“Filming a film requires a great physical commitment”

The broadcast of your series, “Winter Palace”, is planned for the end of the year on Netflix and RTS. Do you feel stressed or excited?

Pierre Monnard: A certain level of anxiety is starting to build, especially since the series is highly anticipated. We still have our hands dirty, we still have a little work left on the special effects, the sound, the credits, the promotion for the release planned for Christmas… It still seems a long way away! But we are very happy with the result, and we can’t wait to present “Winter Palace” to the public.

Did you feel any pressure to produce the first Swiss series broadcast and co-produced by Netflix?

Above all, it made the entire film team and myself very proud. Without the support of Netflix, this series would not have been possible. The platform’s professionals gave us the benefit of their immense expertise and believed from the start in this project which, due to its subject – the invention of luxury tourism in the mountains at the beginning of the 20^e century–, represents a potential for success here in Switzerland, but also internationally.

With “Winter Palace”, you rub shoulders with the historical genre. Are you a nostalgic person?

I happily look into the past, without melancholy, but rather considering it as a source of inspiration. My next film, for example, will take place in the 1950s, a period that I really like. It’s nice to go back to those times when technology was less cumbersome. As a director, this allows you to focus more on the emotions and relationships between the characters.

What is your relationship to health in general?

I pay close attention to my health, but not obsessively, more to try to stay as fit as possible. We often ignore it, but the job of director is very physical. During filming, we sleep little, we get up at dawn, we go to bed late, the working days are very long… Shooting a film is not about sitting in front of your monitor screen, it requires a lot of physical commitment : go scouting, run from set to set or even help the prop masters move furniture… We are on the move all the time. I usually lose a lot of weight during these periods and try to manage my energy to perform at my best.

How do you achieve this?

First of all, due to my job, I am required by insurance companies to carry out a health check before filming. This allows you to take stock regularly. I also need from time to time a session with the osteopath to relieve the tensions accumulated on set. Being in my best shape also requires a balanced diet and good sleep. When I’m not working, I practice intermittent fasting, skipping breakfast. I get a lot of benefits from it, I feel like I’m more “awake”. I also eat as little sugar as possible.

But when I work, it’s sometimes difficult to maintain iron discipline in the long term, because there is a big social aspect to the job of director. We are also team leaders, and festive evenings are essential for group cohesion… with all the excess they entail! I’m approaching 50 and I feel that my metabolism is different, that my ability to recover is less optimal than a few years ago.

Do you have a guilty pleasure? A bad habit that you’re having trouble breaking?

I used to drink a lot of coffee, but I stopped! It may be a cliché, but cinema is an industry where we consume liters of coffee. I realized when I stopped that I didn’t need it at all to be in shape. Now I rely on tea, it’s healthier!

Your job must cause some stress. How do you manage it?

Indeed, it is a job with many deadlines to meet. Making a film means constantly compromising, but I manage to manage stress well. I need moments of break, during which I will get some fresh air, walk for an hour, to disconnect. I debrief myself about the day, the projects in progress, sometimes I talk out loud to myself… this allows me to vent and I feel much better afterwards! Experience certainly helps, especially my experience in advertising, which is an even more tense sector than cinema.

After these intense periods of filming, do you go through a “low” moment?

Yes, there is always a backlash, a little blues that sets in after being in this bubble at a hundred miles an hour. The stop is quite brutal at the end of a shoot, it can be very destabilizing. I can manage this phase better now that I have a family. I don’t really have a break because we immediately find ourselves immersed in the dynamics of everyday life! And then, I still have a lot of professional projects in development. I never stay idle for long.

In your opinion, does cinema have therapeutic virtues?

Art, and cinema in particular, is a way of understanding the world, but also of learning to know ourselves better. Films have this ability to speak to our unconscious, to awaken certain feelings. Personally, I am a very sensitive person, I cry very easily in front of a screen. I like it, it’s a kind of outlet that makes me feel lighter. In this sense, I think that cinema can indeed be therapeutic.

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Published in Planète Santé magazine N° 55 – December 2024