TOon the eve of twenty-ninth birthday, Nino Clavel receives very bad news. Accustomed as he is to postponing decisions and underestimating commitments, he is now forced to face reality, forced as he is within three days to make a choice that will change his future. Everything appears in a new light, the meetings, the chats with old friends, a fleeting comparison with an ex, a moment of profound intimacy with his mother (Jeanne Balibar).
And then there is Paris, no city lends itself more to wandering: while walking, Nino listens to the world, to others and to himself. Pauline Loquès, in her first filmsigns the delicate portrait of a young man struggling with his own mortality. The film, which will be released April 30th at the cinemawon two César awards: Théodore Pellerin, Canadian actor, took home the statuette as best male hope and the film won the best debut award. There were many other subsequent awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at the Rome Film Festival.
Nino falls into the very French tradition of flânerie (aimless wandering). Maybe he got it Cléo from 5 to 7 by Agnès Varda, in which the protagonist wandered while awaiting the outcome of a medical test, as a reference? Why did you decide to explore the question of mortality so lightly?
I didn’t say to myself: I do the male version of Cleo. But I think I have, in common with that film and its author, the desire to verify how possible it is to change someone’s life in a short time. For Varda it was two hours. For me a few days. However, these are short trajectories. The theme arrived even before the references. In my family there was the case of a man suffering from cancer. But I didn’t want to write her story, it was too sad… When I sat down at the computer the tone came by itself, I didn’t say to myself I’ll make a comedy or I’ll make a drama, but I knew I wanted to say that life goes on despite the drama. This brought lightness.
Théodore Pellerin is “Nino” by Pauline Loquès.
Is she Parisian? Walker?
I was born and raised in Cannes, I moved to Paris at 21. I walk a lot in Paris, it’s a city that offers endless opportunities to encounter beauty, each neighborhood is different, it’s like many cities in one. Paris has a very strong vital power.
We leave the film reflecting on the importance of meetings and bonds, and understand that the basic ones, family, friends, are the only ones capable of creating a saving affective constellation.
It’s an identity film, it bears the name of its protagonist! And there is something mysterious about him, it seems that he exists, that he materializes only in contact with others. We are what we are because of the relationships that form and define us, I am convinced of this. Nino is a different man in the gaze of his mother, of his best friend and in that of the girl he finds again and who perhaps will be a love in his future. I wondered as I wrote: «Why does he never find the right person to accompany him to the hospital? Why isn’t anyone up to it?” Sometimes it’s not enough to be close to be able to help.
The desire to have children
Then there is the theme of future, potential, elusive fatherhood. The question creates an atmosphere that is almost thriller-like…
I was a little intimidated by the idea of doing a portrait of a man. And ask myself the question of the desire to have children from the male point of view, as I already have two of my own. The question of the biological clock never arises for men, always for women. I wanted to introduce an accelerated biological clock. And I wanted the “sex scene” to say something about these new generations. We don’t know if he will have children with this girl he meets, but the sperm he will put aside come from this original experience he lived with her. I wanted to play with these very contemporary themes.
Nino, at the cinema on April 30th.
Female directors make up 20% of the total in France. It’s not much but there are more of you than in the past. Is anything changing?
It’s my first film and without a doubt it was women who inspired me: Justine Triet, Rebecca Zlotowski, Céline Sciamma, Valérie Donzelli. No one told me: “You’ll never make it because you’re a woman”, but the barriers still exist. Making a film takes a lot of time, family life has to be put aside for a while. But I feel that there is great solidarity among female directors, there is a virtuous movement. There is still shyness, hesitation, but it will change. Also thanks to the fact that there are more producers.
You come from radio and journalism.
I didn’t go to film school and for the first film I chose a tough theme. It’s not like everyone tells you: “Oh well, a film about cancer.” The word is scary.
Pauline Loques. © Marie Rouge /Unifrance.
Growing up in Cannes, a seaside city
Once you have worked on reality it is difficult to abandon it.
It’s true, we feel like traitors. And it’s unforgivable. What brought me to where I am was journalism, I’m a curious person, I like listening to people, telling their stories. I could have made a documentary, but I like actors too much. They told me that Théodore Pellerin, who plays Nino, acts in a naturalistic way and for me it is a great compliment: to make fiction as if it were true.
Does growing up in Cannes encourage cinephilia?
Contrary to what you might imagine, Cannes is not a city of cinema, it is a seaside city. When the weather is nice, we don’t go to the cinema, we go to the beach. Cannes is cinema for only 10 days a year. My film wasn’t even shown in Cannes: my mother sent a protest email!