OCS film First to be discovered from November 10 on OCS Max, Les Cobayes tells the quirky story of Charlotte and Adam, a couple who are embarking on a scientific experiment to rekindle the flame. 5 facts about this funny and romantic nugget.
WHAT DOES IT TALK ABOUT ?
In a relationship since high school, Charlotte and Adam have just had their first child. However, they are not happy and habits gradually replace enthusiasm, at the risk of separating them.
Hoping to regain the momentum of the beginnings, they decide to become the guinea pigs of a revolutionary treatment supposed to strengthen the bond and the desire. In just a few days, the effects are spectacular: the passion is reborn and the couple get even closer than they had imagined.
But if chemistry can create happiness, what happens when the treatment stops? Charlotte and Adam will thus really discover everything it takes to do crazy to love each other.
FEATURE FILM TEST FOR EMMANUEL POULAIN-ARNAUD
Behind the camera of this fresh and offbeat comedy, we find Emmanuel Poulain-Arnaud who signs here his very first feature film. Coming from a family working in the medical world, the director cut his teeth in the history of art before giving birth to short films and series.
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After having co-directed Cavalerie in 2012 with Xavier Leblanc and Bijou de famille in 2013, he unveiled La Couille in 2015 with Baptiste Lecaplain, an 18-minute film inspired by his own story, he who suffered from testicular cancer.
Thanks to this comedy in which he tries to laugh at his experience while highlighting the truth of this disease, Emmanuel Poulain-Arnaud has skimmed many festivals. Co-creator of 3615 Monique, an OCS Signature series, and in full writing of the 2nd season, he will unveil his 2nd feature film on December 29, 2021 at the cinema: Le Test, with Alexandra Lamy and Philippe Katerine.
THE ALCHEMY OF CASTING
To play Les Cobayes in his film, Emmanuel Poulain-Arnaud called on two actors from different worlds whose alchemy is nevertheless evident on the screen: Thomas Ngijol and Judith Chemla.
“Judith and Thomas is also the exciting meeting of two schools: that of Thomas, very stand-up, who uses his background to achieve this accuracy in the game, explains the director. Judith, on the other hand, comes from very naturalistic films, she has shot with Tavernier, Téchiné, in a variety of incredible registers.”
Two actors who, it seems, everything opposes, and who nevertheless each fed on the experience of the other and their differences to give birth to a couple more real than life.
First to join the cast, Thomas Ngijol “really liked the project and it immediately brought something very personal, with a humor that is never easy but that works perfectly”, Says Emmanuel Poulain-Arnaud, impressed by his accuracy and innate talent for humor. As for Judith Chemla, she “don’t play, she lives”, He believes.
REALITY IN DNA
As with his short film La Couille, Emmanuel Poulain-Arnaud drew on his personal experience when designing the Cobayes. Based on his love stories and those of those around him, he wondered about the evolution of the couple and how they survive over time, despite the hardships.
In collaboration with Noé Debré, he had the idea of this scientific discovery. A scriptwriting discovery that allows him to speak head-on about this subject by extrapolating reality like a fable and infusing comedy. “Which can be both funny and meaningful”, He emphasizes.
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Anxious to make his film as realistic as possible, the director, accompanied by his scriptwriter Camille Ganivet, has drawn an emotional curve that reflects the state of the couple. Installed in the team’s office, it served as a reference to subtly translate the changes in light and clothing: “the objective was more to induce a feeling than to be demonstrative. ”
SCIENCE AT THE FOREFRONT
Bathed in the world of medicine since his earliest childhood, Emmanuel Poulain-Arnaud obviously took care to do a lot of research before developing his screenplay.
He spoke with a laboratory director who told him about research on oxytocin and the many studies devoted to it in universities around the world. An expert to whom he had read a first treatment of the scenario.
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“I wanted to be in the anticipation while staying grounded in what is happening right now. This…
