In the Shadow of the Girls: Surprise Alex Lucy as a singing teacher in prison

Რ About?

Luke is a famous opera singer. In the midst of a personal crisis, she agrees to lead a singing workshop at the Women’s Detention Center. He quickly finds himself with the difficult temperaments of prisoners. Between conscience and personal search, Luke will try to offer these women the face of freedom.

The Secrets of Alex Lucy

If the girls ‘shadow puts a group of women in prison in the foreground, Alex Lucy plays the main role in the girls’ shadow with restraint and modesty. The actor plays a character whose cracks, flaws and part of the secrets are guessed very quickly. The former lyric singer, the audience wonders what is the trajectory of this man, whose dark and mysterious part we meet.

Like the whole film, which plays a lot on contrasts, the character of the song teacher is very contrasting, both dark and dazzling when he is in the pursuit of his profession and passion. On this idea of ​​contrasts, especially with the choice of lighting, but also with the tonality of the scenes, the film set works a lot. Etienne Comar, director and co-writer of Maud Amelin, multiplies scenes with the lightness of drama or other emotion that arises.

Fiction with a documentary approach

Thanks to a very realistic approach and always very fair action, we quickly gave ourselves over to this group. First, by choosing Alex Lucy, who highlights another aspect of the comedian and actor in which he excels. The aspect he was able to show, especially Gaius, which was both funny and exciting.

The idea of ​​mixing famous and lesser-known faces on the actor’s side was essential for the reasons described by Etienne Komar in the film press. “It is hard to believe a group of prisoners if there are only celebrities. From the beginning I wanted to mix professional and non-professional actors. Several wild casting sessions were held. We saw several hundred women. All these faces, these attitudes and these bodies were very inspiring and two women were left out of these sessions with non-professionals: Fatima Beria who plays Nur and Anna Najder who plays Marzena.From the identifiable faces we find ourselves in the rather difficult role of Agnes Zhuay, Hafsia Hertz (Seeds and Mules, You Deserve Love) or even Veerle Baetens, who was spotted in Alabama Monroe.

Sink for subject documentation

The filmmaker explains that he went to jail several times to show the films he was working on. “I mentioned this experience and told myself that a film about a workshop in a women’s prison would be made.”

And add:In the shadow of the girls I met Michael André, a musicologist and professor at the conservatory who led music seminars in prison. I read him the script at different stages. His artistic, humanistic and social approach to music allowed me to grow
The realism of writing this fiction, while giving it a metaphorical, symbolic range that
I would like to. “

“While writing the script, I went to the Bapaume Women’s Prison several times, where a mixed team was open. It was a completely different animation than Luke’s workshop in the film, but it made it possible to observe. Types and behaviors of prisoners.“

He observed what was happening around the prisoners and especially “beyond the music”.

“The concentration of humanity, which is both marginal and minority, but which is rapidly becoming central and universal.
Then, when the script was well advanced and my characters were defined, Michael Andrew and I
We had the authority of the Ministry of Justice to set up a singing workshop in the women’s prison
Fleury-Mérogis for a few days. We came up with a repertoire of close songs
The film and this experience strengthened my characters in truth and nurtured the scriptNario utterances, what I heard, gestures seen … It was also a matter of observation
Playing among the prisoners around and above all music.“

Actors who actually sing?

During the filming, a group of actors actually devoted themselves to playing a song: “During the training, they practiced the vocals both together and separately so that all the vocals could be recorded live during the filming. The lack of playing, in my opinion, was essential to the true recording of these songs, which take shape as Luke’s sessions progress. I absolutely wanted this vocal training to be done without the networks, the share of risk and imperfection that accompanies this type of workshop.“.

The absence of playing, in my opinion, was necessary to capture these songs truly.

““I wanted the naturalistic side of the song lessons to be almost documentary.” Continues Etienne Comar. I remembered the audition for Milos Forman, a documentary about singing girls that he shot 1.33. This format is ideal for shooting faces up close. It was allowed for my film as well To more easily express the feeling of being locked up by these girls. “

And add:For each class in the workshop, it was necessary to find different staging tools that downloaded each character’s emotional state.. “

Note that the lyrical scene performed by Alex Lucy is voiced, in this case by Vivaldi “Cum Dederit”. Alex Lutz is voiced here by Countertenor Maximin Richard.