Florent Bernard: “Judd Apatow is my absolute god”
Florent Bernard signs with Nous les Leroy a very personal first film which moves between couple comedy and social satire. Interview at L’Alpe d’Huez.
We have already said all the good things we think about We Leroys, a bittersweet comedy carried by a perfect cast. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Sandrine Leroy, a woman determined to leave her husband, Christophe, played by a thunderous José Garcia. The latter, in a last burst, then offers his family a last-chance weekend. Starts a road trip between Autun and Dijon to pick up the pieces… Between two red slopes, we discussed influences and nostalgia with the director Florent Bernard (known for his floodcast and his screenwriting skills on La Flamme ou Vermine) who signs here his first feature film.
What is immediately striking in the film is the nostalgic look. This rotten old Land Rover which travels the roads of Burgundy, Sardou as the soundtrack and Luis Rego as a guest star…
We Leroys is a film that resonates a lot with my personal story and the nostalgic look you speak of was both conscious and unconscious. Aware because that’s all I’m talking about! It’s the story of a guy who tries to relive his past life and understands that the world has changed. The scene in the park is eloquent: when he goes to see the place where he proposed to his wife, he discovers the bench where they were sitting. On it a guy wrote “I suck at 06 08…”. Life has been there and spared nothing. This is the deep theme of the film. But it’s also a bit of an unconscious feeling because I’m a deeply nostalgic person myself. I’m trying to treat myself, or rather let’s say I’m trying to be less so. I could have gone, like José Garcia’s character, to visit my childhood apartment to see what had become of it. I really have that thing in me.
What supports this nostalgic aspect is also that everything is seen from a child’s perspective… Things take on surprising, even epic dimensions – a street fight becomes a battle of titans.
Totally. From the start, I wanted to tell this story through the prism of kids. It also happens that we filmed where I grew up and that obviously plays on the tone of the film. The surroundings of Dijon, Autun… I always thought they were movie sets. When I was making my short films with my friends, I told myself that these shopping areas, with these Buffalo Grills or these dealerships, looked like settings from the Wild West. No height, very horizontal… There was a fantasy side that I liked.
You say Far West we think Western: what were your cinema references?
It’s a film with a lot of dialogue and I wanted a lot of movement, for it to be ample. My culture is rather American. The big influence of this film was At the end of the race by Lumet. There were Hal Ashby’s films too… all this cinema which touched me, which still touches me, which captures life and its movements. It’s towards that – without comparing myself eh! – that I wanted to take We Leroys.
You only mention American references, even though the film seems very French. There is a side Tandem in the way you film abandoned France…
It’s crazy that you mention this film: I put the poster up in the office when we were working in production. I told the team: “there we are, we’re all going to watch Tandem and you will understand the feeling! “. I even wrote a letter to Patrice Leconte so that he could make an appearance in the film – unfortunately that couldn’t happen. He’s one of my favorite directors, along with Jaoui and Bacri as well. What I love about them is the way in which their writing, made of punchlines and chiseled replies, never sacrifices the characters. They exist and we feel that they love them deeply. Look at The taste of Others. You can’t do worse than Jean-Pierre Bacri’s character: he’s racist, stupid, uneducated, but deep down he’s human. I wanted my characters to exist like that! Let the spectators believe in them and find them endearing, however stupid or weak they may be…
The scene at the restaurant made me think of We know the song. For the way of moving forward in balance between drama and comedy and the desire to transfigure reality at the same time.
For me, all the people we are talking about here – Bacri, Jaoui, Resnais or Leconte – have proven that good comedy also allows modesty. This modesty invites us to talk about very serious things but lightly. Above all, I didn’t want to look down on my characters or make fun of them or the subject. It’s sad what’s happening to them. On the other hand, what we can do is laugh despite everything. Nothing has meaning in life so you might as well laugh a little so that the pill goes down better. And that’s what these filmmakers do – with Klapisch as well. I really digested all this French comedy at the same time as the American comedy we were talking about: Cameron Crowe, Ashby…
Judd Apatow ?
He is apart. This is my absolute God!
Everything you say is basically embodied in the character of José Garcia. What he does in the film is impressive. We love him as much as we begin to hate him. Because he still has a bit of a petty, crude side to him. It’s a product of old-fashioned patriarchy.
When writing his character, I tried to embrace all the family’s points of view. I said to myself if I were my mother or if I was my partner, what would be the worst thing a guy could do in front of me? Bang on the table, explode, let out a “Who’s calling you?” » when the phone rings. It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s super toxic. He’s a 50-year-old character and clearly, he’s not evil. On the other hand, it is indeed a pure product of patriarchy. An old-fashioned guy who doesn’t hit his wife, isn’t an alcoholic, tries to be a good father while not knowing how to talk to his children…
This is where the film goes from very personal to very universal at heart.
That was kind of the meaning of the title. We Leroys : it refers us to everyone. It’s a collective us. But there was also the idea that the father is trying to put the pieces back together, to save what can still be saved, the family. There was the masterpiece of separation, Kramer vs. Kramer, so I, at my humble level, wanted the film to be about family. We are together, despite the separation. Well, I’m giving away a lot of keys here, and I don’t want too much spoiler the film.
It’s very difficult to talk about the actual film. Because it is always surprising, constantly in balance between different feelings and atmospheres.
The pitch is not very original. It’s even a genre in itself. The family who must pick up the pieces on a road trip… There are a thousand films like that. During the preparation, I discovered that François Uzan was preparing We smile for the photo, and we were very scared. The subject was the same: a guy goes with his family to their vacation spots in order to win back his wife… François is a friend so he showed me the film and I understood that it had nothing to do with it. But it proves that the family road trip is a well-mapped genre and that’s where the filmmaker’s perspective will make the difference.
The other difference is also that this road trip is on the move: the Leroys are going from Autun to Dijon…
Because ultimately the real journey is between them!
