Netflix faces the Dents de la Seine. The streaming platform presents its new French blockbuster this Wednesday, June 5. Noble Under the Seine, this political and ecological thriller has a particularly formidable sense of time. In this film by Xavier Gens (London gangs), used by Bérénice Bejo (The artist) and Nassim Lyes (new rich), a shark terrorizes Paris… in the middle of a triathlon competition.
A month before the launch of the Paris Olympic Games, the idea is all the more fun since Xavier Gens and Netflix “have done everything possible to make the film’s release coincide with the Olympic Games,” the director confesses to BFMTV. “The idea dates back to 2015-2016. I followed the development process until we offered the film to Netflix, who, with my producer Vincent Roget, started raising the question of the Olympic Games at that time.”
This is how it was born Under the Seine, inspired by an idea from producers Edouard Duprey and Sébastien Auscher, “who wanted to make a film about sharks in the Seine,” details Xavier Gens. The plot: Sophia, a scientist, is alerted by Mika, an environmental activist, to the presence of a large shark in the Seine. To prevent a bloodbath in the heart of the city, she joins forces with Adil, commander of the river police.
“Without creative limits”
Manufactured between France, Spain and Belgium, Under the Seine benefits from a very important budget for a French film, a budget that is “impossible” to obtain for a theatrical release, explains Xavier Gens. “Without Netflix and my producer who worked so hard, this movie wouldn’t exist. Asterixbut we were able to be ambitious and have images that we have rarely seen in our cinema.
“I wanted a swarm of sharks in the catacombs. We tried not to set creative limits to be able to have these images,” continues the director, whose previous film, Farang, an action thriller like the one we see especially in Indonesia or Korea, has already stood out on the French cinema scene. “I’m not going to hide that I love Serie B and today we can do it in France.”
“I wanted it to be a nice, well-done job. It is important to return to a type of quality popular cinema. With my team we try to offer a show that respects the spectators,” insists Xavier Gens.
With Under the SeineXavier Gens wanted above all to “demonize sharks.” “We could have easily remade The teeth of the sea in Paris, but that wouldn’t have been very smart of us. Above all because it is an animal that no longer scares but fascinates. We’d rather make a film about ecological collapse. The shark is just an excuse to tell a story. Whose look upward French-style. It is an indicator of what is happening.”
Ecological message
There is no second degree like in the franchise. Sharknado. “I wanted to take these types of films at face value. I used a slightly Naardesque Z-series tone, which can be complicated, in order to tell a film that expresses my obsessions and my ecological convictions, that offers dramatic irony about reality. “.
For this reason, Under the Seine It doesn’t offer a happy ending. “The message of the film is elsewhere,” smiles the director. “We follow two characters powerless in the face of what is happening. I absolutely wanted the viewer, at the end of the film, to be aware of the plastic islands that we find in the Pacific and to see the consequences of all this.”
A choice that allows Under the Seine differentiate itself from other films of the genre, Xavier Gens emphasizes: “Getting a project of this type to not have a happy ending was a form of rebellion. If you make this film among Americans, what happens in “The End of the Story” doesn’t happen. movie. It’s the luck of being French. I think that’s what will mark people. If we hadn’t found this ending, there wouldn’t have been a need for the film to exist.”
The ecological point of Under the Seine It shines even in its manufacturing. The entire film was prepared beforehand “like an animated film,” “so we have as little waste as possible.” “When we shoot a movie, we cut scenes and things go to waste. Because the movie was very expensive, we couldn’t afford to waste it. We were very meticulous and that allowed us to perfect the movie.”
“An impression of ultra realism”
Under the Seine It was only partially filmed in the Parisian river. “It was impossible to block the Seine for too long,” explains Xavier Gens. “We did the triathlon scenes in Spain, in the basin where The impossible By Juan Antonio Bayona. We did this in a pool with a lot of special effects so we had time to do it. We worked a lot on the lighting to make it very realistic.”
“We feel it when there are green funds, as in the last Mad Max” slips the director, who wanted “an impression of ultra realism” to allow the sharks, a mix of computer generated images and animatronics (robotic creatures), to stand out on the screen. “The technical heaviness should not affect the energy . of the movie. “The real challenge was there.”
Xavier Gens was also able to count on the duo Bérénice Bejo and Nassim Lyès. For the purposes of the film, Bérénice Bejo learned to freedive. Nassim Lyès, as comfortable making people laugh as he is filming action scenes, has “an Anglo-Saxon rigor” on his part. “I worked on his body day by day. He is a true work tool for him. He has the potential of a true star.” He’s already stealing the show from the sharks Under the Seine.
Source: BFM TV
