02/11/2005 - Pascal Caucheteux has established himself and his company, Why Not Productions, as one of the major players in the French film industry

At 44 years old and a dozen spent producing feature films, Pascal Caucheteux has established himself and his company Why Not Productions as one of the major players in the French film industry. A success based on strong artistic demands and a constant faithfulness to original filmmakers such Jacques Audiard, Arnaud Desplechin, Jean-François Richet and of course Bruno Podalydès. Caucheteux –supported in his job by producer Grégoire Sorlat-speaks to us as The Perfume of the Lady in Black [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bruno Podalydès
interview: Pascal Caucheteux
film profile] is getting ready for its Belgian theatrical release on November 2. Another Why Not film, Le petit Lieutenant by Xavier Beauvois will be released in France on November 16.

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Cineuropa: You have produced all Bruno Podalydes featue films, Dieu seul me voit in 1999, Liberté-Oléron in 2001, Mystery of the Yellow Room in 2003 and now The Perfume of the Lady in Black. Why such a faithfulness?
Pascal Caucheteux: Bruno Podalydès has a very personal world and will. Authors do what they want, they must only remain sincere to what they want to do. We have produced Bruno’s four feature films because you learn a lot by working on several movies with the same director and you grow together. From the start, we wanted to make Mystery of the Yellow Room and The Perfume of the Lady in Black back to back and had bought the rights to both books at the same time. The next Bruno Podalydes is also on the works but it will be an event movie, completely different from the two previous films because Bruno is not going to make only costume films all his life! (laughs).

How was the production put together?
The film wasn’t very expensive to make and as The Mystery... was a hit, it wasn’t very difficult for us to finance the sequel. We believe in loyalty, so the financial partners who had been involved in The Mystery... (France 2 Cinéma, Canal +, TPS) followed us for the second film. The Perfume... is a very French film. It is great if it sells internationally, but that didn’t prevent us from making it. We produce what we like.

What other projects do you have?
We are always faithful to the same authors, so we will make another film with Arnaud Desplechin, Jean-François Richet, Jacques Audiard, Xavier Beauvois, Claire Denis. All those projects are in development. We produce real filmmakers that have their own opinions and world.