Big joke or reinvention of science fiction? Bruno Dumont is unsettling again The Empire, Proofreading from war of stars ch'tis version, which hits French cinemas on Wednesday.
This cinematic UFO, starring Fabrice Luchini in the unruly incarnation of absolute evil or actresses Anamaria Vartolomei (The Event), Lyna Khoudri (The Three Musketeers) and Camille Cottin (Ten Percent, Stillwater), is in the running for the Bear Prize. or next Saturday at the Berlin Film Festival.
“It’s not a parody of Star Wars,” the cult saga by Georges Lucas, and “it’s not about being fun,” emphasized Bruno Dumont in Berlin.
Even if the film's comic potential relies largely on the gap between lightsabers and everyday life in a humble village in northern France.
“There are a few quotes, but I didn't want to repeat the story. There are references to major science fiction films, including “Star Wars” and “Planet of the Apes,” he adds. “I wanted to do a science fiction film because I really like space operas, which are a way to tackle complex questions like the origin of the world while staying in my terrestrial universe,” he continued.
A mixture of amateur actors and celebrities, semi-improvisation, constant search for discrepancies: L'Empire, shot on the beaches of the north, will not surprise those who already know the unique universe that Dumont develops in his P'tit Quinquin or in Ma Loute has .
By adding a more casual plot involving a baby who is the subject of a battle between the forces of good and evil, the “Ones” and the “Zeros”, with the Earth and its people serving as a playground.
Officially, “The Empire” tells “the origins of the world, why we are confused into good and evil,” Dumont summarized.
“There are both superheroes who come from space for whom it was important to take professional actors who are cinematic heroes and portray them [humains]Anti-heroes to accommodate laypeople,” he explained.
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The director from Bailleul (North), an unclassifiable figure, from the sulphurous Twentynine Palms of 2003 to the mystical Jeanne, a sung adaptation by Charles Péguy of the life of Joan of Arc, knows how to cause a stir and the to attract the biggest stars of the universe, from Juliette Binoche (Camille Claudel, 1915) to Léa Seydoux (France).
Adèle Haenel was part of the cast of L'Empire for a while before slamming the door and judging the film's content as “sexist and racist,” the French magazine Télérama reported in 2023.
On the set “there was no script in the classic sense, it's very literary, like a novel,” said Lyna Khoudri in Berlin, worried that she sometimes didn't know whether it was her or her acting partner. She should say a reply.
On the amateur side, “we don't read a script to preserve the part of the innocence and nature that we have at home,” says Brandon Vlieghe, who joined this troupe.
For the production of this one-hour and 50-minute film, Dumont explained that he wanted to use considerable resources to avoid the cardboard paste effect. These include breathtaking spaceships, derived from architectural marvels: the Sainte-Chapelle for the camp of the good guys, the Palace of Caserta in Naples for his opponents.
It is therefore important to convince beyond the limited audience of Bruno Dumont lovers. His films only attract tens of thousands of viewers; they rarely have more than 100,000 visitors. With the exception of a popular success in 2016 with Ma Loute and its 560,000 entries.