- In "A Mermaid in Paris", a stranded aquatic creature is picked up by a hardened bachelor.
- Mathias Malzieu declined this story in books, songs and films.
- He struggled to finance this tale crafted.
Mathias Malzieu persists and signs in the field of the marvelous. After the animated film Jack and the mechanics of the heart , it was in real shots that he directed A Mermaid in Paris , meeting between an aquatic creature stranded on a bank of the Seine and a musician who swore to no longer fall in love.
"I was fascinated by the existence of the siren, a mythological creature, in a universe that was not his," he admits to 20 Minutes . Mathias Malzieu admits having thought of ET by Steven Spielberg and La Forme de l'eau by Guillermo Del Toro. "But I didn't have their budget," he says. My film is 100% artisanal. "A financial but also artistic choice that he claims with his actors Nicolas Duvauchelle,
Marilyn Lima and Rossy de Palma, delicious as a wacky neighbor.
Difficult to finance
“Editing a film like this in France is very difficult, explains Mathias Malzieu. The fairies scare the producers although there is clearly an audience for fantastic films for all audiences bringing the marvelous into everyday life. And to quote sagas like that of Harry Potter or series like Stranger Things which hit the headlines in France. "We are the country of Georges Méliès, but we have to fight to make his vision exist", insists the director who also declined his universe in a novel and an album by his group Dionysos.
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No money but ideas
The lack of budget did not constrain the imagination of Mathias Malzieu. "We broke the industrial logic of classic filming by calling on artisans who worked hard to find solutions," he recalls. Jean-Christophe Spadaccini, specialist in special make-up, took care of the tail of the siren. "It had to be magical, dangerous enough to give chills, but not too much not to freak out," he said. It is the beauty of the monsters that interests me. This movie is not a remake of Disney's The Little Mermaid . "
Dreaming at the cinema
On the barge evolves the hero and the "Surprisiers", artists and musicians a bit revelers, the spectator believes himself outside the world during the projection. "In my opinion, cinema is made for dreaming," insists Mathias Malzieu. Fleeing reality to better face it is a militant gesture. His poem, rich in exotic images and songs, offers all the ingredients to make this program a reality.
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