It's always a delight to learn good -- albeit surprising -- news about a filmmaker whose work you love and whom you also find bright and appealing as a person. French newcomer Audrey Estrougo fills this bill perfectly: Her first film, Regarde-moi (Ain't Scared), made its American debut at the FSLC's Rendez-vous with French Cinema Today last March, then played the Seattle Int'l Film Festival in May and returned to NYC just this month as part of the French Embassy's multimedia festival I Kiffe NY.
I was very impressed by her ability to capture character, place (the banlieues outside of Paris), and a strong sense of narrative using a highly sophisticated (and surprisingly "unshowy") style. Certain other reviewers, less impressed than I, still gave her high marks for drawing superb performances out of her cast.
At last March's luncheon celebrating Rendez-vous, I happened to be seated next to Audrey and so was able to find out by the end of the meal all sorts of interesting things about her and her work. When I learned she was returning to the city for the I Kiffe NY fest, I met her again, first at the Director's Party for the NY Film Festival, then two days later, briefly, to learn about her latest project: a musical -- and a political musical, at that.
Trust Movies: Does your musical have a title yet?
Audrey Estrougo: At this point it carries the working title Aux armes etc. -- which comes from the famous Serge Gainsbourg song.
Can you give me some info on why the musical might be termed "political"?
Normally, a musical is about an impossible love story and everything in it is about love -- in a way. I don't think that telling and filming love stories is really my type of thing. But, in thinking about how I could make both my convictions and the musical form fit together, I found this was so exciting that I couldn't refuse it! In a way, we can say that the "political" is my part and "musical" is my producers' part. And now that the script is written, I think there is real potential here and a kind of originality. And the fact that it sings about a serious social problem -- illegal immigration -- well, it's ambitious!
Have you cast any of the roles yet?
The leads will include the young actor from the wonderful French-Canadian film C.R.A.Z.Y. -- Marc-André Grondin -- and the well-known young French actress Leila Bekhti
How did this project evolve?
The producers came to me and said, "We want to you to make a movie for us." So of course I said, "Great! What kind of a movie?" And they said, "It’s a musical." What?! But I decided to at least look into this possibility. The first draft was all Romeo and Juliette-y, and when I read it I said, "Oh, I can't do something like this." "OK," they told me, "give us your ideas." So I did, and the project is now very different.
What style will it be?
It will not be like a Jacques Demy musical. Or like the recent Love Songs, which in my mind is something like a more modern Jacques Demy type of musical. Maybe something like what like Julie Taymor did in Across the Universe -- but using old French songs as its score, similar to the way Baz Luhrmann did that with his Moulin Rouge.
How far along are you at this point?
There's is a lot of work to be done before audiences see the film -- which has an enormous budget, compared to that of Ain't Scared. I think I am going to be working hard every day from now until it is finished -- which I hope will be by the spring of 2009.
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Oh, yes: and one final message arrived from Audrey yesterday. She says to please be sure to see the new movie GOOD DICK, which just concluded a run at L.A.'s Nuart Theatre and opens today at Landmark's Sunshine Cinema in NYC. It's made by a good friend of hers, Marianna Palka (above), and Audrey calls it "a little acid bonbon of a film that is fun -- but not necessarily with a good moral." Sounds exactly like our cup of java.
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