Canal+ is broadcasting a light comedy this Tuesday, October 8, 2024 at 9:10 p.m.: Iris and men. A film also available on the platform MyCanal, signed Caroline Vignal (Antoinette in the Cévennes)… And worn by Laure Calamy playing a forty-year-old, mother of two children and married for 16 years to Stéphane, played by Vincent Elbaz (who had refused to play in the second part of The Truth if I lie). But faced with the total emptiness of her sex life and on the advice of a stranger, Iris signs up on a dating app.
How did the idea for the film come about? Iris and men ?
By telling the story of a woman who sets out to reclaim her desire, Caroline Vignal confides that she has drawn on her own experience, or rather that of a friend, Juliette: “It was four years ago. The last time I saw my friend Juliette, she was recovering as best she could, well rather poorly, from her separation; her husband had left overnight, after twenty years of living together. Juliette was then 51 years old – the age at which we women are struck by invisibility, according to some. But that evening, at this party, we only saw her. She beamed. A few days later, Juliette told me the story of the months during which we had lost sight of each other. Seeing her wasting away, a friend encouraged her to register on a dating site. She told me about the likes that had boosted her damaged ego, the dick-picks arriving in bursts while she worked, the lunar dates, the rediscovered youth, the flamenco dancer lover 15 years her junior with whom she smoked joints. in the afternoon… ‘It’s raining men!’, she laughed, euphoric. That evening, my film was born: it already had its song!” confides Caroline Vignal in the press kit.
Iris and men : a reunion between Laure Calamy and filmmaker Caroline Vignal
Four years after their collaboration in the charming comedy Antoinette in the Cévennes, Iris and men marks the reunion between Laure Calamy and filmmaker Caroline Vignal. And if the director describes the actress as“extraordinary ally“and“alter ego“, her presence in the film was not obvious, as she told it for the film’s press kit: “However, I didn’t immediately see her as Iris. Very restrained at the start of the film, Iris is an accomplished woman, at least in appearance, established in a privileged life, ticking all the boxes of the bourgeoisie. Laure had never played such characters before. With the film’s costume designer, hairdresser and makeup artist, we tried to give it a classic, out-of-fashion, very demure look. But Iris’ wardrobe evolves while the character opens up, comes to life, is re-sexualized.” And to conclude: “Iris is getting younger! We had to feel it, we had to see it. Laure took part in the game with enthusiasm and generosity. Laure’s body and face are like a manifesto in my eyes. They do not correspond to the standards imposed by cinema, television, fashion, for decades. In this, I know that it helps women to reconcile with their image“.
