew how to do everything in the field of emotion, including There is a big difference between laughter and tears.The director recalls.

Shooting in Normandy

Isabelle Mergo shot Des mains en or in the summer of 2022 in Normandy. The filmmaker really adores the Côte de Nacre: “I have been going for fifteen years, I rented a house there. I often take my daughter there, but on this beach the sea is never where you expect it. She goes back and is tired. We filmed in St. Aubin-sur-Mer at the restaurant “Le Crabe vert” – In the movie it was called ‘Les Mouettes’ – whose owner I know well and where I used to go regularly for lunch.”

Get out of jail

Isabel Mergo likes to tell stories in which people are initially locked in social or emotional shackles and are able to break free through encounters that transform them: “These are unfortunate people who haven’t been touched by the grace of love or care, or because they haven’t met the right people, and that makes me sad.”

“Francois, revealed by Mata’s grace, becomes a man. In fact, he gives birth to him as the majority of this humanity, which was there, buried and which could never come out, perhaps because of fear or because others l. Bored. I’m like that myself, I haven’t freed myself. Only through writing I find happiness, that I manage to get out of my existence.”Develops a film director.