Little cousin of Little Farmer and D’Alien, The Cloud marks the revival of genre cinema in France. Its director Just Philippot recounts the grueling shooting of this film on blood-sucking grasshoppers.
This Wednesday, June 16, a film not to be missed, one of the most original French genre cinema proposals since Grave (2017). Presented as the little cousin of Little Farmer and D’Alien, The Cloud follows a woman who raises grasshoppers to produce flour. Riddled with debt and a mother of two, she must find a solution to improve her performance. Following an accident, she discovers that her grasshoppers are crazy about blood… and produce better flour.
Directed by Just Philippot, of which it is the first film, The Cloud is an idea of two screenwriters, Franck Victor and Jérôme Genevray. “The title was very promising, and sufficiently open to allow spectators to imagine a whole bunch of images before seeing the film”, explains the director, who by arriving on the project took away part of its fantastic dimension. for budgetary reasons and above all to refocus the discussion on the imbalances currently affecting the agricultural world – and could lead to its disappearance:
“I discovered a scenario that was very marked by genre cinema. There was a freedom of writing that was unfortunately not necessarily connected to the realities of production. I also wanted to be sincere, to do not a fantastic story, but a true story, which could happen to anyone. The story had to stick to this rule of capitalism which it applies excessively: produce more to sell as cheaply as possible. assured path to disaster. “
“If you miss the fire, you miss your film”
Producing cheaper for optimal results was also the business model of The Cloud. As genre cinema is still poorly received in France, budgets are at the very least limited and Just Philippot had to cunning to carry out the project: “We did not bleed ourselves, but we took a lot of risks. There were no injuries, even if there were small odds and ends. We could have missed the film several times, because there was an imbalance between the budget and the ambition of the project. “
“We have also, collectively, given a lot for this project to exist,” adds the director. “We were no longer counting our hours and at the same time fatigue set in, thus creating a support for collective creation. Everyone was in the same boat, with the feeling of making a good film. There is a force that was there. increased tenfold and that made things better. “
On the border of the fantastic, The Cloud depends in part on its atmosphere and the success of its shock effects. Some, planned for important scenes, almost did not work and endanger the film. Just Philippot remembers in particular a conversation with the supervisor of special effects, Antoine Moulineau, who notably worked on Avatar and The Dark Knight. He was worried at the idea of shooting a scene involving a fire: “If you miss the fire, you miss your film”, he told him one day on the set.
“Like a James Bond, but without the means!”
For budgetary reasons, it was impossible to take a second take: “He told me that I was going to have barely twelve minutes. So we filmed in one take, with a team on the lookout. It was like a James Bond, but without the means! We had a set to burn. If it didn’t work, we would only have our eyes to cry on. We found ourselves endangering an entire movie on stages like that. In these cases, you cannot protect yourself. There is no net. “
The Cloud of Grasshoppers, one of the highlights of the film, responded to the same requirements to obtain a very scary rendering, between a dreamlike nature specific to the fantastic and a terrifying documentary realism. Half of the budget is spent on special and visual effects to succeed in this kind of scene.
Already seasoned by his short films, Just Philippot underwent all the hardships on this shoot. He and his team experienced a rise to madness similar to that of his characters: “We experienced a descent into hell in a suffocating, asphyxiating, anxiety-provoking setting. We ourselves were surrounded by plastic. [dans les serres où sont élevées les sauterelles, NDLR]. We lived in a house that sank into the form of a pigsty. Something hard gradually took hold. “
“The grasshopper, a spider that looks like a hyena!”
Something much harder indeed than playing grasshoppers. This aspect of the film, which has so far fascinated every spectator of The Cloud, was produced with the help of Pascal Tréguy, animal keeper “who managed his grasshoppers like actors in the middle of a work system where we should not waste time”: “It is not because you have 5,000 grasshoppers that you will have more time on the set, “comments Just Philippot before detailing the techniques for managing grasshoppers:
“You lower their temperatures in a special kind of lodge. You put them to sleep a little, then you turn them on by changing the temperature. And you offer them bananas. They liked them a lot. Those scenes of interaction with a finger, a sore, even when they eat each other there is always a little banana to keep them in one place. We never struggled. We wasted very little time. “
For the shots where the grasshoppers eat blood, the team used “somewhat sweet movie blood that they love.” These scenes were shot like a documentary, with technicians on the lookout, desperate to obtain close-ups of grasshoppers that are ultimately very bewitching, which alone justify seeing the film:
“We have never seen grasshoppers with so much precision: the musculature, the shine of the shells, its design… It is really an extraordinary insect. We said to ourselves that nature was perfect: the grasshopper, c ‘is a spider that looks like a hyena! The close-up in the movie theater creates an imbalance between the viewer and the insect. We find ourselves smaller than this insect. And since there are many of them, we feel even smaller. Those close-ups are your entry into the fantastic. Once you have that, you can go deeper into the movie. “
“We need to see something new”
After the success of Grave and the upcoming releases of The Cloud and the werewolf movie Teddy, the renewal of French genre cinema seems to have been taken for granted. Just Philippot confirms this wind of renewal, instilled by “producers who want to make films differently, who want to offer manufacturing alternatives, with as in the case of The Cloud screenwriters who meet a director “:” this teamwork must be put forward. “
“My distributor told me that Julia Ducorneau had opened a path with Grave“, he adds again.” Some people have had the feeling of being missed [du film lors de sa sortie en 2017] and don’t want to miss the mark with The Cloud and Teddy. “According to him, this renewed interest in genre cinema is” linked to the series, which is moving away from classic cinema “and a” need to see the public renew itself “:” We need to see something new, whether in genre cinema or not. “
His next film, inspired by his short film Acid, on a cloud of acid which sows panic in France, should also promise “something new”.
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