04/09/2023 - VENICE 2023: Cédric Kahn signs a delicious film, impeccably directed, very funny but not without social reflexion, about a chaotic film shoot that resonates with its subject

French filmmaker Cédric Kahn is definitely in great form this year since after the excellent The Goldman Case [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cédric Kahn
film profile], which opened the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight this past May, he’s now unveiling out of competition at the 80th Venice Film Festival a completely different feature, but also of very high quality. With Making Of [+see also:
trailer
interview: Cédric Kahn
film profile], the filmmaker delights in a seemingly much lighter style, diving into the vein of comedy and cinema by telling the tribulations of the making of a film, all while nevertheless distilling resistance messages about social struggle and the (very heckled) values of the collective.

“We’ve financed a film with a very positive ending, hyper optimistic. Now, it’s really a drag.” Stubborn filmmaker Simon (​​the impeccable Denis Podalydès) only just started the 48-day shoot for his new film and problems are already arising, represented by the co-producers who demand a rewrite of the script with a new ending, threatening to cancel their financial participation otherwise. Worse yet, Simon realises that his producer (a hilarious Xavier Beauvois) had given them a script that wasn’t his… Yet that won’t make him give up on telling “the true story of people squashed by capitalism”, that of workers occupying their factory threatened with relocation. The shoot therefore continues, a financial Damocles sword above heads, until money starts running out. Radical decisions need to be made (with Emmanuelle Bercot as production manager), we must discuss with and convince the crew, all without forgetting to manage the egos (Jonathan Cohen) and doubts (Souheila Yacoub) of the main actors, the artistic and technical hazards of the shoot, the complications of everyone’s private lives, exhaustion and agitation on the verge of explosion. All of this occurs in front of the small camera of Joseph (Stefan Crepon), a young local pizza chef dreaming of entering the world of cinema (he’s written a script) and propelled from extra to director of the making-of documentary…

Conceived as a logbook in three acts (beginning of the shoot, after three weeks of work, and on day 24), the film perfectly pulls off the tragicomic crossing of its three main threads (the tumultuous management of the set and backstage area with the filmmaker–pilot of a sinking ship, the idealist trajectory of the “innocent” at the helm of the making-of documentary, and the very social content of the film being shot) which echo with each other, widening perspectives and giving real depth to this very enlightening study of the cinema microcosm. Cédric Kahn thus perfectly resolves the question debated at the beginning of his film: “what do spectators want? That we talk about them with a cathartic story, or to forget their worries?” Both, my captain.

Making Of was produced by Curiosa Films and co-produced by France 2 Cinéma, Tropdebonheur Productions and Belgian outfit Umedia Production. International sales are handled by Elle Driver.

(Translated from French)