On December 5, 2018, director Jeanne Herry arrived in theaters with her second feature film, Pupil. A film praised by the public and critics, focusing on a subject rarely discussed in cinema, that of adoption, when a baby is entrusted to the relevant services just after birth. Sandrine Kiberlain, Gilles Lellouche, Elodie Bouchez, Miou-Miou, Jean-François Stévenin, Bruno Podalydès, Leïla Muse and even Stéfi Celma and Émilie Gavois-Kahn, answered the call. Actors who had to deal with newbies in the field…
Pupil : The journey of an adopted child
Pupil takes us on a unique journey, that of a child given up for adoption, Théo. We follow him from the day of his birth under X, until different services, those of social assistance and adoption, begin their march forward. Her mother will have two months to reconsider her choice or not. Many people will have to deal with it during this time, both short and long, but above all uncertain. There are those who carry the baby and others who must find someone capable of adopting him. It will be Alice, aged 41, more ready than ever to welcome Théo and his three months. And for good reason, she has been struggling for 10 years to have a child.
Pupil : real and fake babies in front of the camera
Focusing on a reality that is rarely highlighted through fiction, Jeanne Herry and her team have worked hard. For her film, the director trusted real children, like plastic infants. For the less restrictive scenes, a large casting call was organized to turn the least impressed babies onto the set. For the more difficult sequences, no risks were taken, Jeanne Herry wanting to respect the well-being of the little cherubs as much as possible. This is where plastic babies entered the scene, in order to avoid traumatic situations, as the filmmaker confided in the press kit for her feature film: “As it is a film which depicts the receptivity of babies to verbal language, there was no question of taking risks, of putting them in (…) scenes where they would have heard”your mother didn't want you, etc.”
