Silence on tour… in Gaillarde!

"Presidents" by Anne Fontaine

Anne Fontaine, international director and screenwriter, has some twenty films to her credit, in which she has cast some of France's greatest actors: Depardieu, Poelvoorde, Luchini, Ardant, Huppert, Béart,.... And it is with Jean Dujardin, Grégory Gadebois and Pascale Arbillot that she has come to shoot the film "Présidents".

The pitch

A comedy about power and the difficulty of no longer being in charge, with the meeting of two political adversaries, inspired by Sarkosy and Hollande, who go on a sort of adventure... What better place to tell such a fiction than in the already named Land of Presidents?
A month's filming took place between Uzerche, Aubazine and Saint-Robert.

I tried it out: being an extra

For the film shoot, they were actively looking for over a hundred extras. How could you resist? What girl doesn't want to spend a day alongside Jean Dujardin? It's not every day you get this opportunity! Of course I want to experience it, or at least try to! I sent my photo, measurements, film experience (none), ... and I waited and waited ... but no reply. A little disappointed, I must admit, I resigned myself to the fact that my film career was not going to work out 😉!

Then a few weeks later, on Friday 16 October at 5pm, to be precise, I received a text message: "Good morning, tomorrow we're meeting at Place de la Mairie in Saint-Robert at 12.30pm, having eaten. Please bring 3 different casual mid-season outfits (no fluorescent, no brand names and no stripes. No big coats on the stage, so wear damarts. It is strictly forbidden to take photos of the stage.

Of course, the next day at 12.30pm I was there!

Two outdoor scenes were being shot that day: one in the village square and one in the public gardens. I'll be appearing in the second for a village fete. The main actors were all playing, and they spent the day on the set in a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere. Ladies: Jean Dujardin is as handsome in real life as he is behind the screen 💕

So what does the extra do? He doesn't actually do anything! You wait in the middle of this bustling anthill and you have Jean Dujardin walking past you carrying his chair to set up here and there as the set changes.
You wait until the man in charge of the extras looks at you from head to toe, points at you and says, "In 5 minutes I'll call you and you can stand there", and then you comply when they say, "Quiet, we're rolling".
But it's a truly incredible experience, you can't imagine the number of people who work on a set (make-up artist, hairdresser, dresser, cameraman, assistant cameraman, sound engineer, sound assistant, boom operator - the guy who holds the boom ;)-, director, her assistant, producer, lots of other assistants,... and all the others, men and women who are away from their families for more than a month), with the extras more than 100 people, the equivalent of a third of the village's population. Gigantic logistics over the course of a day for just a few takes which, in the end, lasted an average of 2 minutes or were cut.