“Make a film is an adventure”: head-to-head with Christopher Thompson

What could be better than a romantic comedy to hope for a better spring?Tender and rare of Christopher Thompson, an unlikely romance between a fashion magazine director and a craftsman Boucher is a great cinema pleasure.A gourmet pleasure, worn by Géraldine Pailhas and Arnaud Ducret, charming duo between couture dress and beef mronton.

Meeting with Christopher Thompson, filmmaker touches everything

How did you have the idea of bringing together two environments as antagonistic as fashion and butcher?

Not so far away, these are two circles of tradition and crafts in the background.I wanted a romantic comedy, the principle of which is often that two different universes and two opposite characters are randomly unite.A woman, daughter of a butcher, with a brilliant career in fashion has worked to tear herself from the middle where she comes.It is above all a film on transmission and reconciliation.How we reinvent what we were bequeathed.This is valid for her with her parental heritage, but also for the bouchery profession.What we have on our plates, the pleasure of a good food with friends, the party around a meal ... These rituals that unite us and that we are so much lacking today.

Isn't that a little punk, a film on the butcher's shop in full vegan obsession?

Violent reactions would be sad because that would mean that we live in a world without nuance.What I wanted to film above all are gestures, the transmission.It is to pay tribute to those who have the love of their profession, who do it with conscience and real respect.Hugo Desnoyer was our advisor on the film.I followed him in the fairs, the report he had with breeders.He talks about the grain of meat, silk, there is a whole lexicon that can get closer to fashion.He's a smuggler between the living world and our plates.It’s a strong job that has existed since time immemorial.

What do you like in the genre of romantic comedy?

It’s a warm way to tell love.There are feelings, humor, we can afford tones, burlesque dropouts, rhythm differences ... There is a lot of freedom and a whole palette of emotions in a specific setting.It is a noble genre that gave great films, these films that we like to see and see again.

Arnaud Ducret is the great revelation of this film.

Arnaud is great!He has this natural generosity, of these great French popular actors.He has this very earthy and sexy physique at the same time, a reassuring virility.In comedy, what we like is inventing unpublished couples, two actors that we are not used to seeing together.He perfectly puts on the sensitive, nice, positive butcher costume.What a pleasure to have filmed it.

How did you manage Géraldine Pailhas, main actress of the film and your partner in life?

She carries the film.She is an extraordinary actress, a real comedy actress.We have a common taste for this genre and romantic comedy allows strong roles of women.Volunteers, energetic, who take the place, even if we do not give them them.Women who speak very quickly, who impose it and who at the same time have their vulnerability.Géraldine is a precious collaborator because she is incredibly invested.She is never in comfort, incredibly alive, reactive at the slightest vibration of a plan.

You are an actor, screenwriter, director.Do you like to kiss all the facets of cinema?

I love exploring professions.And the cinema offers all these possibilities.Explore universes projecting, being in empathy.Cinema is also a very artisanal, team, cohesion, which evolves with others.Make a movie is an adventure.It is often years in a life and that is what makes its value and its magic.

Tender and bleeding, by Christopher Thompson with Géraldine Pailhas and Arnaud Ducret, currently in theaters

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