Under the Wind of the Marquises: Why you should see this moving comedy with the amazing Francois Damiens?

After Juliet, Eperdument and Raoul Tabourin, Pierre Godot returned behind the camera with Sous le vent des marquises. This dramatic comedy is led by an amazing duo: Francois Damiens and Salome Divaels.

In the first, he plays Allen, a movie star in decline. The latter is supposed to portray Jacques Brel in a biopic, but cannot find the right tone to slip into the skin of the characters. So he stops filming and tries to re-establish bonds with his daughter, Lucy.

Francois Damianes moves

Like his compatriot Benoit Poelvoorde, another colorful Belgian comic actor, we are used to seeing Francois Damien make a series of jokes in the cinema. This time he changes the register and offers us a rather shocking composition. His duet with Salome Duels works well and manages to touch us while offering little comic touches that lighten the sometimes very harsh story.

At first, Francois Damien was afraid of this project. Reason ? The actor is infatuated with Jacques Brel, and the touching of this holy monster in the song scared him. “Pierre Godot assured me that it wasn’t a biopic and I wasn’t going to sing! Brel was the starting point. When I read the script, it resonated with me, I found this story about a father trying to re-establish a bond. It’s so beautiful with his daughter,” he explains. 51-year-old actor.

“It made me think of Guy Cornot’s text, Missing Father, Missing Son. Is it possible to fix the absence of a father? I was concerned about how Pierre tries to respond to him. I also realized how personal this film was for him. I was sensitive to everything that this scenario evoked: Fame, loneliness, denial, deception, cowardice, family ties.François Damianes explains.

Revelation of Salome Devael

Alongside François Damien, the young Salome Divaels finds a very tender role that proves to be luminous and authentic. The actor already shone in Illusions Perdues, received a nomination at the 2022 César for the most promising actor.

The actress was a natural fit for the role of Louise: because of her talent and because, according to Pierre Godot, she is a young woman of her time who can also embody her character’s melancholic fantasy.

“Salome has a mixture of confidence, poise and vulnerability that is perfectly suited to the role: a sensible way of establishing herself, her glorious laugh. Like Louis, she arrives unnoticed before gradually taking over the place in a peaceful and definitive way. She is a tremendous actress. The film owes her a lot . He was a real metronome, always looking Francois in the eye and bringing him back to the heart of the stage.”

exotic island

Under the Wind of the Marquis takes us far from Paris to an island with magnificent scenery that contributes to the melancholy and spleen that emerges in the story. Pierre Godot explains why he chose the island for Sous le vent des marquises.

Note that the production set up its cameras in the French commune of Île-aux-Moines, located in the Morbihan department of the Brittany region.

“The sea has a soothing power, a calming presence, but it also acts as a barrier that isolates me from the outside world. I quickly came up with the idea of ​​connecting this island to my story.”The 37-year-old director points out.

“I envisioned my character going on a boat to find her daughter and emphasizing the effort required to bring that together. Similarly, her daughter had to leave her physical comfort zone to let go in life. The island symbolizes a place as much as a fragmented past. A time when father and mother together They lived. A time when the daughter lacked nothing. A place she would have to leave to grow up.” Analyzed by Pierre Godot.

Under the Wind of the Marquises hits theaters on January 31st.