The melodrama The Queens of Drama hits theaters this Wednesday, November 27. For his first feature film, Alexis Langlois directs an intense and passionate love story in a film with a pop and tangy aesthetic!
A personal and committed story
2055. Steevyshady, a hyper-botoxed YouTuber, recounts the incandescent destiny of his idol, the pop diva Mimi Madamour, from the height of her fame in 2005 to her descent into hell, precipitated by her love affair with punk icon Billie Kohler. For half a century, these drama queens sang their passion and rage in the spotlight.
Presented in a special screening at the Critics' Week of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, and to be discovered today in cinemas, the musical melodrama Les Reines du drama is the very first feature film by Alexis Langlois, who was made a name in recent years thanks to his short films crowned with success at festivals, such as Of Terror, My Sisters! and Dorothy's Demons.
The inspiration behind this film comes from him “of a breakup, of a very passionate story, marked by rivalry and admiration […] with a person who inspired the character of Mimi. When the story ended, I wanted to tell it, to try to understand what had happened,” they explain.
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In a resolutely pop and retro style, Alexis Langlois takes viewers back to the 2000s, the colorful setting of the meeting between his two protagonists, Mimi and Billie. With this committed feature film, they wanted to tell a great queer love story without idealizing it: “I believe that the film shows people who love themselves poorly because the world as it is, structured by patriarchy, prevents them from truly loving themselves. It is important to have different representations but on the other hand I believe that it is also absurd to erase our failings and our faults”.
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From Britney Spears to Brian De Palma: a highly referenced film
Throughout the film, Alexis Langlois summons numerous references: A Star is Born with Judy Garland, Eve by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, but also the films of Almodovar, Brian De Palma and many others, cited as his main sources of inspiration. At the same time, they do not forget popular culture, often considered less noble, which has always fueled their passion, starting with music videos, talent shows and the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Through his characters, Alexis Langlois questions the culture of celebrity and the figure of the star. “There is a very first-degree fascination with stars and what they can provoke in people. A crazy love, then sometimes a desire to see them crash. This contradictory impulse that many fans have towards their idols was one of the main threads of the writing. The film speaks of this cruelty while taking the form of a tribute to look tenderly at those who are rejected today.
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The first role of Bilal Hassani
Louiza Aura and Gio Ventura play Mimi Madamour and Billie Kohler, the famous couple at the heart of Drama Queens. If Gio Ventura (Gasnet, Drummer) was already familiar with the cinema of Alexis Langlois and his previous projects, it was a complete discovery for Louiza Aura, who is also playing her first role in the cinema here. A role that earned her the nomination to compete in the Female Revelation category at the 2025 César Awards!
“When Gio and Louiza met, there was something that immediately seduced me, an alchemy, a magic… To embrace melodrama, we needed characters who were both strong but also with flaws , Gio and Louiza's injuries shocked me because they had this overflowing sensitivity. says Alexis Langlois.
With their film, they also offer Bilal Hassani his baptism of fire in cinema with the role of the very intense YouTuber Steevyshady, ultimate fan of Mimi Madamour. Having already done theater when he was younger before deciding to devote himself to music, the young actor was very excited about the project, having already been a fan of Alexis Langlois for several years.
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“I think the story of Mimi and Billie is too important and still too rare. We still want these stories, we want thousands of them. It's a film that is politically important in the current landscape, we have need to see these stories because we are visible but not enough. We need to be more. confides Bilal Hassani.
Meet the Queens of Drama at the Cinema today.
