From cheese to filming: after having charmed the Cannes Film Festival, the film “Vingt Dieux” brings a breath of fresh air to theaters on Wednesday, with an apprenticeship film in the country of Comté, carried by the grace of its amateur actors.
The film follows in the footsteps of Totone (Clément Favreau), a young man of 18, who kills time between rural dances and beer evenings.
The horizon, populated by Comté fruit farms and dairy cows, darkens when he finds himself too soon in charge of his little sister and the house.
Totone comes up with a scheme: win the regional competition for the best Comté, by making his own cheese with his friends and the means at hand, and to be sure of winning, steal a few dozen liters of the milk, which was used to make the winning cheese last year.
“The milk that earns 30,000 bucks, not the one that makes the Laughing Cow!”, says Totone to his friends. But everything becomes complicated when he falls in love with Marie-Lise (Maïwene Barthelemy), the young woman who produces this milk.
After “Their children after them”, released at the beginning of December, the film is one of those works which examines “peripheral France”, but without pathos.
“Vingt Dieux” also screams truth, directed by a young filmmaker, Louise Courvoisier, who grew up in a small village in the Jura. “I wanted to show this rural youth that we don’t often see on screen,” she explains.
“I took a little inspiration from the people I grew up with, from my village colleagues. I wanted it to be anchored in the landscape. It was important that it was non-professional actors who came from the area, who recognize themselves in history,” she told AFP in Cannes.
– “Hanging around the refreshments” –
Also awarded at the Angoulême French-speaking Film Festival, the film is also a declaration of love for artisanal production in the County, filmed like never before. The actors learned for the filming how to make this cheese themselves.
“I wanted to avoid any miserabilism, to do something very joyful with humor,” explained the director. The casting has a lot to do with it, with amateur actors, who intend to become farmers.
Totone, “he’s a character who likes to hang out with friends, go to bars, drink, act stupid on a motorbike… That represents me well, and even a lot!”, explains Clément Favreau.
Spotted in the training center where he was studying, after his studies he plans to take over his parents’ Bresse poultry and cereal farm.
Maïwene Barthelemy, for her part, sees in her character a Lara Croft, her heroine, a Jura and “rough form” version. “It ties in a bit with my life: the friends side, the work side, it ties in with my personality and my life.”
What if another filming opportunity arises? “We’re not closed, we’ll see!”, she says. But only if that doesn’t prevent her from realizing her dream: to become a farmer.
“It’s a passion job. You work hours but you don’t realize it. You’ve always had it in your blood,” says the one-day actress.
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