It’s been a long journey for Christophe Perie from being the Third AD in charge of extras on films like
LWLies: So, who are you?
Perie: I am Christophe Perie, a young director, 31-years-old. Before I became a director, I earned my stripes as an assistant director on many French and American films. I also worked for many years as an Artistic Director in Advertising. That’s where I met Remy Belvaux, director of Man Bites Dog, with whom I collaborated on several ads and with whom I am great friends. Remy, who had realised that working in advertising was boring me more and more, encouraged me to make my own films. So I made my first short film Cuisine Americaine, a four-minute-long black comedy. Citizen Hero was my second film. I am now developing my first feature-length film in a similar offbeat and absurd vein.
LWLies: How did you get this PlayStation Shoot! gig?
Perie: Julien Hossein of ShortsTV France, who I had known several years before when he was the head of short films at Luc Besson’s production company, Europacorp, suggested that I take part in the Shoot! competition. At that time, there were many ‘French directors’ in the competition (I don’t like that term but it applies well to a call for submissions). My project was held back for the scenario. I believe that my proposal was mad enough to interest the guys at PlayStation.
LWLies: What was your ‘essence’ word and how did it inspire you?
Perie: At first I wasn’t very inspired by the words… but since I had to choose one, I picked the one which spoke to me most: Create. The problem is that the inspiration didn’t always come, so I asked the Belgian writer Thomas Gunzig who I’d known for a bit. I like his universe because it’s as nuts as mine! Thomas suggested many stories to me. The one that particularly attracted my attention put Spiderman in a more realistic atmosphere. That led to a simple question: What could Spiderman do in a city like Brussels, without big buildings? I literally fell in love with the concept and adapted it for the screen by transforming Spiderman from a superhero closer to those in Watchmen and by giving the story and the characters a more personal dimension. Once Thomas and I were satisfied by the scenario, Aurelie Le Roc’h (who played Anna Rodriguez Pereira in the film) helped me reconnect the word ‘create’ with the story which we had written. It looks like it was done the other way around but nevertheless, I saw that the definition of the word given by PlayStation worked with the story. In the end, perhaps I was unconsciously inspired by the word.
LWLies: What was your first reaction when you found out that Jan Kounen was going to be your executive producer?
Perie: In fact, I already knew Jan Kounen a bit. Our paths had already crossed on his film Blueberry and we’d stayed in touch. Therefore, when the guys at Sony told me that the executive producer of my short film must be an experimental filmmaker, I immediately wanted to suggest it to Jan. He’s an interesting filmmaker because he searches, he experiments, and that speaks to me.
LWLies: How closely did you work with him?
Perie: Jan was involved in the writing of the script and the editing of the film. He and Aurelie Le Roc’h helped me give depth to the characters and also to re-centre the story around the relationship of the main character with his mother and with Anna, who are the two women around whom the actions of the superhero are centred. Later, at the time of editing, Jan, who has a very experimental approach to the matter, helped make it a story that was more accessible and easier to understand for the public.
LWLies: What was the best piece of advice you were offered?
Perie: Again, the best advice came from Jan Kounen and Aurelie Le Roc’h who helped me during writing by concentrating my on the subject at the heart of the film, on the personal aspect of the scenario which was less clear at the start. One of the versions of the scenario was particularly dramatic. If I had made that version, the end of the film would have been tragic and very depressing. Thanks to Aurelie I reintroduced hope, I understood that the character had his place beyond the film and I rewrote the last scenes to make them more positive.
LWLies: What was the biggest challenge you faced while shooting?
Perie: The biggest challenge of shooting was to get everything I wanted done in four days. Normally, to make a film like Citizen Hero we would need two more days of filming. But we cruelly lacked time. We also had very little time to prepare the film, hardly a week. Sometimes we got the authorisation to film in the sets barely an hour before starting the camera and we even improvised one of the film sets during filming… I won’t tell you which!
The other challenge of the film was directing around eight actors and 30 extras, because until then I’d never directed more than two actors and often without dialogue in my first short. Finally, that all went well and I must say that it was in directing the actors that I get the most enjoyment on the film.
LWLies: What lessons would you say you’ve learned off the back of doing PlayStation Shoot!?
Perie: With Citizen Hero I learnt to have confidence, not to fear taking my ideas all the way, to search and experiment, to try and stop making mistakes… to start again and to smile.
LWLies: How important is short film?
Perie: Short film is important because it’s a medium with freedom of creation in an art which is transforming into an industry and which is becoming more and more sclerotic, even in France. To learn, to experiment, to make errors, to search and to find your universe, your tone, your style, to search and find yourself as an artist: it’s for that that we have short film.
LWLies: What do you think PlayStation can bring to film?
Perie: A brand like PlayStation allows young directors to have an important and original exhibition in the eyes of the media, which allows them to emerge. The PlayStation brand also suggests journeys in multiple universes, strange, offbeat and surrealist. Therefore it seemed logical to propose a different and atypical film in premise as in form.
LWLies: Who or what are you inspired by?
Perie: In a general sense, I’m inspired by independent cinema and by extremist filmmakers; that is to say, those who make their films according to their convictions and dogmas, taking account of codes or rules. But at the base of my work rests reality, the people, the relationships which they have, one with another, and the respect I have, at once tender and offbeat, for humanity. It’s the starting point for all my films. For Citizen Hero, I transposed that respect to a world where the superhero makes part of the everyday and also has his flaws, his sadness. I didn’t have the impression of having demythologised the image of the superhero but simply to have created a more picaresque portrait. It is in that voice that I hope to commit Remy Belvaux to his return to cinema.
