Original subtitles

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he

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the substance came uh after I made

revenge and I was wondering what I

wanted to do next and I felt for me it

was the time to explore more deeply a

theme that I've lived with me I think my

whole life about how I feel being a

woman with the way I'm looked at the way

I'm judged and the way massively impacts

my relationship with society and the

world and the movie points with the

moment where I had passed my 40s I I was

getting toward my 50s and I was starting

to have those crazy violent so that okay

my life is going to be over it's the end

of being interested no one is going to

care about me no one is going to look at

me at 50 like it stops you

know how did I get to think that there

are no representations anymore of women

over 50 you know in movies that

disappear find me somebody new in

advertisements they disappear on the TV

networks to present the news they

disappear and it's like something that

is silently telling your brain you know

that okay after that limit you don't

exist anymore and I said like okay I

think now it's time for me to really do

something with that and I really wanted

to make a big scream a big kick you know

in the system the way it is and the idea

was to say come on wake up we need we

need a

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change action 5 4 3 2

1 it was also for me exploring more

about genre film which is the way I love

to express myself as a filmmaker you

know using visual sound and going all

the way to success like not having any

boundaries the way I have in my real

life being able to go for a visceral and

very sensitive Journey raising you so

this is the the what came right

so the two came together and became the

perfect

match so let's do one more so let's go

again let's go again okay let's go again

so let's go again so let's go again and

yes

and I work in a very detailed way I have

a strong vision from the start from when

I write about how want to film things it

be slightly lower slightly

I write my framings also because I edit

so I exactly know in advance what I want

to create how I want to frame each shot

everything is super super detailed three

two one action

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I didn't know Benjamin Kon before this

film and when I was looking for a DP I

remember one movie that I really loved

the photography which was promising

young women I remember what I instantly

loved with Ben is how much he understood

the script he understood the film really

for what it was and I remember something

that he told me he's like my God this is

is so

crazy he really wanted to achieve

exactly what I had in mind not change it

but really go for it to me this is the

best link that you can have with your DP

because then you speak the same language

you know where is the r show how do we

get it down here all these kind of we

should be on rather

than flat on uh flat on yeah

communication is so much easier because

he has almost the same brain than

yours there were so many technical

challenge in the film we use so many

different techniques with helmet cam

with handheld cam with

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crane with body doubles to stitch again

like shots together going from hyper

macro into the eyes to super wide so of

course we use different lenses in the

process and we have to make invisible

Cuts so as to make it look like a sequin

shot when Sue is in the elevator and is

starting to decompose for the povs it's

like me having the helmet cam with the

dress and body double playing the

hands so it's like you know four people

in the small elevator that we have

built ready for tonight hey ready for

tonight action

from the start when I started to write

the film I knew that I needed and wanted

to have all the effects being practical

and made for real because the movie is

really about Flesh and Bones it's a

movie about women's

bodies and to me to build what I want to

build the way I want to film it I have

to be able to do it for real to have

something where I can put my hands into

where I can play on the frames because

also I love to use like obsessive

framing going Tighter and Tighter and

Tighter

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also I knew that for actors to be able

as well to play with something that is

real was also going to help them

tremendously finding those different

steps of their

characters so I knew that those choices

were the most important to do beforehand

because those decisions like they impact

the life of your film you know they

impact the way you're going to do it the

way you're going to produce it the way

you're going to prep it uh and it's

going to massively impact the artistic

result of your film as well when I

decided to work with pop we took a lot

of time to think about what technique we

could use for each shot because I had a

very precise shot list storyboard in

term of what I want to film the way I

want to film what was going to be left

out of frame and then if we don't see

the leg then we don't build the leg

because we don't need to spend money on

the legs that we wouldn't see so it was

basically for each shot finding a way to

make that possible so how many fake bags

do we need because also once you use one

fake bag for one effect it's it's

destroyed and you can't use it for the

next sh the most important is that we

really par

to her bag it was also inventing our own

techniques because there is no rules

that tells you okay when someone is

going to be burst with your back open

you have to do it like that because

basically it's it's hasn't been done

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yes

yes good ah action

and I think that was the specificity of

this shooting now I know that I love the

most it's how you do your own things how

you create your own reality your own

tools the T of Lights which we filmed

for for real which is something that we

could have done in in CGI but that has

such a different energy when you can

really like manipulate the camera into

those

tubes and having yourself being able to

frame and navigate or drive your apparat

like to go here like that and

experiencing the journey gives such a

different result and such a row energy

that I think really transmit in a

different way to to the

audience the movie is all about

symbolism you know in the film there is

not a lot of dialogue so all my filming

language go through

symbolism and the power of creating

emotion sensation and a whole story with

silent shot with just filming a location

that can say so much without having to

tell anything to me that's Cinema that's

the way also I love to express myself

and I think the way it can also speak to

anyone whatever the language of the

country is you are

one I knew knew that the way to Best

tell my story was to hopefully get an

actress who would be you know an iconic

actress who would be representing like

the star what is it to be a star to be

worshiped to be seen to be loved because

you're looked at and when we started to

first meet with the me I think the theme

in itself was what we needed to discuss

less because it was clear in five

minutes that it was something we had

both lived strongly in our lives in

different ways and for me the most

important thing was to really tell her

at length what the project was going to

be it's a genre film a genre that she

had never really done before and it

implies a lot of technical constraint

because like images and sound has a lot

to do together with the performance so I

shared with her a lot of visuals

explaining what's the film making was

going to be how much it had to be

committed to the vision that was on the

script because it's everything that is

linked together to make the craziness of

the film work and also the way our

shooting was going to be organized that

was not a huge Hollywood Machine we had

kind of limited budget for everything we

had to do so it was more doing it in an

indie way and I needed to be sure that

she was ready to step into that kind of

project and I really discovered someone

who was yes rock and roll in a way and

knew how to take risk we another one

even what we did you're taking me from

me Poli should be should be here all

right let's do

it

cross

push

cross and that's where I think we both

understood that we could make that film

together and we were jumping into the

same boat of course a shooting of 100

days it's a huge shooting it's

challenging it's tiring the movie is

emotional on a lot of levels um so they

were going to be difficult days they

were going to be day with and day

without and I really think that all

those preliminary conversation really

allowed us to bond and for her to trust

me as a director to drive the movie and

take it you know to destination ladies

and gentlemen this was the V shot

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Margaret in real life she doesn't care

about the way she looks and she's not

the sexy baby doll you know that you see

in the movie she was very interested

into knowing who was the girl that I had

in mind physically for for the part what

was the image I grew up with that was

presented to me as the perfect girl to

achieve and so we discussed about this

kind of Barbie Jessica Rabbit sexy girl

and she was super interested into

creating that girl to shape herself into

Sue which is not at all in her everyday

life so she trained every day like crazy

to really shape her body we created like

prosthetic boobs to give her you know

this super sexy curves we made her

extension of hair so basically she

really created that

fantasy

yourself she has this energy this you

know Body Energy that she immediately

diffus

I think a wake up then then I really if

you really as if you been hit by the by

the

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motor one

b and after you can do B bam

bam you fall down down like a like like

a they had together the kind of same

energy because they are both super

instinctive I think it was the perfect

match you know for them to be like one

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for the substance I decided to organize

the shoot with all the closeups where

there would be no actors to be regrouped

at the end of the shooting for something

that we called the

lab which was like uh getting almost

like an extra mons but with a super

reduced crew to shoot all those shots

that to me are so important like the

extra closeup on the food on the streams

on the fly all the manipulation you know

of the syringe like I injected myself

for real the the substance with the

needle in the arm please give me a

better verion

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please we were also filming all the

close-ups on the prosthetic where there

were no actors anymore

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[Laughter]

so it was crazy lab as a you know kind

of crazy Professor like we were at the

end of EP a very small set

it's a piece of floor of the bathroom

fake arms on the floor a wig and you

know like manipulating the Prosthetics

or all the food

elements and we created some of the most

important shots of the movies like that

the motorbike which is a reduced toy

that we built ourself and figure out how

we can have it crash you know onto the

camera so I remember there was a pop guy

every day who was doing crash test with

his little toy until he managed to find

the system that would work

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so it was a bit of a crazy

atmosphere to me is also what I love

doing in film making I love to

experiment I love to have my hands in

the dirt I love to do stuff myself two

one

go the way we organize it we gave it the

freedom to create the rules that the

film needed because without that we

could have never done everything that we

have done in the movies

so uh we're actually shooting on the

parking lot of Marin in anti and we're

going to make it as a wonderful Los

Angeles Street uh you'll see

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making the decision to shoot in France

was one of the most important for the

movie

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first of all that he allow me to have

like the extreme Freedom that I needed

to create my vision like I could work

with my cruise and also because France

is a country of Cinema like we love

films Cruise the love film it's not a

just a job for them you know they are

truly passionate about how to create

movies how to create art so for all the

Departments like to achieve the level of

craziness that we have to do was a real

challenge but a real work of love and I

I do believe that it matters a lot when

you make a movie to be surrounded by

people who love Cinema as much as you do

and the other thing that shooting in

France was bringing me was the freedom

and the excitement of using the

constraint of not being in the real

Hollywood but to create my own Hollywood

which wouldn't be reality but where I

would use the symbols that I would

need I don't need to have the real l

what I need is one PM tree against a

blue sky and this very simple image is

so strong in what it says it says yes

it's the place of dream it's the place

of Happiness it's something that

shines and just the single shot that you

can shoot with one camera in a Limited

crew bring me that freedom that is so

creative that I can use the rest of the

money elsewhere to create other

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things blood

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that

man stop

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the the end of the the shooting with the

blood I was wearing you know the helmet

cam while projecting the blood on the

audience so as to be the POV of the

monster at that moment

sh

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sh next

do it again

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much

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that you

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the message of the film to me like women

should be free to do whatever they want

with their bodies you know they should

be able to be sexy not sexy changey not

change it be natural not natural and we

should just stop commenting it we should

just stop caring about it but we are

unfortunately very far from that

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