Café au Lait was my first film, shot in S16mm with a limited budget, produced by Christophe Rossignon.
Nobody knew who we were or took any interest in a story that did not fit in with the criteria of French cinema at the time. Young coloured people, rappers… All of that was not really the CNC’s cup of tea, who did not extend their help (or for any of my subsequent films either). Christophe, a son of a farmer with his engineer’s spirit made it possible for the film to exist thanks to a co-production agreement with SFP who supplied half of the technical team. Having worked as a trainee director for this venerable French institution, I was afraid I would be landed with under motivated technicians who finish a film on Friday to start another on Monday. I organised a casting for these technicians giving them the script and asking them to give me their opinions and we carefully put together a team in order to best integrate the “old hands” with the new little guys that we were.
We had an intense and passionate shoot where I really learned the work of full-length pictures: the fatigue, the doubts, the last minute changes, the budgetary problems…
This light comedy on racism in an “urban” setting was inspired by the life I lead at the time. Julie Mauduech, the main actress who I was living with at the time (and the mother of my daughter) played LOLA, a young girl with a decidedly strong character.
Although it was not biographical, this story came from the ambiance of the street, the beginnings of the Hip-Hop culture in France and the melting pot that was simmering gently then and which is now bubbling away today.
It was on this film that I met Hubert Koundé who I worked with again on HATE.
There are also lots of other characters that played again in HATE, like the grand parents, Vinz, and a few people like J.C Flamand Barny who directed “NEG MARON” fifteen years later, as well as the greater part of the technical team.
The question the film poses turns around the colour of the baby that is about to be born and the nurse (who played Hubert’s mother in HATE) gives the response at the end: “He is pink with green stars”.
Cross breeding is our future and though some see it as a menace, the mixing of bloods and cultures is mathematically inevitable. That gives me pleasure.
PS: “Pink with green stars” is the colour of the car Belmondo asks the kid for in “THAT MAN FROM RIO”, one of my favourite films. |
