Behind the scenes of French comedies (2/5) – This fall, BFMTV reveals the secrets of extraordinary, cult or unusual comedy films. Today, Radin!.
Dany Boon stingy, mean and even violent: in Radin!the star of Welcome to the Ch'tisaccustomed to the roles of great naive blunderers, did not hesitate to break her image to make her fans laugh and surprise. A risk that pays off. Released in 2016, this rereading of The Miser by Molière – the darkest and most acid comedy of his filmography – is one of the biggest successes of Dany Boon's career.
Without being his Tchao Pantin, Radin! offers the comic one of its most complex and extreme roles. An outstanding musician struck by a greed that pushes him to commit the most abject acts, François Gautier sees his life turned upside down when he falls in love and discovers that he has a 16-year-old daughter whose existence he did not know.
Dany Boon owes this unique role in his career to Fred Cavayé. If the latter made himself known with his muscular thrillers (For her, Point blank), this great lover of Hara-Kiri and Gotlib began his career writing for the king of comedy Claude Zidi and signing the scripts for popular comedies like The War of the Misses with Benoît Poelvoorde or RTT with Kad Merad.
It all started when Eric Jehelman, producer of For hertells him about a promising script by Nicolas Cuche and Laurent Turner about a cheapskate. The project was financed, but all the star actors refused the role. Fred Cavayé is tempted by the challenge. He read the script and went to Brittany for three weeks to rewrite everything. “When you see the film, you can feel it. There are a lot of references to Brittany,” he smiles.
poker move
When he embarked on this rewriting work, in May 2014, Fred Cavayé had just suffered a resounding failure three months earlier with his previous film, My faultun thriller with Gilles Lellouche and Vincent Lindon. “You’re making a film, you don’t have a script,” Le Figaro mocked the front page. Despite this dig, Fred Cavayé does not write Radin! in a spirit of revenge, but to “return only to pleasure”.
Once the scenario is finished, Fred Cavayé tries a poker game. To embody his obsessive cheapskate, he only sees Dany Boon. But he has already refused the first version of the scenario. The actor, who receives the new version on a Friday, recalls the Monday according to Fred Cavayé, won over by the text. “It’s funny, my wife read it too. She cried at the end,” Dany Boon told him.
The comedian is seduced by this new version of the scenario which allows him to move from naive roles à la Bourvil to villainous characters à la Louis de Funès. Only downside: while in full preparation for his next film as director, Crazy raidDany Boon doesn't have time, unless he shoots two months later. “I told him banco and we went filming two months later,” remembers Fred Cavayé.
Two months of preparation, however, is not much. “Often, if we have time, we can refine the script and remove what is not necessarily essential. And so there, as we lacked time, this is the film where I shot the most things that , in the end, found themselves (not) mounted.” For these reasons, filming is complex. Long days. In nine weeks, they shot what should have taken 13.
Like Mr Bean
To complete the project, Fred Cavayé surrounded himself with the best technicians. Laurent Dailland, the cinematographer of sophisticated comedies like Cleopatra Mission by Alain Chabat, takes care of the lighting. Klaus Badelt, collaborator of Hans Zimmer on Gladiator et Pirates of the Caribbeanis in the credits. The budget is 11.5 million euros – including 7-8 million just for the pure production of the film.
Despite these time constraints, the filming took place in a joyful atmosphere. “It happened like when I made my short films. Just as quickly. And it was incredible, with an energy where we all wanted to make the film. We were all happy to be there.”
In full preparation of Crazy Raidwhere he must play a member of GIGN, Dany Boon must gain muscle. His intensive preparation to transform him does not prevent him from being credible as an autarkic cheapskate. “I was lucky. He was in a dry period and it got thicker after the film. It made his face look a little emaciated and given that his character only eats half portions to avoid spending too much, that will stick completely.”
After Supercondriaquea film in the tradition of Imaginary Sick, Radin! allows Dany Boon to slip into the skin of another Molière archetype, that of the miser. In Radin!Dany Boon also looks like Mr. Bean. Dressed in a single costume to accentuate the stingy side of his character, he has the appearance of a cartoon hero.
Failure announced
Deeply burlesque film, Radin! also surprises with a moving ending. A difficult balance to achieve. “It's always complicated when you have a very second-level character to suddenly bring him back to the first level so that he can move you. Because we are only moved by real things.”
“There, what’s interesting is that we make a very caricatured character throughout the film to make people laugh and all of a sudden, he really starts to cry and he drops the armor,” continues Fred Cavayé. “(Dany) plays the scene as if we weren't in a comedy. And there, indeed, it becomes frontal and that's what worked. Especially since we're not at all used to see him like that.”
Despite this final dramatic dimension, Dany Boon did not consider Radin! like his Tchao Pantinthe film which revealed Coluche as a dramatic actor. “Dany is one of the only ones who has never chased,” insists Fred Cavayé. “He has great respect for his audience and I think he says to himself that his audience, perhaps, does not want to see him in roles that make you cry. He is so fulfilled in his profession that he does not no need to go and artificially create other things.”
If everything goes well, the situation gets worse a few weeks before the release. The entire profession predicts failure for the film. The tone and image of the film, considered too dark, are displeasing. “(They don’t say it) not to me, but to the producer,” remembers Fred Cavayé. “We hear that this is going to be Dany's first failure, (that we are) going to have 600,000-700,000 admissions. That's a lot of admissions for a film as a general rule, but for Dany it was very, very few. (In) the profession, there is not only kindness.”
A huge risk
In theaters September 28, 2016, Radin! is, however, a dazzling success. A million spectators flock to theaters in the first week. In total, the film attracted 2,920,360 admissions. Out Asterix & Obelix In the service of his Majesty and his own achievements, this is the highest score for a comedy starring Dany Boon. On television, the film has become a sure bet and attracts an average of between 4 and 6 million each time it is broadcast.
“I think what works in my favor is that the public thinks it’s a Dany film and I think the film worked because it looks like a Dany film,” analyzes Fred Cavayé. He savors this success all the more as the director had in reality taken a huge risk in agreeing to shoot Radin!.
“I had no interest in going to a film like that,” he explains. “After (the failure of) My faultif I had stuck with a very mainstream comedy with Dany Boon, I would never have been able to make films again. But I didn't have time to think about that (while preparing Radin!). If I had thought about (my) career, I would have gone and done something much less risky.”
Fred Cavayé and Dany Boon met last spring on The Goats. An even riskier bet than Radin!. But this historical comedy, where the actor plays a lawyer responsible for defending a goat accused of murder, was a bitter failure. “The film is so off-kilter in every place (that) no one knew what it was about.” A UFO that could become cult in a few years.
