A bear in the Jura is a film where, he says, ordinary people experience extraordinary things, in this small village lost in the Jura, where Michel (Franck Dubosc) avoids a bear on the road, hits a car, and accidentally kills its two occupants, then finds two million euros in the safe.
“Do we notify the police or keep the money? This is the question that arises,” Franck Dubosc tells us. “What would you do?” he adds, smiling.
What to do? “Initially, the film was to be called Money doesn’t buy happiness, my ass… I wanted to show that money turns heads, that everyone wants it and needs it, that it makes us dream, and that it transforms our lives, whether we are a tree seller, a policeman, a commissioner, a priest. ..
“There is something immoral in this relationship with money. Our Achilles heel is money and we can buy all the inhabitants of this small village with money!” he exclaims.
Director and actor Franck Dubosc. (Robert Skinner/La Presse)
Franck Dubosc confides that he likes genre films and incredible stories, embodied by ordinary people. “This couple [Laure Calamy et Franck Dubosc]they are everyday people who experience incredible adventures! They look like us, they are a little clumsy, and we identify with them, even if we will probably never experience their misadventures, but we understand their problems, and we have empathy.
“A Bear in the Jura”, trailer (TVA Films)
Human relationships
In this film, it is also about love, the wear and tear of the couple, the father-daughter relationship, the discomfort of a young woman and migrants. “Everyone knows each other in the village, and everyone experiences the same adventure, but approaches it in different ways.
“I like to explore human relationships. The tragedy will unite them, the gendarme will reconnect with his daughter and the couple will try to rebuild their lives,” he says.
The action takes place during the Christmas holidays, a time of year when the mind is occupied with many obligations. “We see that Christmas is sacred! We found corpses… but that can wait until December 26, because we will have a clearer mind after Christmas” exclaims Franck Dubosc.
Very enthusiastic, he talks about the actors in the film and specifies that they all agreed to shoot as soon as they read the script. Laure Calamy, Benoît Poelvoorde, Joséphine de Meaux, Kim Higelin, Emmanuelle Devos were all his first choices.
The film was shot in Jura, a region in eastern France known for its forested mountains. “It went very well, I was afraid it would be very cold. I had taken out all my Quebec equipment including my big coat, but in the end, I didn’t use it, it was too mild.”
The film was shot in Jura, a region in eastern France known for its forested mountains. (TVA Films)
The scene in Quebec
It was in Quebec that Frank Dubosc experienced his first successes on stage in 1999, he reminds us, with his first one man show Didn’t I tell you?presented at the Just for Laughs cabaret.
“Suddenly, at the Just for Laughs Festival, it worked, it was the Quebec public who authorized me to do this job. Every time I wrote a show, I thought about the audience here and I said to myself, be careful, they’ll have to like it and that helped me a lot, because everything I wrote was more universal, and not simply Franco-French, and it was a great exercise.”
He talks about his friend Stéphane Rousseau with whom he collaborated on stage and with whom he would like to act in one of his films. “I will get there, but it has to be suitable, I have to need a Quebecer.”
He also talks about Suzanne Clément, a formidable actress, he says, with whom he recently filmed in Werewolvesa film for Netflix.
A bear in the Jura is released in theaters, but its broadcast after the cinema is already planned on Netflix. “It’s an incredible second life for a film to be on Netflix. I see the effect of Werewolves which has racked up over 30 million views worldwide.
“People abroad see us, and that sometimes even allows international careers for certain actors and actresses.”
Franck Dubosc, who signs his third film after Everyone standing et Rumba lifehas taken a liking to directing, and wants to be rarer on screen. “I savor these moments when I am in the shadows between two films, we devote ourselves to ourselves, to our life [il a deux enfants]it feels good. I want to shoot less, to settle down, and to think about my next film as a director.
“With this film, people are surprised to see me direct this black comedy, but it was a real pleasure.”
A bear in the Jura will be presented in cinemas from January 10.
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