Real-time gunshot with “The Chef” from a London restaurant

• In "The Chef", Philip Barantino leads the audience after the staff of a posh restaurant in London.

• The camera follows them in their work while the hero, played by Stephen Graham, tries to manage his personal and professional problems.

• A virtuoso staging allows the audience to fully immerse themselves in the experience.

There is panic in a London restaurant on “Magic Friday” evening, the Friday before Christmas.

 by Philip Barantini. The director, also an actor seen in the

series , captures this organized chaos in a one-and-a-half-hour sequence shot.

“To earn a living before breaking into acting, I worked in catering and went through all the positions until I became a chef myself, says Philip Barantini at

.

I kept the memory of a permanent stress that I wanted to communicate to the viewer.

That's why I chose to make a sequence shot, ideal to transcribe this frenzy on the screen.

The camera weaves its way through the dining room, into the kitchen and into the storerooms as Stephan Graham in the title role tries to hold his stove between annoying customers, rivalries between employees and personal problems.

Three grips for success

“In 2019, I had already made a short film with Stephen Graham on the same subject, insists the director. It was when I discovered that a new digital camera made it possible to film 90 minutes at a time, by changing memory cards while continuing to film, that I took the plunge. A tight script and very precise rehearsals allowed Philip Barantini to succeed on the third take. “Sitting in front of the monitor, I was the first spectator of my film and I can say that I was experiencing 100% suspense! »

Food is only incidental in this race against time that the director did not want to make appetizing.

“I didn't insist on the food because it was impossible to train the actors so that they could really cook live, he says, but also because I wanted to focus on human behavior.

Arguments break out under pressure between waiters, manager and cooks, all concentrated and not patient with their colleagues during the “shotgun” of a very busy evening.

A concentrate of worries

"A filmmaker's job is less stressful," recognizes Philip Barantini.

We have more time to plan and we can restart takes when we miss them.

He admits, however, to having delivered a concentrate of what can go wrong in a posh restaurant.

The virtuoso staging of

shares the experience of the protagonists with such intensity that one remains out of breath as if one had participated in the service oneself.

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