For Corsican high school students, anatomy of the profession of film producer

“I like to see the film being created, touching on all the positions a little”. Marie-Ange Luciani, producer of multi-awarded films “Anatomy of a Fall” et “120 beats per minute”returned this week to her former high school in Ajaccio to reveal to the students the behind the scenes of her profession.

Six Caesars, an Oscar, a Palme d’Or, two Golden Globes, a Bafta… Justine Triet’s legal thriller, “Anatomy of a Fall”almost won everything.

The producer also brought her César for best film so that the students of the Laetitia Bonaparte high school in Ajaccio could experience the dream, as part of the operation “an artist at school”.

She retraces her journey. After studying literature “with cinema option” in Aix-en-Provence then at the Sorbonne in Paris, she obtained a DESS in entertainment administration. But “it’s by doing internships that you learn the cinema profession”assures this “self-taught” 45 years old.

“As an intern in a film distribution company, I met a producer, Gilles Sandoz, who taught me everything about the profession”. “Ruined, he called for advances so I, the intern, was told ‘answer him’”.

Gilles Sandoz then asked her to become his production assistant: “I said ‘okay but I want to be a producer’ without knowing what it was”slips the one who will work with him for five years before joining “Pierre’s Films”created in particular by Pierre Bergé and which she bought after his death.

“I find it quite brilliant to think that she succeeded by going with a producer who no longer had any money, that she said to herself ‘I’m giving up everything to do that’”reacts for AFP Andréa Schraup, in Terminale.

“Today, with Parcoursup, we say to ourselves that we have to have good grades, to be accepted into schools. But it shows that you can succeed without school and that you can even make mistakes since she started from literary studies to end up in production. It’s a beautiful message”adds the 17-year-old student, who would like to be an architect.

A wedding

Starting from the example “Anatomy”the producer goes into detail about her job. It all starts with an idea: “Justine Triet came to see us saying I would like to make a winter film, in the snow, with perhaps a blind child, a piano, a woman who perhaps killed her husband”.

The writing of the film, “which can last from one to five years”then begins, with regular producer-screenwriter meetings. “In human terms, it’s really a marriage, we call each other every day”slips the one which produces two films per year.

“Once the script is ready to be read, I will approach different television channels, regions, distributors” to gather “five million euros, which is not much for a film shot in 45 days”.

Funding obtained, time to recruit “70 people without the actors” who are going “make the film”. And after eight weeks of preparation, it’s time to shoot, “my favorite phase, when we see if all the music we tried to compose works together”.

The producer is then often “further behind”more “receives the images every evening and speaks with the director to reassure him or sometimes ask to redo”. Next come “12 to 20 weeks” disassembly. But it lasted “42 weeks” pour “Anatomy”shortened from 3H to 2H31.

To give the film its best chance, “we showed it at the Cannes festival, which selected it” in competition. Then everything comes together, rise to the top, Palme d’Or, international sales, 1.9 million spectators in France.

“Is success scary? »asks a student. “There is a little depression afterwards”concedes the producer. “When it works, it’s a party, otherwise, things go very badly. Then we get back up and make the next film. Every time, you have to start from scratch.”.