“If it bothers some people a little, so much the better!” : Iris and the Men, a comedy that questions you about a couple

What is it about?

A wonderful husband, two perfect daughters, a successful dental practice: everything is going well for Iris. But since when did he not love her? Maybe it’s time to get a girlfriend. By signing up for a regular dating app, Iris opens Pandora’s Box. The men are about to fall… like it’s raining!

Did you like Antoinette in Sevens? Lor Kalam returns to the enjoyable comedy. Here are some good reasons to avoid temptation!

For their reunion, actress Laure Kalam and filmmaker Carolyn Winial are changing scenery. Scenes of Parisian life replaced the greenery of the Cevennes. However, innovation and humor are always at the heart of this sparkling and fashionable comedy. If Laure Kalam is an actress you like to follow, you’ll definitely love this new role tailored for her.

We were able to speak to the director (below in the podcast version) who brought us back to Antoinette’s big surprise success in the Cévennes for the first time.

AlloCiné: How did you experience the success of Antoinette in the Cévennes (almost 800,000 admissions, editor’s note)?

Caroline Vinyall (Writer and Director): I think it did a lot of good for me. It certainly calmed me down. But at the same time, I don’t feel like I fully experienced it, because because it was a very special time – the film came out when we were still in the middle of Covid – I do very little. Festivals abroad. I didn’t get to travel much with the film. There was no worldliness at all.

Not really my trend anyway, but in this case it wasn’t. So I knew the figures, I was happy about them, but I can’t say that I got the impression that my life had completely changed, which is probably not a bad thing.

When I was shooting Antoinette, I remember regularly saying to myself, “I mustn’t fail because I want to make another film after this. » Indeed, there was this issue. Since I hadn’t shot it in a long time, if I messed it up, it was over. I was able to do Iris and the Men with some freedom there.

Your new feature film seems to be very well documented, especially on everything related to dating sites and the types of exchanges that take place there. Did you start from a real situation?

A friend suggested the idea to me, but on the other hand, I must say I did a little research! It’s funny because this world is a little bit off. When you’re in a relationship or not interested in dating apps, this is how you hear about them.

It might be a bit of Satan or something that’s a bit tempting, but we don’t know what it is. People who make dating apps are very smart because you can’t go and see them without signing up. You can’t be a tourist, just look and don’t get a little wet. You must create a profile to be able to view other people’s files. So this is what I had to do.

What I put in the film is what happens and many friends have told me. When a woman registers on a dating site, she is literally attacked. This happens to Iris. He’s at a stage in his life where that can scare him. A 20-year-old, 25-year-old girl might hate it, but Iris needs it, so it scares her a little, but she also does good.

Listen to our podcast interview with Caroline Vinyall:

The messages exchanged sound very realistic. Is there much truth in it?

Listen, yes! In fact, I would archive everything. I kept absolutely everything because I found them to be such gems that I felt absolutely incapable of even writing anything… I couldn’t write it. I kept everything. When I started writing the film, I made a collage that included a lot of things when I signed up.

Could you change the gender of the movie? The story probably wouldn’t be the same at all…

No. I have not only researched but read many books about dating sites and love today. The balance of power is entirely in favor of women on dating sites. But then, if we look at things more cynically, it’s in a nightclub, ie women are the “product”. Therefore, entry to nightclubs was free for women and paid for men. Less so now, but originally dating sites were free for women and paid for men, because women are the “product”. That is, we have to be there for the men to come.

There are many men who systematically swipe right, that is, they like it, because they know that if they struggle in the sweep stage, they have no chance of a match. So they have to swipe with all the women to maybe have a chance that one of the women will respond to them.

There are also a lot of messages that are copy and paste where men send the same message to a lot of women so that one woman takes the bait. The balance of power is completely reversed.

There is a form of rudeness in what you said…not sexual rudeness, but in the exchanges!

So many movies have been made about love, so many stories about desire, that the only way to do something interesting about these themes even today is to start with the most unique and the most intimate. Otherwise, we’re just repeating what we’ve seen in a billion movies. With this movie in particular, that was really what I was interested in: a move towards life!

What I like most about the film are the intimate scenes between the character played by Laure Kalam and the men she meets. I feel like I haven’t seen them in a movie, or at least not in a long time. I remember saying to myself at one point during filming: I feel like I’m shooting a movie from the 70s, because we’re in such a reactionary era that it’s something that we don’t show in cinema to the general public anymore. (…) And if it bothers some people a little, so much the better, because that’s what we’re looking for in cinema. I don’t care about going to a tap with lukewarm water. There’s no shortage of lukewarm tap water, so if we can get a little something to cheer us up every now and then, that’s not a bad thing.

Was it obvious to work with Lor Kalam again?

It took me a while to get there, but deep down no one else would. First of all, there’s a form of projection that I can do in it that I can’t with so many actors. One of his main qualities for this role is a kind of sympathy. This character can really leave people on the sidelines because he does things that some may find reprehensible, but he gains support because Lori brings what she is, which is someone extremely likeable, seemingly extremely approachable, which makes everyone. He can project himself into it, identify with it. It was very important to me that the audience, who was a little bored, liked this character, that they understood that they loved him. I owe a lot of that to Lore.

Comments collected at the 2024 Angoulême Francophonie Film Festival

Iris and the Men by Caroline Vignal with Laure Calamy and Vincent Elbaz is currently available in cinemas. It has been on display since January 3, 2024.