"1917" by Sam Mendes - Universal Pictures France

  • In "1917", two young English soldiers must carry a message that can save many lives.
  • The director of "Skyfall" immerses the viewer in their heroic epic.
  • It is in the form of a false sequence shot that he follows the two young men.

Sam Mendes signs one of his strongest and most personal films with 1917 . Is it because his grandfather fought during this deadly conflict that he took things to heart? The spectator has the impression of diving into the forehead with two young soldiers carrying a message that can save many lives.

“It is certain that the stories of my grandfather influenced me, admits Sam Mendes to 20 Minutes . He was a soldier and never spoke of his bravery but rather told us how he had been lucky to get away! "No question for the director to surround himself with stars. Apart from a few appearances by stars like Colin Firth or Benedict Cumberbatch, less well-known actors like the brilliant George MacKay or Dean-Charles Chapman are highlighted. "It was essential that the public discovered them so as not to have preconceived ideas about them," says Sam Mendes.

It's exciting #SamMendes and its 1917 is just as exciting! @ 1917 pic.twitter.com/jIZT8j7755

- Vié Caroline (@Caroklouk) January 12, 2020

Total immersion

“My grandfather was only 17 when he went to fight. I wondered how these young boys could feel when they were faced with death. The director of Skyfall and American Beauty kept this question in mind for a long time before embarking on the project. “I was convinced that the public had to feel hunted down like the characters, constantly threatened by various dangers as well as by the short time they have to accomplish their mission. From the first images, you feel carried away in a world of violence in which the heroes are only pawns trying to survive.

A bold decision

To encourage this impression of being at the heart of the action, Sam Mendès has chosen to shoot his film in a single sequence shot, or more precisely with no apparent editing. He thus follows the route of the messengers without any break coming to interrupt the course of their adventures. "This is a false sequence plan," he readily admits. We shot very long shots but everything was done in several times over a short period of time so as to keep the same type of light. The help of cinematographer Roger Deakins, also a collaborator of Denis Villeneuve and the Coen brothers, was invaluable to him.

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A new language

"We tried to invent a new cinematographic language because I did not want to content myself with following the protagonists: I wanted to create a ballet between the camera, the heroes and the landscapes", specifies Sam Mendes. We enter a dance that involves in the muddy trenches, in a martyred nature or in a city in flames that looks like hell. Each step of the two young people makes them evolve in a nightmare universe perfectly rendered by a whole more or less sophisticated paraphernalia: ropes, motorcycles, harnesses and other devices making the shots incredibly mobile.

Emotion above all

"My worst fear was that people only saw the technical challenge, that it erased the emotion," admits Sam Mendes. The filmmaker can be reassured: this race against the clock in the heart of chaos is so gripping that we forget his virtuosity. The voters of the Golden Globes remembered it enough to award two statuettes to the film and to the director.

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