Cleo, Melville and I at the movies: a love story and family life in total lockdown

Cleo, Melville and I at the movies: a love story and family life in total lockdown

Three years after adapting Anna Gavalda’s novel I Want Someone to Wait for Me Somewhere in the Cinema, director Arnaud Viard returns with Me, Cleo and Melville.

For his fourth feature, starring Marianne Denikur, Roman Bohringer and their children, the director returns to his first love: self-fiction.

The film takes place in the desolate Paris of the first institution. Arnaud (Viard), 55 years old, separated from Isabelle (Romane Bohringer) and father of two children, will take advantage of these 55 days to take care of them and take stock of his life; Which leads him to memories, but also to the future… The future could be Mariana (Mariana Denikur), the pharmacist next door… The eyes are green and a roller coaster will appear outside the Plexiglas window.

The filmmaker came up with the idea of ​​this film inspired by his own experience while in prison. On March 16, 2020, when Emmanuel Macron announced his imprisonment, Arnaud Viard was living in a 2-room apartment in Paris, not far from his wife and his two children, Cleo and Melville.

The director announces to the press team:When the arrest was announced, we had no choice but to stay in Paris with my ex-wife. He and I, working remotely, were confined to my 2 rooms and I went every day to take the children away from their mother.

For many separated parents, this has been somewhat trying, but also a very powerful time. Pretty quickly, I told myself that I was going to use this period to photograph my neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, completely abandoned and where incredible poetry was emerging.

Everything was closed and the camera was quite difficult to find. So, with a post-production friend, we took some pictures on the deserted streets of the neighborhood, while my children were eating or while we were clapping at the window. Soon, a movie formed in my head.”

Turn around with your children

And it is quite natural that the director started shooting the film in his own apartment with his children. He explains: “At the time of filming, Cleo was almost 6 and Melville, 3 and a half, I found it difficult to teach them the lyrics. So I chose improvisations, with a two-camera system that ran for 30 or 40 minutes. For example, for the meal scene, we actually filmed the meal, during the children’s normal hours.

It should also be said that we shot the movie in my apartment, so the kids were really at home. We didn’t start shooting again, we got what was happening. That’s how they play doctor. At first I was in the field with them, then I left the field, sometimes I came back to start improvising again, then I left and came back to play with them. Two cameras roll for an hour, and upon arrival there is a two-minute scene that has incredible grace.

Two cameras roll for an hour, and upon arrival there is a two-minute scene that has incredible grace. If I chose to do this improvisation in the hospital, it’s because I know that I will be talking about my father and his profession as a surgeon during the voiceover, but also because every night for a month we applaud the caregivers who are at the center. Our life at that time. It was a joy to shoot with my children, in my apartment, and with a very small technical crew.”

With its suspenseful moments and songs composed by Vincent Delerme, Cleo, Melville and myself, it’s a sweet introspective must-see movie today.

Source: Allocine

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