In “The One In The Other”, Louise Bourgoin wakes up in Stéphane De Groodt’s skin, and vice versa. A comedy for which the actress did not hesitate to go towards caricature by letting go, before being called to order by director Bruno Chiche.
One in the other : you, it’s me
Body swap, or body swap, marks the starting point of many feature films. A crazy, crazy, crazy Friday and its remake Freaky Friday: In my mother’s shoes, Your Name, Freaky or Volte / Face… The galleys and misunderstandings due to an inexplicable, magical or scientific transfer represent a sub-genre particularly provided to the cinema. In One in the other, released in 2017, Louise Bourgoin and Stéphane De Groodt are in turn victims of this curse.
The first lends its features to Pénélope, a town hall employee who wishes to adopt with her companion Eric (Pierre-François Martin-Laval). The second embodies Pierre, director of a company producing caps and capsules, Eric’s hierarchical superior, married to Aimée (Aure Atika) and father of two children. On the surface, all is well for this quartet of friends. But in reality, Penelope and Eric have an affair.
Things get complicated for lovers when they wake up in each other’s body. Therefore, they must do everything to ensure that this phenomenon goes unnoticed, especially with their respective companions. And Eric and Penelope quickly discover that it’s hard to slip into someone else’s shoes, even when it comes to your loved one.
Passionate about body swap, director Bruno Chiche (Hell, I haven’t forgotten anything) is inspired by the uncomfortable sentimental situation of friends of his to give a basis to One in the other. On the cinema side, its main reference is Freaky friday. In this comedy by Mark Waters, the high school student played by Lindsay Lohan takes the place of her mother, a psychologist played by Jamie Lee Curtis, and vice versa.
Louise Bourgoin called to order
Playing on the relationship between men and women and the many stereotypes that result from it, by multiplying the exchanges and burlesque situations, One in the other offers vast possibilities to its two headliners. And the balance is not always easy to find for the actors. At the microphone ofAllocine, Stéphane De Groodt explains:
It was special since you have to show something anyway. The character must have certain roughness to mark the difference between a man and a woman. What is the difference between a man and a woman? It is also very difficult. (…) It was very difficult to find. I had asked Bruno to be very vigilant on this. As soon as there was something a little too marked, I had to stay at that level.
And Bruno Chiche does not fail to reframe his actors when he considers that they do not have the right tone. Louise Bourgoin admits, for example, to have let go during the shooting. What earns him caution, as she tells it, always nearAllocine :
Then there is the pleasure of the game. Me very quickly, I wanted to make crates, to do a lot of it, to beat myself up with high heels, to have my legs wide apart, to even denounce, through the game, certain masculine faults, of somewhat oversized guys. (…) I have sometimes done too much and Bruno would stop me by saying: ‘Where are you going ?! What are you doing ? It’s not possible’. And it hit him even as a guy, he said to me: ‘But damn, but how do you see us what!’. (…) I listened to it, I reduced my playing a little. But it is true that at the beginning I wallowed a little in the caricature, just for the pleasure of feeling.
