the essential Filming of the fiction dedicated to one of the great figures of feminism in France began this Tuesday, September 26, at the Château de Saint-Léonard. It will last 20 days and will continue in other departments of the Region.
A bright sun overlooks the Château de Saint-Léonard in this last week of September. Ideal conditions for outdoor daytime filming. However, this is not what Julie Gayet and Mathieu Busson, co-directors of a future TV film on Olympe de Gouges co-produced by Motor s’il vous plait and France Télévisions, were looking for. “We were looking for very dark places because our story takes place a lot in prison, in dungeons. It’s the hard period of the Revolution,” explains the second named.
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As we will have understood, it is inside the imposing Middle Ages building, rebuilt in the 18th century, that the action of this first day of filming takes place, out of the twenty planned in total. A bathroom and dormitories have been reconstituted there to allow future viewers to experience the precarious conditions of detention in which Olympe de Gouges lived during the last months of her life, in the Petite Force infirmary in Paris, before his beheading on November 3, 1793, on the current Place de la Concorde.
A bathroom was reconstituted for the needs of filming. DDM – SEBASTIEN LAPEYRERE
To revive this oppressive atmosphere in the heart of the capital, Julie Gayet therefore focused on the Gers countryside, and more generally on Occitanie. Other scenes will be filmed in Tarn-et-Garonne, notably at the Château de Gramont, in Aveyron but also in Haute-Garonne. A choice assumed by the filmmaker, for two reasons. Firstly because Olympe de Gouges was from Montauban. “I found it important to anchor her in the region where she grew up,” underlines the actress and co-director, who herself plays the role of one of the pioneers of feminism in France. Then because this Gers that she knows well – her parents have a house near Lectoure – is full of “magnificent places, mansions or small cobbled streets” ideal for reconstructing scenes of Parisian life during the Revolution.
“Important to have figures of beautiful women from the region”
The Château de Saint-Léonard is a fine example, as Mathieu Busson attests. “There are single-storey cellars which are magnificent. We have a natural setting which is very beautiful”, maintains the co-director, who directs the scenes in which Julie Gayet is called upon to play. It must be said that the two filmmakers know each other quite well, having already co-directed the documentary FilmmakErs, dedicated to the place of female directors in the 7th art. “We are quite complementary,” confides Mathieu Busson. “She is energetic, bright, full of desire, she is a sun. I am rather thoughtful.”
Co-director Mathieu Busson (right) during a scene filmed at the Château de Saint-Léonard. DDM – SEBASTIEN LAPEYRERE
The result of this alchemy will be visible during 2024, with delivery of the film not scheduled until next spring. In the meantime, Julie Gayet is delighted to have been able to give an Occitan touch to her future film, through the landscapes and monuments of course, but also the actors and extras. “We wanted extras, actors and silhouettes who are from the region. For many, it was their first time on a set today (Tuesday). It was important for me to have female figures beautiful from the region”, insists Julie Gayet.
Julie Gayet co-directs the film and plays the role of Olympe de Gouges herself. DDM – SEBASTIEN LAPEYRERE
In total, more than 400 people – 250 extras, 34 actors, 34 silhouettes and a technical team made up of 120 people – will be mobilized on a “running” shoot which must last 20 days, not one more. After all, to deal with the life of a heroine of the Revolution, it is better to be in the heat of the action.
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