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| I Love Paris Photo: Fantasia International Film Festival |
Director Nicky Murphy and stars Amanita Thiboult, Leonor Oberson and Louiza Aura have just come from the screening of I Love Paris when I meet them at the Fantasia International Film Festival. They’re in high spirits, excited by the way it went down with the famously outspoken audience. It’s a film with a certain party spirit of its own, filmed in the first person and following a young singer who is determined not to let being turned into a vampire interfere with her relentless drive for success. Some of that has rubbed off on the team.
“Both times there's been people laughing,” says Nicky. “In all the right moments and more. So, yeah, I’m very pleased.”
It’s all the more exciting because the film came about almost by accident.
“I was in the middle of trying to get another movie made,” he explains, “and then at the last minute that one fell through and that same moment my partner became pregnant, which I’m very happy about. But at the same time I was like, ‘Damn, I would like to make one movie before the baby comes out,’ because I'd be a bit of a hiatus. And so I was like, ‘Okay, I have to write a movie based on what I have that I can just make right now.’ And what I have is my sister in law [Aminata], who is an incredibly talented actor who lives a very interesting life, and she's a musician and she lives in Paris and she has a cool apartment – all the little things you've seen in the movie.
“I was like, ‘Cool, I'm going to write a movie for her and I'm just going to make it a little bit freaky by adding a vampire element to it, because I've always wanted to make a vampire movie. That was the basic pitch. I said ‘We're shooting some stuff next week,’ and we basically shot the first few days of the movie just to see what it was with Ami and Leonor, who's another friend that I've known for a long time. Once we realised that we had something that was actually kind of good, we were like, ‘Okay, let's take this more seriously.’ Then we wrote the rest of the movie.” I ask Aminata what it feels like being a real musician and playing a musician who's getting slagged off all the time and told that her music isn't much good.
“That's a great question,” Nicky laughs.
“It's kind of funny to me,” says Aminata. “I feel like the first struggle of being a musician is to just trust in your taste and being able to make the difference between what you think about your own music, and what it makes you feel to make it, and what people think about it. Mostly at those times, the recognition of social media is a great deal in how your career evolves. So yeah, I feel like I have a lot of distance with that because I've always just loved making music and I don't measure my success by how people will receive it.”
We talk about how the others came on board.
“As he said, I’ve known Nicky for a while, and I was acting in two of his movies before, so I trust him,” says Leonor, who plays Lutèce, the vampire who initially infects Paris, Aminata’s character, and becomes her friend. “So that was how I entered in this. I was sucked in because I trust him, and that was at the beginning of the process when he said ‘Let's do a movie before I’m going to be a dad. I know Ami as well and I know that it works [when we act] together. So I'm like, ‘Okay, let's go.’ And of course being a vampire was very exciting.”
“Ami told me that she was doing a movie with her brother in law and they were looking for a pop star in the movie,” says Louiza. “Actually the first movie I played in, Queens Of Drama by Alexis Langlois, I played a pop star. It was three years ago. We just took this character, which is Mimi Malamour, and we visited her in I Love Paris, like in a multiverse kind of way. In a Mimiverse kind of way! So we have Mimi in the year 2000 and now there is Mimi the vampire.”
There's a lot of squabbling between their characters over the course of the film, I note. Was that something that they were able to draw on their own relationships for, in a playful way?
“We can be playful because we know each other,” says Louiza “So you can just do whatever and it's really fun.”
“I think between Paris and Lutèce, there's this dynamic [that’s] kind of toxic in a way,” says Leonor. “And at the same time, like a mummy.”
“They’re so loving, like sisters that kind of annoy each other but that know that they need each other at the same time,” says Aminata. “They’re mother, daughter, whatever. Transforming me, not transforming. I feel like this is easy by how the story is written and how the evolution of the characters is written, but I feel like being friends in real life, it's easier. Laughing and being great with each other, laughing and having a fight is kind of the same in a way.”
“Exactly,” says Nicky.
“It's showing love in different way,” she continues.
He nods. “But having said all that, these are the three best actors in the world and they can deal with whatever you throw at them. Like, honestly, the guy who plays her best mate at the beginning of the movie, Joe [Noé Hermelin], she met four minutes before we started shooting. And then from take one, which is the first take you see in the movie, they just look like best friends. So it's also a testament to the actors being awesome.”
Was it all scripted or was there improvisation along the way?
“I would say it's half scripted, half improv. But even the stuff that's scripted, I write it in English and then give it to these guys and they translate it and morph it and do that thing with it so that it sounds authentic, but otherwise most of the film is just plot points. We know we're going to go there and we know we're going to go here, but whatever we do in the middle, and what these guys say to each other? Let's just see what happens.”
Obviously in the film, part of the comedy comes from the fact that there are no obvious rules and nobody really knows what being a vampire involves. But how did they get into their characters? Was it just imagination?
“I'm a big fan of Only Lovers Left Alive,” says Leonor. “It's a great movie. I love Jim Jarmusch and I always wanted to be a vampire in real life. But I think that Lutèce is really not like me at all. She's very dark and lost and I like to play someone that’s very different from me. And the more she met human people, the more she's getting a human soul. She is becoming more and more [like a] nice human and I like this arc. “
“Me personally, I didn't do my homework very well,” Aminata confesses.
“You weren't given any,” says Nicky.
“Yeah, but this time I could have done it myself.”
“I think it makes it authentically you,” he tells her.
“Yeah, yeah, exactly. I don't know if I did it on purpose, but I just went with what my gut was telling me, and not studying too much about vampires. I actually it's what makes it a special vampire movie, because we just did it with our roughness.”
“There is no roughness,” says Louiza. “It's very genuine and original because there you didn't study all the vampires.”
“I feel like the vampires in a movie aren't like another species,” says Nicky. “Yes, they're vampires, they're not humans. But I feel like in most vampire movies the vampires are significantly different kinds of people, whereas in this case these are just humans who want to drink blood.”
“Yeah, totally,” Louiza agrees.
“Even in their the way like all of their wants and needs and likes are really human,” says Aminata. “Apart from wanting blood all the time and thinking killing people is okay, I feel like they're really human and that's why you like them still. Also, even though Paris is really annoying, you still love her because...”
“You can see yourself in her,” Louiza suggests.
“You can rely on her,” Aminata concludes.
We’re running short on time, so I ask them each what the most fun part of making the film was.
“I think for me it was the prank calls,” says Aminata, laughing. “I think we did two hours of real calls sitting on my bed. You kept filming us and we called like the entire world. What nonsense.”
“I think it was one of the best moments for me,” Louiza agrees. “Like you used to do it with your best friend at 15 and now I'm 25 years old pranking dads and mums. A big part of it got cut because otherwise the movie will be hours long, but I think it was one of the best ones.”
“Yeah, that was so funny,” says Aminata.
“I think the middle scenes when we are playing with people because we know that we are actually acting,” says Leonor. “We had to be careful and we had to play with what was happening at the same time. We had this with the grandmother in the metro – we did not this on purpose, there was only her and us in the metro – and that was very funny and exciting. She didn't do anything. She just probably a bit scared of us. ‘Who are those strange people?”
“For me, it was all of it, actually,” says Aminata. “All of it. And also, doing a lot of the costumes, preparation, props. Even apart from being on camera, everything about the movie was exciting to me, and I knew were doing something so special.”
“I was going to say that,” says Nicky. “I'll pick another one. But the first answer was going to be every time Ami would rock up and show me what her outfit was going to be for the day. It was always just some ridiculous, like, whatever kind of style that is.” They both laugh. “That was always hilarious,” he continues. “But the next best part would be when these guys kill me at the end and I have to try not to laugh while they're both sucking my blood and she's holding the camera, just talking complete shit. I'm trying not to laugh and ruin the take. I think I ruined four takes by myself just because of laughing. But that was fun.”
They’re all excited to be at Fantasia.
“So bad,” says Aminata. “It's my first festival presenting a work that I worked on, so it's crazy, and the audience is great, the people are great that are doing the festival. Everyone is just awesome. Montreal is awesome.”
