18/10/2022 - We met with the Belgian directors five years after the success met by So Help Me God in order to discuss their latest film, released tomorrow in Belgium

Jean Libon (left) and Yves Hinant (right) (© Cédric Gerbehaye)

We met with Belgian directors Jean Libon and Yves Hinant to discuss their latest film For A Fistful of Fries [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean Libon and Yves Hinant
film profile], which is due for release in Belgium on 19 November by Apollo Films, which has also distributed it in France on 28 September. Their return comes five years after the success enjoyed by So Help Me God [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean Libon and Yves Hinant
film profile] in the form of a new, detective-style iteration of Striptease, featuring a fertile film trio: a police officer, a judge and a murderer.

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Cineuropa: What made you decide to rework a pre-existing film and to turn it into a new one?
Yves Hinant: Just as we were coming out of the first lockdown, our producers suggested we think up a new film, following the success of So Help Me God. At that point in time, shooting a documentary didn’t seem like an option given that everyone was wearing a mask. Jean thought back to that film, made twenty or so years earlier, which hadn’t been altogether successful. We thought that we could rework it, turn it into a real detective story. By some miracle, I managed to track down all the film rushes from back then, and Jean spent 4 months editing it all.

How did you choose the setting and the characters back then?
Jean Libon: I remember saying to Yves: "What if we made a real detective film?" So he got hunting, but it took almost two years to get the institutional authorisation we needed. Then we kicked off the casting process in order to find the judge and the cop, which took another year, and then rehearsals also took a year. It took a lot of time, in fact. We had our characters, but nothing was happening. One Monday, Yves turned up at the office, broken, saying "I can’t take it anymore, nothing’s working". And I said to him: "Come on, just give it another week". Three days later, we had our body, and we were off. But I have to say, we almost got to the point where I said to myself: "Right, I guess we’ll have to find a body ourselves".

To begin with, it was supposed to be a 3 x 50min series, but there was a genuine possibility to make something tighter, in the form of a detective film. We decided to make it in black and white. Obviously, you can’t have a film noir in colour. When you see the face of our cop, Jean-Michel, in black and white, well-contrasted on a 50-square-metre screen, there’s a real allure about it. It stirs up a whole other level of emotions.

What kind of plan did you have on set?
YH: Even if it’s real-life, we do still orchestrate things a little. I held auditions for the police officers, and I ended up finding Jean-Michel. I had someone else in mind for the judge, but she’d been nominated to the European Courts of Justice, and she directed me towards Anne Gruwez. Anne was already on my radar, in fact, I often went to see what was going on in her offices. Between the two of them, I had a formidable duo. We arranged it so that they would be on duty together. And we waited, for a year. There were three of us, a cameraman, a sound recordist and me. Until we found our body and our murderer. And then we found our suspect. When I met Alain, a guy who everyone thinks is guilty, I was surprised that he was happy for us to film him. We got the feeling that, despite all the evidence, some kind of doubt still remained.

Is time a crucial factor on set and in the cutting room?
JL: Things only happen once, and you have to be there, and be ready. I’ve always told my cameramen: film your feet while you’re waiting, I don’t care, but when something happens, you need to capture it! It takes time, but it’s pretty straightforward. After editing comes the technical process.

YH: I’m more of an assistant director on set than a director. I’m not necessarily physically involved in individual scenes; it’s often cramped, or tense, and the cameraman and sound recordist know exactly what they need to do. The most important thing is preparing what’s going to happen, to have really understood your characters, to know people and to respect them. To have their trust.

JL: Time is a key element. I always say that the fuller the bin, the better the film. You have to throw things away, time and time again. But it’s not easy getting backers to understand this.

(Translated from French)