2015 MSPIFF OFFICIAL SELECTION
Breathing drolly enjoyable new life into an old genre and adding new riffs on the theme of small town boredom, debut director Thomas Cailley’s decidedly skewed romantic-comedy throws together mild, take-it-as-it-comes young Arnaud (Kevin Azaïs), a small-town guy working in his family’s timber plant, and hard-as-nails Madeleine (Adèle Haenel), a young survivalist with visions of the Apocalypse, to relentlessly funny effect.
Plagued by the belief in an upcoming environmental collapse, Madeline decides to join an army boot camp to learn military and survival skills. Intrigued and excited by Madeleine’s wild ideas - which offer a fresh alternative to a small-town future with few choices and uncertain success - Arnaud signs up for the boot camp himself. But they soon realize that the boot camp is harder than they’d imagined. When he follows her into an army training course, the acerbic barbs in Cailley and Claude Le Pape’s screenplay fly between the mismatched couple faster than the paintball bullets in their near–lethal guns. And though the experience is harder than they’d imagined, it nonetheless transforms into a chance for the couple to explore their feelings for one another, and test the strength of their budding bond.
"Thomas Cailley conjures up a vivid, unusual world, offering a playful reversal of usual gender roles." - Time Out
"Even when it’s slowing down, [the film] shows beguiling confidence in both its filmmaking and its characters—enough to make its smallest romantic moments feel significant." - The A.V. Club
"A rare romantic comedy that's satisfying as genre entertainment but also inspires serious thought on pertinent social issues." - Chicago Reader
INTERVIEW W/ DIRECTOR
The most striking thing about Love at First Fight is the interaction between the setting and the characters. Nature seems to have been your biggest inspiration.
I grew up in Aquitaine (France), and I had wanted to film in the Landes region, with its huge forests and lakes, for a long time. The land is flat there, and you never see the horizon because there is always something to break up the landscape, like a dune, a line of trees, or a group of houses. This otherwise peaceful countryside is often stricken by disaster in the form of winter storms and summer fires.
That was really my starting point, the idea of tranquil countryside by a still, peaceful lake, which is then battered by a typhoon. This kind of collision, the clash of two opposing elements, is what I envisioned for Arnaud and Madeleine. From there, I imagined the journey of these two diametrically opposed characters, who would come together and push the boundaries of possibility.
Madeleine’s character seems to have been written especially for Adèle Haenel.
I wanted a strong character that would infuse the story with his or her energy. I like the feeling that comes with larger-than-life characters in films. The moment Madeleine comes on-screen, you know something big is about to happen. She’s the driving force behind the story, shaking things up in Arnaud’s world and making things happen.
Adèle Haenel was the first actress that both Stéphane Batut, my casting director, and I both had in mind for the role. Two-minutes into her casting call, we were convinced she was the one. She told us about the time she trained for a marathon in Berlin in the middle of winter in the snow, and how she was all alone, and totally under-equipped for it. I like the idea that through our own self-imposed limits, we can get a taste of freedom. Ade`le has that intensity, a special something that’s hard to define. She’s also very funny, not to mention all of Madeleine’s physical exploits in the film. Adèle is an exceptional athlete and brings this to the role.
The character’s strength comes from the fact that she doesn’t leave any gap between decision and action. Madeleine exists in a world of pure energy. That explains her quirkiness,and her sometimes inappropriate, awkward, or violent behavior. She doesn’t stop to do any soul-searching. If she doesn’t like something, she lashes out. If she wants to seek forgiveness, she offers you frozen chicks...
And Arnaud?
Arnaud’s qualities are less obvious, especially at the beginning of the film where the character is still reserved and vaguely defined. What I like about him is the way he takes events as they come, and his openness.
While Madeleine has a big personality, Arnaud is more receptivein his attitude, in the way he listens and observes, the way he observes this girl and gradually begins to understand who she is, and her goals and fears. With Arnaud, what you see is pretty much what you get. He doesn’t judge others. But his observation of her draws him in, making him responsible for her in a way, and giving him the strength to break out of his inertia.
The power behind Kévin Azai¨s’s gaze really struck me. Both his presence and gaze have an obvious strength that the camera picks up rightaway. He’s got this sincerity, this spontaneous generosity, which hide his true depth.
For the script, we decided Arnaud’s character should “need a film.”In other words, what you see of him at the beginning is a promise of things to come; that he will evolve, become more clearly defined, and become a true cinematic hero.
Your characters evolve throughout the film; we feel like we’re watching them grow up.
Yes, because they are characters who take action.
When Claude Le Pape and I were writing the script, we wanted to avoid any suggestion that our characters were “sick” and that the film would try and cure them. The plot is not psychological at all. For Arnaud and Madeleine, it’s all about constant action, progress, and invention. They’re constantly in motion. That’s where the French original title “Les Combattants”(Fighters) comes from. For example, at the beginning of the film, Arnaud’s bereavement doesn’tmake him withdraw and become passive. Instead, he picks himself up and tries to find a solution.
With Madeleine, it’sthe same. She can’t sit still. She’s always itching to move. The physical training she puts herself through is an attempt to work off this nervous energy. When she feels lost, she just asks Arnaud, “What do we do now?” And he answers, “We adapt. We survive.”
That’s how they function; what their whole relationship is based on. It’s this ability to act, recover, and invent whole new worlds.
Every experience they go through has value as a basis for their growth, be it fighting, enlisting in the army, or eating a fox. But these experiences also have shared worth. This logic of action is their own little game, which strengthens relationship and makes it unique.
However, at some point they do stop taking action.
I think that’s when the characters have come to the end of their adventure, and their survival experience would not be complete if they didn’t have to face the void. I tried to structure the story like a journey, starting with the seaside resort, then moving onto this strange army community, and finally getting back to nature. The characters’ journey is one of peeling away layers, of being stripped bare and exposed.
In order for them to surrender to one another, they have to pass through the void.