email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

Franck Guérin • Director

Un jour d’été

by 

- Explorer of the intimate with a socio-political backdrop

In official competition at the Rotterdam Film Festival with his first fiction feature Un jour d’été [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(A Summer Day), Franck Guérin is also taking part in the panel of young filmmakers selected for the 3rd programme for Passion & Promises" initiated by European Film Promotion and the Dutch event. A media spotlight amply merited by the 33 year old French director who has already built up a solid reputation in documentaries and short and medium length fiction.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)


Cineuropa: what was the road that brought you to Un jour d’été?
I juggled TV documentaries and fiction, which I started when I was very young, 21 years old when I directed my first short. The documentaries were mostly commissioned, but I got heavily involved in some of them, notably in Nous, enfants d'homos (2004 – Arte) and La route sanglante, sur les traces de Francis Heaulme (2005) which I co-directed. The criminal world interests me, not for its "shady" aspects, but for its links with the way society functions, the way the justice system operates in France. Its these elements which nourish my writing work and my fiction.

What inspired the screenplay for Un jour d’été?
I went off to the States for a few months, in relative isolation and paradoxically I wrote about an atmosphere and a setting close to my past sinceUn jour d’été takes place in a village in the Vendée similar to the one I grew up in. This provincial atmosphere, the ambiance between the young people: these are things I know well because I lived them. Then, I stumbled upon the facts about accidents in municipal buildings (the goal-frame from a football pitch in the film) and which called the mayor’s office into question. This theme interested me because of its social and political dimensions: to find out who we could hold responsible when these kind of events happen, in an age where misfortune is no longer in fashion in a certain sense. But above all it’s a hook on which to hang the more intimate things, since what interests me most in the film is an ordinary person who has an extraordinary thing happen to him and who finds himself in a crisis. With the accident, I kept the dramatic dimension of the film which follows the story of Sébastien and Michael, deep in a very exclusive friendship. Michael’s strong personality impresses Sébastien, but it’s him that the accident befall and he is the one who dies. So Sébastien’s life takes on a whole new perspective, one he never imagined, he has no reference because he relied completely on his friend. There is a social and political dimension, but the film deals more with how all that affect more intimate matters.

What influence has documentary making had on your fiction directing?
I don’t have a so-called natural documentary style like the Dardenne brothers for example. I like to mix the genres, to film a scene with the camera on the shoulder to give a natural look to a scene and the acting and then, suddenly, move on to a scene which is much more "symbolic". I like to shuffle the pack, upset the spectator’s reading of the piece and his feelings, but I do try and do it with parsimony so as not to fall into something too stylish. And I am not for a cinema that is too talkative either (even though I enjoy this about French cinema) and my characters are, for the most part, silent. Above all, I rarely go for psychological explanations. In Un jour d’été, the characters appear sometimes to act strangely, with motivations that are not particularly evident, and I think it’s like that in life.

What are your tastes in cinema?
Quite eclectic, but I could mention A nos amours by Maurice Pialat, which is not very original coming from a Frenchman. Michelangelo Antonioni is also a reference for me, but I also like John Carpenter, which is not very obvious when you watch my films (laughs). I am very happy and flattered to have been selected for Rotterdam, mostly because this festival takes an interest in independent filmmakers, in a spirit of inquiry which suits my film.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy