Guillaume Canet was inspired by his own story to write The Little Handkerchiefs. Filming was not easy for the actor, who also learned tragic news during the release of the successful feature film.
Renowned director and actor, Guillaume Canet is an artist with many hats who has proven the extent of his talents on numerous occasions. At the head of numerous successes, the husband of Marion Cotillard has already won six Cesars. In 2010, his third feature film, The Little Handkerchiefswas released in theaters and enjoyed dazzling success with more than five million admissions generated in theaters. For his dramatic comedy inspired by his own story, Guillaume Canet brought together his closest friends and two of them were even awarded a César the same year: Valérie Bonneton and Gilles Lellouche. Guest of Guillaume Pley in his podcast Legend this Wednesday, January 8, the actor looked back on the success of his film and remembered the difficult period he went through during filming and promotion.
“I couldn’t appreciate that moment.” : Guillaume Canet talks about the complicated shooting of his film The Little Handkerchiefs
The Little Handkerchiefs is undoubtedly Guillaume Canet’s most personal film. The plot traces the story of a group of friends gathered in a vacation home, just after learning of the tragic accident of their friend Ludo, still between life and death. If the story moved the spectators, it was inspired by a real event: “I’m telling about a friend I lost, it’s a true story“, explains the director in the podcast Legend. The filming therefore had a very particular taste for Guillaume Canet, who denoted with the spirit of the other actors happy to find themselves on the feature film: “When I shoot the film, I’m not happy, I’m not well. I have great moments of doubt, great moments of sadness. (…) We make the film and the whole team says to me ‘You don’t look happy, it’s annoying’. I was complaining, I wasn’t always super cool with them (…) They were having fun and I couldn’t appreciate that moment“, he remembers in front of Guillaume Pley. Marion Cotillard’s companion even admits that he only appreciated the success of the film late.
“I didn’t like the release of the film at all.” Guillaume Canet lost a close friend on the day the films were released Small Handkerchiefs
The promotion of Small Handkerchiefs wasn’t much easier than filming for Guillaume Canet. On the day of the release of his film, the director learned some sad news: “When the film comes out, in the morning, I’m at NRJ on the radio, promoting it, and I receive a message telling me of the death of another friend from the same band, who killed himself in the same condition. , on a motorbike…”, he confides in the same podcast. Affected, the director even rejects his own work from this moment on: “I’m devastated. The rest of the promo I feel like I’m out of place at all. I don’t find it normal for me to be there, but I have to do it. I didn’t appreciate the release of the film and the box office at all, I’m in the process of burying my friend, it took me a long time to realize that the film was so popular“, he testifies. It was ultimately a rebroadcast on television that reconciled him with his work: “One day, I come across it on TV and I watch two minutes and finally I stay until the end and I enjoy seeing them again, finding these characters and the reason why I wrote. It made me want to find them again“, he says. In 2019, the director decided to give his story another chance and revealed the rest of the characters in the Small Handkerchiefs In We will end up together.
