Their children after themthe great nostalgia
Producers Alain Attal and Hugo Sélignac had the idea of bringing the great novel by writer Nicolas Mathieu to the screen Their children after themPrix Goncourt 2018, and to entrust the production of this film to the brothers Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, young and brilliant filmmakers who have revealed themselves with teddy bear in 2020. A good idea? Really great idea, ever since Their children after themled in particular by the beautiful performances of Paul Kircher and Angelina Woreth, it is a very beautiful film, first and foremost in itself, as well as an adaptation as intelligent and faithful as possible to the novel, at the same time a feverish tale of adolescence and a fresco of a bygone era but whose nostalgia remains alive.
On the occasion of the release of Their children after them at the cinema, we met Nicolas Mathieu, who told us his impressions of his adaptation, the importance of music in this story, the films that inspired him and why he prefers The Sopranos ha The thread…
I would like to start with the question of the adaptation of a work of art by another art. It is said that the composer Gabriel Fauré asked the poet Stéphane Mallarmé to set one of his poems to music. The latter then replied: “but I thought I had already done it!” My question then is: how do we receive a proposal to adapt a story already made, total and complete?
Nicola Mathieu : I love it! (laughs). I’ve already had another book adapted into a series, and besides, I’m quite the film buff. I consume a lot of films and series, and most often they come from literature. The fact that the audiovisual extends an imaginary gesture of this kind, adapting it with other means, I find valid, desirable and flattering. So “bank”!
You did not participate in the adaptation work of Their children after them in the scenario. What was your involvement in the film, what did you define about it?
Nicola Mathieu : If we do not participate in the scenario, the action we take depends on who we choose to adapt it. Who do we give the rights to and who will be the director. On this we have the hand to say yes or no. And then the trouble continues. But in the beginning, with these choices, we share a common dream. What will the film be? What resources do we want to invest? What’s the point of view? It’s a package we sign on to, the spirit of the film and the practical details.
I wanted the film to be, like the book, a fresco. With a lot of music it tells a love story and not just the social aspects, the fever of these kids, a moment, an era, a valley…
What do you think? Their children after them film version?
Nicola Mathieu : I really like the movie. It moved me where the novel, I think, should have done: in the fate of the characters and in the sense of what time does to us. I was really happy about it. There are moments in the novel that are close to my heart, perhaps more about interiority, and the increase in generality, the analysis of social functioning, that I think are difficult to convey. In the film these elements are deduced but they are not there in the image. But these are the specific faculties of each media.
And vice versa, there are things that we struggle to do in literature, such as giving meaning to a glance, showing an entire landscape. And even the flesh that the actors give to the characters brings a density that is difficult to have in literature. In a book it is less immediate. And then the same momentum, the fever, the music, the physical impressions we feel, are stronger and more immediate in cinema.
How did you find the actors who play your characters?
Nicola Mathieu : The actors who play the characters… To be honest, it’s been a long time since I last reread the novel. It was published in 2018, I finished it in the spring, so we’re almost seven years later. Somehow, and even though I had already seen the film twice, the actors came between me and the book. It’s them now that I see when I think of my characters. I guess that’s a good sign.
But there are differences between my characters and the actors. I think Anthony is less cute in the book than in the movie! As I imagined the father, he was drier, gnarlier, more tense and more nervous. Hacine was also less princely, in the film he has an elegance that he doesn’t have in the book. There are some discrepancies, but that, in my opinion, does not undermine the point.
You had clear ideas about the type of cinema you wanted Their children after them ?
Nicola Mathieu : I told myself that I definitely didn’t want a film that was a social commentary, with a handheld camera and a square format. I wanted cinemascope and for it to be more on Ford’s side than… it doesn’t matter who, but I wanted it to be a little The grapes of wrathwhere we dare to tell a fresco story. Wide shots, depth of field and then the music.
Was it important to find this music, these hits from an era that are in the book, on the screen?
Nicola Mathieu : Yes, the songs mark the times, they tell something and evoke a collective unconscious. Furthermore, these are folk songs whose nobility is shown, just as we show the nobility of the characters’ characters.
Are there any specific films that inspired you while writing the book?
Nicola Mathieu : My book owes a lot to Mud by Jeff Nichols, Journey to the End of Hell by Michele Cimino. And, in general, I owe a lot to The SopranosI think you can feel it here and there in the story. It’s also made a bit like a series, with a big arc that runs through the entire book, the seasons with these four summers, each chapter with its own local issues and evolving characters. Also, in my bedside movies, I would say they are there The winner, RockyAND The Wisp.
You mentioned The Sopranos. So you’d rather be a team The Sopranos that team The threadthese two monuments that are often put in competition?
Nicola Mathieu : YES ! I think so The Sopranos it is superior because there is an existential and metaphysical side that it does not have The threadwhich is more narrowly sociological in its approach to the world it describes. That said, it’s perfect, there are different environments described, from bottom to top, with the future of the characters… But Junior Soprano, who is the boss in the first episode, and who we see in his nightgown in the ehpad in the last episodes, they become a shadow… There’s only that The Sopranos who showed it: the time that has passed.
Source: Cine Serie
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