On the occasion of the upcoming DVD release of the documentary "Peau d'âme, sur les traces du film de Jacques Demy", interview with its director Pierre-Oscar Levy.
Archaeologists have found the trick of the fairy mirror.
Sciences et Avenir:Tell us about the genesis of the project.
Pierre-Oscar Levy: At the start, there was Olivier Weller, archaeologist, salt specialist, who discussed at a conference in Nantes in 1999 with Pierre-Arnaud de Labriffe, also an archaeologist. At one point, Olivier confesses his passion for the film "Peau d'âne" by Jacques Demy. To which Pierre-Arnaud replies that he himself saw the film being made in 1969, his family owning the castle of Neuville (Yvelines) where he shot himself! Hence Olivier's idea of going to carry out excavations there.
Have there ever been precedents for this?
Not to my knowledge. Apart from Americans rummaging through the site of an old Cecil B. de Mille film, I don't see. In the field of contemporary archeology and this encounter between art and science, an experiment was conducted in 1983 by Daniel Spoerri, visual artist. He invited artist friends to an open-air banquet which he interrupted in the middle to bury cutlery, plates and leftovers as they were. Then in 2009, the archaeologist and historian Jean-Paul Demoule, whom Olivier Weller had as a professor at Paris I, went to carry out the excavations of the site of this “Lunch under the grass“.
What was your first reaction when Lookatsciences production contacted you to film the excavations?
“They are crazy“ (laughs). I never imagined that Olivier and his team could find so many things.
Are you a fan of Demy's films and what do you have in common?
Jacques Demy is a very unique filmmaker. I can't help but find the character totally fascinating. It's incredible that he was able to make films, so colourful, so musical, so joyful, totally out of step with the French production of the time, more subscribed to social dramas. This is also the opinion of the filmmaker Pascal Thomas, whom I had filmed but the sequence was not retained. But if I am not necessarily a fanatic of his cinema, I have at least two points in common with him:like me, he is not a bourgeois, he does not come from there; which may explain its discrepancy. On the other hand, at the time of the release of “Peau d'âme“, he said:“If adults could look back on their childhood, the world would be a much better place.” And I totally agree with this point sight.
What was your primary motivation for making this film?
This project was fascinating because it made it possible to measure the difference between the excavations, the objects that were found, and to note that it was impossible to reconstruct the film from these remains. This can never be done in archeology where, from unearthed artefacts, we reconstruct a story, but without ever knowing if it is the right one. For me, this contemporary archeology project made it possible to recalibrate the work of archaeologists.
Not too disappointed that the composer of the soundtrack, Michel Legrand, did not allow you to use it?
On the contrary. I owe his refusal an eternal gratitude since it will have allowed us to meet the son of Antoine Duhamel, and that he will have notably given us access to pieces that his father had composed for “Domicile conjugal“ and which had not been used by François Truffaut. In this regard, the recording of certain songs by the research team was for me one of the most magical moments of the film. The joy that could be read on the faces of these very serious members of the CNRS, these PhD students at Bac +8, singing at the top of their voices was magnificent to see.
Your next project?
In a way, a continuity of this one since one of the archaeologists that we see in the film is in the middle of a transition to change sex. It will be a transgender movie. But beyond that, with the help of the contribution of many scientists, I want to tell how a person finds the body that corresponds to him.
The VOD is already out
Available here:www.shellac-altern.org/films/465
The DVD in early June. Same address
Screening dates with debate here:site.lookatsciences.com/peau-dame
The trailer:https://vimeo.com/265541402)