Broadcast this evening on M6, “Les petits mouchoirs” by Guillaume Canet tells the story of the eventful holidays of a group of friends in Cap Ferret. But are the friends that we see on the screen also in life?
Broadcast this evening on M6, Les petits mouchoirs, Guillaume Canet’s third feature film, invites us to share the lively, passionate, sometimes eventful holidays of a group of friends in Cap Ferret. And if the film benefits from such a fair and authentic group dynamic, it is undoubtedly because its actors have known each other well … and for a long time.
To embody Max, Marie, Vincent, Eric and the others, to give life to their giggles, their arguments and their tears, Canet has effectively decided to appeal to his own entourage, to gather around him his true relatives and friends, starting of course with Marion Cotillard, interpreter of Marie, who has shared her life for fifteen years.
Most of the rest of the homie gang Small handkerchiefs, moreover, are also the director’s friends in the city. Canet thus met Benoît Magimel (Vincent) in 1994, on the set of the TV movie La Colline aux mille enfants. He has also known Gilles Lellouche (Eric) and Laurent Lafitte (Antoine) for many years, since he rubbed shoulders with the latter while doing his classes, on the benches of Cours Florent.
EuropaCorp Distribution
As for Jean Dujardin – who plays Ludo, the favorite of the band, victim of a terrible motorcycle accident at the beginning of the film – he actually met Guillaume Canet at primary school. The two future actors were indeed in the same class in CM1, and made their first communion together.
Finally, oyster farmer Joel Dupuch, who lends his features to the touching Jean-Louis in the film, is also a friend of the filmmaker, and had already appeared in his previous film, Tell No One. As revealed in an article in Parisian, this real producer of oysters from Cap Ferret had agreed to participate in a telephone hoax with Guillaume Canet and Gilles Lellouche, during a dinner.
EuropaCorp Distribution
It was after this performance that the director offered him to join Les petits mouchoirs: a godsend for him, since the adventure allowed him to escape a financially complicated period.
But the fact of bringing together a real group of friends by the sea to work can possibly cause some difficulties. As he told it on the microphone of Première magazine, Guillaume Canet lived through complicated times, where his involvement and his zeal as a director sometimes contrasted with the carelessness of his friend-actors.
Tensions that the team finally managed to overcome, finally giving birth to the second biggest success of 2010 in France.
(Re) discover the trailer for “We will end up together”, sequel to “Small handkerchiefs” …
