Interview-. The French actor plays the main character of Michel Gondry’s new film. Solution bookin theaters on September 13.
When Pierre Nini talks about the director in which he plays Solution book, his speech enamels all the love he has for his “cinema godfather”. Presented at the Cannes Film Festival, this new opus by Michel Gondry tells the story of the downfall of a director who sets out with his team to Céves to finish a film he refuses to see edited. The incredible and confusing situations in which the hero drowns only add tenderness to this fiercely humorous feature film. Rarely have mental health issues generated so many laughs in the screening room at Cannes.
Madame Figaro: What attracted you to the idea of making this film?
Pierre Niney: Michael Gondry! A director who is a great master of imagination, childhood and melancholy. I am such a fan of his work. The Eternal Sun of the Immaculate Mind obviously, Human nature, Be kind Rewind, but also from all the videos he did with Daft Punk, Rolling Stones, Beyonce, Björk and more. At the César Revelations evening in 2012, the organization asked me to choose a “cinema sponsor”. I chose him, thinking he would not accept, and he gladly came. Once in a while we wrote to each other, then he told me. “Hey, I’ve got this movie. I want you to play it. You can’t say no.” As a godchild, if I refused, it would cause family drama. I was excited. Being able to tell yourself. “I’m going to Gondry” is a phrase that has great subtlety.
Pierre Nini plays Marc, a director who escapes to a small village in the Cevennes to finish his film. Joker movies
In the video, Solution bookextract
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Your personality is both very endearing and completely unbearable. What do you like most about him?
I like the fragility of it. You should know that the film talks about the real torment in the life of Michel Gondry. He had a big project on his shoulders and, at the same time, he realized that he had psychological problems. I love the idea of bringing this difficult subject to light. It is also interesting to tell what happens in the head of a modern genius when he realizes that he has to take care of himself by continuing to make films. He still goes through delusional phases, and the collision of this issue represents much of this madness. Ten years ago, I talked a lot with Michel and the people around him. Even the evil in my character, an evil that I really like, is pretty honest about what he’s been through. I love this character in every way, just like I love Michelle in real life.
Françoise Lebrun plays the aunt of Pierre Nine’s character Solution book. Joker movies
What was your biggest challenge in this film?
Definitely integrating Michelle’s game notes well. For example, he asked me to run around the village three times and come back. He told me: “We keep shooting, and when you’re done, you reenact the scene where you confide a secret to another character. But you don’t have to stare. On paper, it doesn’t really have any obvious connection. This is the strength of Michel Gondry, who is creative even in his direction of actors. Actually, I like things to be unexpected and crazy, but sometimes it can be difficult. When you run alone in the village for ten minutes, you wonder what you are doing there. In the end, it was a very good film experience and a shoot that did me very well. In interesting anecdotes, you should know that this village really belongs to Michel Gondry’s aunt. It’s even his real home.
Your character refuses to watch his movie, wakes up his teams in the middle of the night, has incredible requests… How do you explain that Charlotte and Sylvia, the two women who work with him, don’t leave him sooner?
Artists who have original ways of working, such as Michel Gondry, may take longer to surround themselves with people who are made to work with them. But after a while they finally find the ones it will work with. What the film tells about the relationship between his editor and his assistant is that it goes beyond work and that there is a bond of human understanding between them. But also respect for Michelle’s creative process, which is exciting in places and very difficult in others. Sure, he doesn’t wake people up at two in the morning anymore, but when he was going through this crisis, these are the things he did.
90% of what seems to be the craziest thing in the movie happened to Michel Gondry
Pierre Niney
In addition, all the most incredible moments of the film actually happened. In a strange way, he invented the simplest jokes. He actually fired the conductor for conducting the orchestra with his body because he didn’t know how else to do it. 90% of the craziest thing in the movie happened to Michelle. When he arrives in front of the music studio and the man in front of him has a bad fly, it may seem crazy and fake, but it really happened. Another example, he could tell me. “Do you see the actor in front of you? He’s the real guy who was there in the moment. And another note. like his character, he really thought he killed someone…
Beautiful is the way Michel Gondry perfects the politeness of despair
Pierre Niney
In Cannes, for example, people come and tell us: “This movie did us a lot of good, we laughed a lot.” When Michelle hears this compliment, she is quite torn. On the one hand, he is happy, but on the other hand, he finds it difficult to understand that the most nightmarish period of his life is so comical. I think it’s pretty crazy to make a mental health issue so ridiculous. We realize that this character does a lot of bad things, but what’s beautiful is how Michel Gondry pulls off the politeness of desperation to perfection. He will never leave the audience behind for entertainment and poetry. Even if he talks about himself, that he is very bad, his modesty and sense of cinema will make him make an object with an image to represent the world. I mean, a bit silly and nonsensical.
Pierre Nini improvises himself as a conductor, a sequence inspired by the experience of Michel Gondry, who found a system for directing musicians with his body. Joker movies
In the film, Mark, your character, says: What’s the point of being a director if you’re not a cook? We feel that he is losing control, that he is not listening to anyone…
At this point in his life, he alternated between manic and depressive phases. The smallest idea that he wants to implement can become sensational in his eyes. So people who try to curb his desires and order his demands end up disappointing him terribly. The benevolent women around him, however, try to tell him. “If we do what you want, we’ll never make the movie.” To make a film about this period of his life, he had to respect his modesty while adding fantasy. Fantasy is Michel Gondry’s trademark. Amazing on images, bringing handmade pictures into his film… It’s special to his universe. He’s a director who knows what he wants, but also listens. For example, during the transition in the studio with Sting, there are improvised lines, suggestions that did not come from him and which he accepted.
This director always puts off watching the editing of his film, that’s the common thread of this story. You, like him, tend to procrastinate and run away.
Like Michel Gondry, I’m very good at the avoidance strategy. Besides, I never watch my movies. I don’t know if it’s because of this or just because I don’t want to see myself, but I often find myself in this situation. My character will never want to see a character from his movie again, while convincing himself that he will do it the next day and that it is more important to do right now. I can be like that, so it wasn’t so difficult to find myself in him.
I mean, you don’t watch your movies?
I see them once in preview and then never again.
Source: Le Figaro
