INTERVIEW
Two years after the success of Patients (1.3 million admissions), Grand Corps Malade and Mehdi Idir released a new film: La vie scolaire , in theaters on Wednesday. This time, the spectator follows Samia (Zita Hanrot), a young CPE (Senior Education Advisor) who lands in a college in Seine-Saint-Denis deemed difficult. In L'Equipée sauvage, on Europe 1, the two directors explain how they tried to stick closer to reality.
To be as authentic as possible, Grand Corps Malade and Mehdi Idir obviously drew on their memories. But they also confronted their past with today's truth, with fieldwork. And the first returns are rather positive. "We've been touring for three months all over France and we've had a lot of feedback - CPE, supervisors, students - who tell us that the film is very similar to their college," says Mehdi Idir.
Even if the film takes place in Seine-Saint-Denis, the duo wanted to give history a universal character. "It's happening in the suburbs, but that's not what defines the film. (...) Schoolboys and kids, between the ages of 11 and 15, this is a theme that raises issues, issues, uncertainties in which everyone can find, "stresses Grand Corps Malade.
"We repeated a lot"
For the cast, the duo did not want professional actors. "We found them all in wild casting, half of them from the neighborhood where we shot the film," says Grand Corps Malade.
And even if the screenplay and the dialogues were very written, the two directors wished to leave a certain freedom to their young actors. "They were told, 'Now that you have the text, bring it out with your words,'" recalls the singer. The goal? That the text rings true in everyone's mouth. "We did a lot of rehearsals to try to put them in trust and that when they are in the classroom, let them be themselves respecting the text," says Grand Corps Malade.