EXCLUSIVE: French mini-major Pathé is on the Cannes Movie Competition this 12 months with opening movie Depart One Day, and properly as Martin Bourboulon’s August 2021 Fall of Kabul-set motion characteristic 13 Days, 13 Nights, which performs Out of Competitors.
It follows on from a high-profile 2024 on the pageant, when the corporate attended,with The Rely of Monte-Cristo, which was a success at dwelling and when on to gross greater than $100 million, in addition to Emilia Pérez and Partenope amongst different movies.
Amélie Bonnin’s musical movie Depart One Day made historical past on Tuesday night as the primary debut movie to open the pageant throughout its 78 editions.
The romantic musical film builds on Bonnin’s 2023 César-winning brief movie of the identical identify. French singer Juliette Armanet stars as a rising chef in Paris, who’s pressured to return to her small hometown to assist out in her household’s roadside diner, when father suffers a coronary heart assault. The unwelcome journey reconnects her with teenage crush Raphaël (Bastien Bouillon).
The movie, which intermeshes performances of well-liked French pop songs and classics of the la chanson française with drama, went down a storm with the pageant’s opening night time crowd, and releases vast throughout France immediately.
Deadline sat down with Pathé President Ardavan Safaee forward of the pageant for a chat in regards to the firm’s choice to board the bizarre movie, plans for its launch and upcoming productions.
DEADLINE: What Introduced Pathé to Depart One Day?
SAFAEE: One of many magical issues about this occupation is these likelihood conferences. The movie got here to Pathé primarily because of its co-producer Sylvie Pialat. She didn’t produce Amelie’s brief movie however talked to me about it through the voting interval for the Césars. I additionally fell in love with the brief and voted for it too. Sylvie got here again to me with the characteristic movie. It’s a comparatively small first movie and won’t seem to be a superb match for Pathé, however on the similar time, we now have area for tasks we fall in love with, which can be out of the odd and deviate from pre-established patterns. Then, there was the assembly with the movie and Amélie Bonnin. The workforce fell in love with the story and Amélie in addition to what she is making an attempt to recount. A part of our job, after we uncover issues that contact us on a private stage, can be being ready to take a chance on working with rising administrators, even when it’s on their first movie, to find new skills.
DEADLINE: Was the César for the brief movie additionally issue?
SAFAEE: There was the César, but additionally the solid with Juliette Armanet and Bastien Bouillon – with Juliette in her first lead position as an actress, even when she is a singing star in France – alongside implausible established actors François Rollin and Dominique Blanc. There was additionally one thing very pop and new within the tone of comedy and the emotion. What I additionally favored is that for a primary movie, we don’t have the impression that it’s a primary movie. There’s a maturity within the storytelling. There was a mixture of comedy, emotion and depth within the characters, with one thing very new, trendy and really pop in its tone, which was implausible. It’s a special sort of threat from the monetary one among The Rely of Monte Cristo, however it’s nonetheless a threat, as a result of on a primary movie, you’re by no means fairly certain how the administrators are going to work out.
DEADLINE: Does Pathé work with many first movies?
SAFAEE: We’ve labored on a fairly just a few. Antonin Baudry’s The Wolf’s Name was a primary movie and we additionally lately launched Maël Piriou’s Une Pointe d’Amour. We don’t have any guidelines, though after all we stay extra cautious on first movies than others. It’s all the time a query of the story, if it’s one thing we need to inform, if it touches us. Then if we’re ready to take the creative, narrative threat, we must be extra disciplined when it comes to the funds.
DEADLINE: What was the funds for Depart One Day?
SAFAEE: Simply over six million euros ($6.7 million).
DEADLINE: Was it one of many movies financed underneath your co-financing partnership with Logical Footage?
SAFAEE: Sure, it’s got here underneath the deal we started in 2022, however which is able to come to an finish this 12 months.
Depart One Day
Pathé
DEADLINE: Apart from the very fact it’s a primary movie, there’s additionally the bizarre mixture of drama and performances of pop songs and chanson française classics.
SAFAEE: It’s not a basic musical with individuals who dance and sing completely, that’s what us. The way in which the songs are launched into story may be very pure. For the audiences who know these songs, there will likely be nostalgia, and for individuals who don’t, I feel that the sense of nostalgia will resonate. Additionally, the story may be very a lot anchored in actuality…it’s not a fantasy world, which is the place some musicals can alienate audiences. We’re speaking about regular folks, with a kind of magic. Aside from Juliette Armanet, who sings extraordinarily properly, the opposite solid members sing such as you, or I’d sing, it’s one thing that comes from the guts. It offers it a really intimate and genuine really feel.
DEADLINE: Are there any plans to launch a soundtrack?
SAFAEE: We will certainly exploit ‘Partir un Jour’, the observe on the finish of the movie, which has been reorchestrated for the movie, however we’re ready to see how properly the movie does. If the movie is a large success, which we hope, we might very simply re-release just a few tracks, or do one thing larger. It could be in collaboration with Common. It is going to rely on the general public’s response. Whereas it’s a movie that can maintain a number of nostalgia for the French, it’s additionally a movie that… will contact everybody. I feel it’s a movie that would generate a number of remakes.
DEADLINE: Because the opening movie of Cannes, Depart One Day needs to be launched theatrically concurrently in France underneath the pageant guidelines. Does that complicate issues when it comes to positioning the movie at dwelling and establishing it up for worldwide gross sales?
SAFAEE: It is determined by your objectives. For a movie like this, the opening was good. It allowed us to shine a highlight instantly, even when it gave us much less time to plan for the discharge, which was initially scheduled for a month later. The rapid problem on this movie isn’t essentially the worldwide market instantly, even when it’s an essential problem, however reasonably the French market. However sure, for English-language movies that haven’t been offered, it may be a extra sophisticated slot, as a result of folks will instantly see the leads to France, after which act accordingly. The worldwide stakes on this movie are clearly not the identical as our Musketeer movies or The Rely of Monte Cristo. However on this movie, I feel the opening slot will assist gross sales.
DEADLINE: What number of screens will Pathé launch the movie on?
SAFAEE: The night time of the opening, numerous cinema theaters throughout France display screen the opening ceremony and round 700 theaters, will present the movie concurrently. The following day, we’ll return to a extra “regular” launch, with the movie programmed in round 350 theaters for its nationwide launch. We wish to cowl the entire territory. Relying on the movie’s efficiency, we might improve the variety of theaters within the second and third week.
DEADLINE: With The Rely of Monte-Cristo, you labored rather a lot with its star Pierre Niney on social media to advertise the movie. Will you run the same marketing campaign with Juliette Armanet?
SAFAEE: She’s clearly an enormous star and when it comes to advertising and marketing, that may serve us properly, because of the group of followers who’re on the market. On the similar time, we gained’t do the identical in-depth work as with Pierre Niney on Monte Cristo, as a result of we had two, three months of doable promotion. Right here, we solely have two, three weeks. All the things may be very concentrated, very compact. It’s additionally not the identical public. Their fanbases are very totally different, and so they have other ways of activating their group.
DEADLINE: Which leads on to the query… what’s your audience for this movie?
SAFAEE: It’s not essentially a movie for youngsters or youthful youngsters, though the comedy component might draw a youthful viewers. The component of nostalgia will play properly with the over-30s, particularly those that are followers of Juliette Armanet. Whereas the presence of actors like Dominique Blanc and François Rollin might attract an older viewers. The movie talks rather a lot about inter-generational relationships, by means of the connection between the daddy and the daughter [who is in her early 40s], which is able to attraction to each these generations. Our efforts will likely be initially centered on city audiences, however for the reason that movie takes place in a roadside diner in a village, this additionally offers us scope to broaden the viewers. I feel it is going to be a city-based, cinephile viewers within the first occasion, which we’ll look to broaden, utilizing the highlight of the Cannes opening.
DEADLINE: Pathé’s different upcoming movies embody Martin Bourboulon’s fall of Kabul drama 13 Days, 13 Nights, which comes out in June, after which there may be Antonin Baudry’s two-part bio-pic De Gaulle. When will that come out?
SAFAEE: They’ll come out in 2026. The 2 elements gained’t be as spaced out as The Three Musketeers movies [which were released with eight-month gap between them in 2023]. We’ll launch them extra tightly, six to eight weeks aside. I don’t know which date but. We’re in the course of post-production on each movies on the similar time.
DEADLINE: Previously, you talked about making English-language movies out of France, and wider Europe. Has this concept superior?
SAFAEE: Completely. We’ve simply introduced Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s adaptation of Les Rois Maudits, The Accursed Kings, which we’re creating in English. We additionally produce other tasks we’re working with the brand new firm of Dimitri Rassam (producer of The Rely Of Monte-Cristo, The Musketeers) specialised in English-language movies out of France. We’re going to companion with him on these movies to co-finance and distribute. I feel we’re going to start out up once more the in UK, with Pathé UK. Right this moment, the workforce there may be centered primarily on sequence. We’re going to remobilize, to get again on observe with English-language movies there too.
DEADLINE: That’s an attention-grabbing growth. Pathé’s transfer away from movie within the UK in 2023, despatched shockwaves by means of the business…
SAFAEE: The market has modified rather a lot post-Covid. There are alternatives opening up once more immediately, which can be extra vital as a result of, even creatively, I discover that movies have lately taken over from sequence when it comes to originality and creativity. And I see movies immediately which can be extra authentic, which can be taking just a few extra dangers. And if there are producers who’re prepared to hold these these tasks, we can even help them on our facet at Pathé UK. I need to us to select up the place we left off. And from this 12 months, I hope, to reconnecting with all of the producers and expertise there to start out creating there once more. We’re discussing it, and the thought is to have a workforce in place this 12 months to start out engaged on it.
DEADLINE: That is excellent news for the U.Ok movie business. Pathé’s transfer away from movie within the UK in 2023, despatched shockwaves by means of the business…
SAFAEE: We didn’t go away as a result of we didn’t prefer it. We left as a result of our enterprise mannequin not labored on the movies we have been making. And I feel we have been ready to see how the market was doing over time, to see if there was something new… Did it make sense to make movies in English once more? Was there a marketplace for it? And I feel we already miss it an excessive amount of, and on the one hand, we see that there’s new expertise. It’s goes past the UK. I feel it’s extra European than that, it’s extra international. I additionally see that there’s… There could also be a scarcity of authentic movies in the US and the skills, American actresses, actors, are additionally beginning to work on movies in Europe, as a result of we are able to provide new issues. So sure, I would like there to be a workforce in England, however I would like it to be a workforce that isn’t solely centered on English movies, but additionally European movies within the English language.
DEADLINE: Might U.S. President Donald Trump’s Discuss Of Tariffs Impression This Technique?
SAFAEE: I don’t actually perceive what it means in concrete phrases. We now have our ambitions and plans for cinema and to make them in French and English… and we’ll determine it out.
