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Eric Guirado • Director

To make an upbeat film

by 

- Eric Guirado • Director of The Grocer’s Son

Le Fils de l'épicier [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
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(“The Grocer’s Son”), the second feature by French director Eric Guirado, is enjoying success on French screens thanks to word-of-mouth (see (news). We met the director, who is as quiet and unassuming as his film, at the 22nd Namur International Festival of Francophone Film (September 28-October 5), where Le fils de l’épicier was in the official competition.

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Cineuropa: Le fils de l’épicier is more of a realist film than your first feature, From Heaven. Is this related to the fact that you’ve made some documentaries in the interim?
Eric Guirado: No, it’s just my approach. I’ve been interested in photography for a while now. I observe people and I like to study families closely. I also needed, and wanted, to use a camera that was situated in the same position as the viewer, that recorded events as and when they were unfolding. I wanted viewers to experience and feel the images rather than merely see them. I tried to make a film that appealed directly to the senses of sight and touch rather than relying on commentaries and explanations.

When you’re making a documentary, you have to remain alert, you have to be totally involved, and not detached from what you’re filming. When I was writing the film, I felt that the connection to real life was missing. So I decided to go and meet these travelling grocers who drive their vans, I filmed them for myself and I captured some amazing footage. This caught the interest of a producer, and finally, I made three 52-minute documentaries about these people. This provided a wealth of material for my story. In the same vein, I didn’t want the countryside to function merely as a backdrop; I wanted the audience to feel how it influences people’s behaviour. I also wanted to make a more light-hearted and upbeat film this time, and I didn’t feel like working in the snow [he laughs].

Le fils de l’épicier is the story of Antoine’s coming-of-age and his learning how to be more tender and compassionate, but is also a film about a man and family ties.
Yes, I think that tenderness and maturity go hand in hand. Here is a character searching for his identity. And his identity is shaped by his interaction with others. This annoys him but as he didn’t get off on the right track in life, in my opinion, the fact that he’s forced to change his approach means he gets back on the right track [smiles].

Antoine also lives in his father’s shadow; he is “the son of”. The first thing he needs to do is to establish his own identity. As far as I’m concerned, Antoine is really a little boy at the start of the film. He dreams, he sulks and he wants to do everything quickly. But he falls flat on his face. And it does him good. Thanks to Claire, thanks to women in general, he learns how to talk more openly, and he discovers tenderness and pleasure. Before introducing him to the pleasures of love, Claire teaches him how to take pleasure in his work. This doesn’t come easily to him, and then, through his contact with others, he softens and relaxes.

Through its exploration of the grocery trade, but also via its characters of a certain age, the film looks at the notion of handing down a way of life from one generation to the next.
I think it’s really about passing down a form of solidarity, which has become very much eroded in city life. Antoine is rediscovering the basics of communication and social life. He realises that people wait for him and his role is to help others. In the city, he is easily replaceable. There he has no real identity to speak of, no function; nobody needs him. Without wishing to idealise the countryside, there he rediscovers the pleasure of feeling important, even in a simple way, by doing something ordinary and humble.

I also wanted to draw attention, as I did in my previous film, to a form of exclusion, neglect and indifference. When post offices are closed, villages are destroyed; we move further and further away from civilised society. We really ought to be helping local businesses in France right now. When elderly people are no longer able to live with dignity in their own home, they end up in old people’s homes where they die during heat waves!

How do you explain the film’s current success?
It’s a masterpiece [laughs]. No, I think this is partly due to the fact that the film came out at just the right time, unlike our previous film. There weren’t many French films showing in cinemas at the time, the weather was awful when the film was released. I also helped to promote the film across the country and people see themselves in this film; they’re touched by this family saga and the question of solidarity. What’s more, people told me they were pleased to see a film that doesn’t explain everything to them, where things aren’t handed to them on a plate. I’m well aware that my film doesn’t qualify as a profound auteur film, and I make no apologies for that. I like films that appeal to everyone. But, having said that, films shouldn’t appeal to the audience’s lazy viewing habits. I prefer to make films that appeal to the viewers’ curiosity and openness.

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