Dany Boon and Kad Merad, third. The duo, who topped the box office with welcome home of the Ch’tis (2008) and superchondriac (2014), is being reformed for a new comedy, real lifewhose release is scheduled for this Wednesday.
“welcome home of the Ch’tisIt is the best gift I have been given in my acting career. Finding Dany is crazy,” Kad Merad exclaims into the BFMTV microphone. “We are nine years later [‘Supercondriaque’]But I feel like a month has passed!”
danny boon embodies Tridan Lagache, a naive 50-year-old boy who has spent his life at Club Med. Overnight, he leaves the vacation club where he was born and flies to Paris, where he hopes to find his great love of youth, Violette.
She stays with Louis (Kad Merad), a half-brother she didn’t know existed. To get rid of this annoying guest, Louis begs one of his conquests, Roxane, to pose as Violette, whom Tridan thinks he recognizes at first sight…
real life is the eighth film written and directed by Dany Boon, and the first for the cinema since The Ch’tite family (2018). His previous, Humanity Street 8 (2021), a lockdown comedy, was made especially for Netflix.
Accompanied by his actors Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kad Merad, Dany Boon tells BFMV behind the scenes of his first romantic comedy as a director.
What prompted you to write a romantic comedy?
Dany Bon: I never had the idea of doing a romantic comedy. In all my films I have the feeling that there are love stories.
Kad Merad: But there it takes up space…
Dany Bon: I didn’t realize it. What I was interested in was finding a good motivation for Tridan to leave the club at 50. It’s a strong motivation, love.
These romantic scenes are the most striking in the film.
Kad Merad: That’s good for me!
Dany Bon: But you are romantic at some point.
Kad Merad: No, I’m watching you love yourself. My favorite scene is the one where you’re talking in the cafe. It’s super beautiful. There’s incredible chemistry between you. It’s my favorite scene, and yet it’s not the funniest. You can also love a comedy because there is emotion in it.
Dany Bon: Emotion brings quality to laughter, and depth.
Another striking scene in the film is the one in which Charlotte Gainsbourg jumps on Dany Boon to kiss him passionately…
Dany Bon: It’s my favorite scene, because the whole movie takes place there. Kad arrives almighty with the Machiavellian project of his. It works because I am very naive and I believe in it. And suddenly, she takes over.
Charlotte Gainsbourg: It was my first day.
Dany Bon: For Charlotte, it was a little difficult to start with that scene.
Charlotte Gainsbourg: Yeah, and at the same time, it was nice to have a great comedy scene where I didn’t have too many questions to ask myself. It was easy to play, thanks to them. Given his complicity, given the team, I never felt uncomfortable. It was really nice to shoot and feel like it made people laugh. Comedy can be awkward if you don’t like it.
Dany Bon: It is my greatest pride in this film to have made this trio work.
Charlotte Gainsbourg, you contacted Dany Boon directly about acting in the film. Because?
Charlotte Gainsbourg: Because I had her number! (laughs) he is Yvan’s friend. [Attal]. we had met I saw the film of him, humanity street 8, and I thought it was stupid not to tell people that we love them, that we want to work with them. He was sincere and I took the liberty of sending him a text. He replied that it made him happy.
Dany Bon: I was crazy!
Charlotte Gainsbourg: Later I found out he was working on a movie and he offered me a part. I couldn’t believe it was so easy.
The other star of the movie is a dove. How did this idea come about?
Dany Bon: Benny, my mom’s friend, picked up a pigeon from a large parking lot. He was half dead and healed him. He taught her to walk again. He sent videos to my mother where we see him walking the pigeon. And finally the dove died. The idea comes from there.
Kad Merad: And the pigeon is really an actor!
Dany Bon: The pigeon was trained by Muriel Bec, who takes care of the animals in my films. She was born to film. She got used to being in her hands. He was there, happy to be with us. We laughed a lot with him.
Kad Merad: He has an agent and everything now. There it is in the next Pirates of the Caribbean, I believe! (laughs)
Dany Bon: Yeah, but he negotiated a shitty salary, they screwed him up!
Dany Boon, your films are often inspired by your past. What is personal to you at La Vie pour vrai?
Dany Bon: My arrival in Paris. And my childhood love. My mother came to the set of The Chti’te family with my love CM2. He was very embarrassed. My mother was dying of laughter. We were happy to see each other, to greet each other. We remember how we absolutely loved each other in CM2. It’s beautiful when you love each other in those moments. The first emotions of love are a chemical thing that is created in the body, but of a force. It’s like a volcanic eruption.
You were talking about your arrival in Paris. Did you feel as out of step as your character?
Dany Bon: Inappropriate. I was naive, sincere. I got fucked like Tridan. At one point, I was drawing. There was paris boom boom at the time [un journal gratuit qui paraissait le lundi dans la capitale, NDLR]. There was an ad to sell screen prints. They gave me a street vendor card. I went through the police: the card was fake. I had to pay a fine that was ten times what I had earned in a month. It was horrible.
Kad Merad, this movie marks your meeting with Dany Boon. Does your complicity help you to improve the film, to go further?
Kad Merad: It is a double-edged sword. I don’t want to disappoint him, because he is my friend, he offered me an important role. It’s always the events, the Dany Boon movies. I have to rise to the occasion. Knowing him well puts pressure on me, but it allows me to offer things to him more easily and quickly.
What kind of director is Dany Boon?
Kad Merad: He knows what he wants. He will force you to do what he wants. Behind his absolute demand, there is a lot of freedom and pleasure. It’s a quality in comedy. I love directors who just take you for an actor. Not for a personality.
Dany Bon: This is the worst part: You arrive on a set and the director expects you to be funny to save a fragile and unfunny scene. it is appalling
What will your next movie be? You mentioned a scenario a few years ago about the arrival of 5G…
Dany Bon: It is true that I had that. I have a complete script. It was a mayor of a town in a white area.
Kad Merad: We also had a comedy project about insurance, in Marseille.
Dany Bon: I still have it.
Kad Merad: Maybe we will one day!
Source: BFM TV
