A swallow made spring : welcome to the agricultural world
For his first feature film, Christian Carion wanted to pay a tribute to his origins A swallow made spring. The director, in fact, was born to peasant parents and spent part of his childhood on the family farm in Pas-de-Calais. He later worked at the Ministry of Agriculture. A position that inspired him for his first feature film. Because, just like Stéphane in the film, he was primarily responsible for connecting older farmers who wanted to retire with young people who wanted to buy a farm. This is the case of Sandrine, a 30-year-old woman who can no longer stand her job and Parisian life. She then decides to leave to make her childhood dream come true: become a farmer.
She then went to Vercors after following the training. The farm he wants to buy belongs to Adrienan old farmer who, although determined to sell, is particularly disillusioned and has no desire to help the young woman learn the trade. Despite the difficulties, Sandrine will learn on the job and will relaunch the operation in various ways, in particular by taking advantage of the modernity of the Internet. All under the dubious gaze of Adrien, present on the scene for another year. This period will end up reuniting these two characters who everything seemed to oppose.
Thanks to A swallow made springbrought by Michel Serrault and Mathilde SeignerChristian Carion achieved his first success. The film attracted more than 2.2 million of spectators during its release in theaters. A success that Mathilde Seigner must have appreciated, since the actress gave herself during the shooting.
Mathilde Seigner managed the birth of a child
In fact, during a scene ofA swallow made springwith whom Sandrine meets again a goat preparing to give birth. The heroine does not move and takes care of giving birth to the animal without the help of professionals. A situation that Mathilde Seigner actually experienced and that took the whole team by surprise. As Christian Carion explains in the film’s press kitthis is another sequence with Michel Serrault that was shot when the goat started working. It was therefore necessary to modify the work plan and put everything in place for this scene that it could only be done in one take.
I would like to take my hat off to Mathilde Seigner. (…) I was very afraid of this sequence. It was a difficult moment for her. And for the goat it was her first kid, which complicated things even more…
Despite the difficulty, Mathilde Seigner managed to complete the sequence and give birth to the animal, before being overwhelmed by emotion. In addition, the team had to quickly take the baby away from her. replace it with a dead animal as the script wanted.
The birth took place and for Mathilde I think it was a moment of great emotion. She literally burst into tears. Then, we took the live kid out of her hands and in its place we put a kid that had died naturally a month before, frozen and thawed for the occasion.
An intense sequence with the slaughter of a pig
For her part, Mathilde Seigner explains, always in the press kit ofA swallow made springnot wanting to be warned too far in advance let yourself be carried away by your instinct. She also refused to be told how to proceed. So she improvised by putting her arm into the goat’s vulva before grabbing the baby’s legs and pulling him out.
Since this goat was in a lot of pain and it was her first birth, I didn’t care about the camera at all. I just had to “deliver it”. Nothing was explained to me because I never want to be told how to do things. I prefer to go by instinct. I don’t want to work on a role, I want to live it.
After this already intense sequence to play, Mathilde Seigner continued the same day a scene where he slaughters a pig. A sequence that she initially did not want to do, but for which Christian Carion insisted. Because despite the violence of this type of situation, the actress eventually understood that it was beneficial to the construction of the role.
That same day, I shot the scene where the pig’s throat is butchered. It was less pleasant because it is an animal that howls very loudly. There was blood everywhere… At the end of that day, I was exhausted. This scene represents Sandrine’s first contact with the agricultural world. It is a violent but essential awareness for the film as well as for the character: agriculture is not only about the production of goat cheese, but also this violence.
A clarification however concerns the death of this pig, it was not killed only for the film, but for the needs of a restaurant.
Source: Cine Serie
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