Tony with his family: Which star is this movie with Camille Cotin about?

What is it about? Antonia, known as Tony, is raising her five children alone. full time job. He also sings in the evening, in bars, because you have to feed your family well. Tony is talented. He recorded a single that became a hit. But that was 20 years ago. Today, his two eldest children are preparing to go to university. So Tony wonders: What will he do when all his offspring leave home? At 43, is there still time to take control of your life?

Why “Tony with the Family”?

The title was obvious from the beginning of the writing. Director Nathan Ambrose explains: “Tony is first and foremost the main character whose story I wanted to tell. I really like portrait cinema, the one that shows the world at our height, that does not lead to the extraordinary. Noah Baumbach, Richard Linklater, Hirokazu Kore-eda Information is necessary for me.”

“Tony is also a merit of the profession of an actor, specifically an actor Toni Collette, whose work I admire, and especially the ambiguity he brings to his roles. Finally, Tony is not a name, but a nickname, which is rather an ambivalent nickname, we do not know whether it means a woman or a man. I, like my generation, gravitate toward cinema that doesn’t differentiate its gaze.

A crucial period

Nathan Ambrosion wanted to question that particular moment in life where we question everything: in this case, the status of a single mother almost at home (Tony spends most of her time there) represents the ultimate social condition. The director specifies: “We imagine that Tony owes absolute loyalty to his children, that he builds everything around them.

“Tony, in the family it goes against the image, you imagine things differently. Tony interests me because his social status makes him a real hero and a hero of reality. He realizes very easily that “being a mother is fabulous, but it is also a condition that affects In planned old age, the day your last child leaves home.”

“Tony is not satisfied with this, and his age, 43, gives his situation an urgent form. In his way, Tony is like a teenager who has to choose a professional path after high school. He faces the same questions. But he realizes that because of his age, society does not encourage him. him in the way he envisions.”

Choice of Camille Cotin

As a teenager, Nathan Ambroson was a fan of the series Connasse: “His reluctance was charming, then there was ten percent, Stillwater, House of Gucci… All his roles stayed with me. It was in my movie. I hoped Tony was him. I had his phrases in mind when I wrote.”

“She has something special about her voice, her singing, her way of expressing herself, mixed with authority and tenderness, which I needed. I wanted to express something very soft with this role. Camille represents all of that.”The film director confides.

Former singing star

When Nathan Ambrose was writing the script for the film, he saw a report that began 20 years after their glory days to meet former 2000s TV stars. Most of them have been forgotten. He recalls: “I was intrigued by one of Toni’s. This former celebrity status complicates my character. She becomes a woman who has been given a false image in her youth that she has to deconstruct.”

“Like absolute mother status, celebrity status can seem glamorous, but for Tony it was never the Holy Grail. Yet even his children, Marcus with social media or even Matilda with dancing, crave that recognition. It’s specific to their age and generation. Thus, the film naturally shows The issue of transmission. What do we pass on to our children? How can we speak the same language?

A family of 5 children

Nathan Ambrosioni chose to show a family of five with very heterogeneous physiques. By this he wanted to convey the whole variety of character of his friends. It develops: “They’re really like the high school and college students I’ve worked with. They have complex desires, diverse hopes. For Tony, that’s an added source of difficulty because he has to deal with all these strong temperaments that aren’t obvious. When, like him, once again he’s A question of “finding oneself”.

“The young actors turned out to be very impressive. They appropriated the personalities of their characters with mind-boggling ease. Adolescence is a fabulous cinematic terrain, a place of dreams and desires. I wanted to portray it very precisely, that’s why there is no improvisation between the young people in the film, except for three small scenes, I wanted to respect the dialogues, the idea that these siblings have a common, specific language, that “they change clothes and expressions”.