Alliance Française French Film Festival 2019: Interview With SINK OR SWIM Director Gilles Lellouche

In times of great struggle, whether brought upon by alcoholism, unemployment, domestic drama, depression or even a mid-life existential crisis, it’s best to have some support – either from friends, family, colleagues or in the case of Gilles Lellouche’s feel-good sports movie Sink or Swim, a band of fellow synchronised swimmers who are each struggling with their own set of personal demons.

Inspired by the British documentary Men Who Swim (the same program that spurned the similarly-themed Swimming With Men recently), Lellouche’s solo directorial debut (after helming many music videos and features with his fellow French directors), performs a tricky balancing act – much like the characters in his film – oscillating between 80’s sports movie comedic hijinks and the pragmatic problems of the men in the middle of it all.

Discovered through the recognisable eyes of Mathieu Amalric, who plays a depressed family man whose years of unemployment weigh heavily upon him, Sink or Swim begins when his chance encounter with a local synchronised swimming team provides the single spark he needs to get his humdrum existence into shape. Alongside a cleverly-cast gang of recognisable French actors (including Lellouche’s long-time collaborator Guillaume Canet), Sink or Swim successfully emerges as The Full Monty for this moment in time, gracefully juggling a myriad of social issues, laughs and some damn impressive swimming moves to boot.

As part of this year’s Alliance Française French Film Festival, I had the chance to talk with Gilles Lellouche about his new film, the cast’s extensive training, fulfilling his dream of working with Jon Brion and the film’s positive Cannes reception.

Alex Lines for Film Inquiry: How did Sink or Swim begin as a film?

Gilles Lellouche: I wanted to speak about losing my country at this time. There is no more hope or faith in most of the people in my country. I wanted to speak about it through sports – amateur sports – which is for me one of the last territories where everybody can meet and talk about their common points. That’s why I was looking for a sport like synchronised swimming, because I thought that it was original and quite dramatic, so that’s how it began.

And I believe you were inspired by the documentary “Men Who Swim”?

Gilles Lellouche: When I started to write the movie for the first time, the characters, who were quite the same as they are in the final movie, were planning a bank robbery, but it didn’t fit the point of the film. I was looking for something more original and by chance, one of my producers told me about this documentary and when I saw those guys performing synchronised swimming, I just thought it was a perfect idea to tell what I wanted to tell.

How much from the documentary ended up in the final film?

Gilles Lellouche: I don’t know, it was quite different. I can say like 20% (probably less than that), because for me the documentary was quite British – in fact, it came from a British director. My way of showing male synchronised swimming was to make it really French, have it be involved with the French problem of this current period.

With such a big ensemble cast, how do you go about casting the film? For a lot of the actors, even though they might be drawn to the material, it’s quite a physically demanding part for each of them.

Gilles Lellouche: Yeah, they had to train for the performances twice a week, four hours each time. It was quite hard because in France, we don’t have the physical training for movies, it’s quite singular, so it was a lot of work for them. I’m so thankful that the actors and actresses were really involved, I’m a really lucky guy, it was really complicated and really hard for them, but they gave me all that they could.

How much rehearsal time did you have?

Gilles Lellouche: Oh, it was like four months. We continued to train during the shoot of the movie, so in fact it was like seven months because I shot the final choreography of the film at the end of shooting, so it was like seven months of training. I can tell that for the actors, it was not a pleasure because again, it’s not the traditional way of working in France to do that kind of stuff, so it was rare and precious for me to have these actors so involved.

Yeah, it was a nice change from most American sports films, where the actual sports/events are performed by stunt doubles.

Gilles Lellouche: In the final performance, they did about 80% of it, but when you see the legs standing out of the water, that’s not them, those are dancers, because even if you’ve been training for 10 years, they’re still complicated moves.

Was there ever a temptation to cast yourself in the film?

Gilles Lellouche: Yes, but I had so much work to do in directing it that I couldn’t do the training with them. It was impossible and this is a film that requires so much planning. It was also too egocentric for me, some can do it like this, but it was too much ego for me – and to be honest with you, I don’t think I would be taken very seriously trying to direct actors in a swimming suit.

How do you feel being an actor, and working with a large variety of directors, has informed your own directorial style?

Gilles Lellouche: You know, I began my career as a director in the early 90’s, I made a short film for myself to star in, because like most actors, I was unemployed and I needed something to star in. After that, I was a music video director for 7 years, so I trained myself within that work, doing a lot of music videos and ads, and then I became an actor. In the early 2000’s, I directed my first feature, which was Narco [2004], but I co-directed that one, this one is my first feature alone.

How did Jon Brion come aboard?

Gilles Lellouche: Jon is one of the musicians I’ve admired the most for the past 20 years. After I saw Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies – which are some of the best for me – I was really looking to work with Jon Brion for a long time. I tried to reach him by his agent and I sent him a lot of different edits of my movie, but we heard nothing. My producer told me, okay, forget about the idea to get Jon and his music, he’s never going to do it, he’s not interested, he’s not even looking at the movie, and he never works in Europe, so it’s a dream, you can’t have him.

Later on, I started to meet a French musician, but I was so sad about it. I asked my producer to try one last time, so we sent him the final version of the movie, and by a miracle, he watched it straight away! He called me at like 4am in the morning and said, Okay, I just saw your movie, I love it, I want to do it, can you be in Los Angeles on Saturday? I say, of course I can be there, I took a plane and I met him. It was like a dream come true. It was all so unexpected, and to see the music be recorded in the London studio with the violins and all the instruments, with Jon directing them all, was one of the most beautiful days of my life.

Oh, that makes it all worth it then. Speaking of the music, how did you go about picking the songs in the film? Like in particular, the final song that’s used?

Gilles Lellouche: I was looking for music that was listened to when the characters were teenagers, when things were placebo, when you have faith in life. I am 46 years old, I am the age of my characters and when I was a teenager, this was the music I was listening to, and I also wanted to use songs that you’d hear in old 80’s sports movies, you know?

That’s why I was looking for these titles, and even the opening song in the film is from Tears for Fears, where the first line is “Welcome to your life, there is no turning back” which was exactly the spirit of my characters at the moment we meet them. I think the 80’s is the best decade for music we’ve ever had, I’m crazy about 80’s music and movies, so it made sense for me.

Well, it fit perfectly within the film. Its now playing at the Australian French Film Festival and it’s been nearly a year since it premiered at Cannes last year. Obviously this is a festival you’ve attended many times before, but how was it last year, bringing your own film?

Gilles Lellouche: It was like a miracle because Cannes never takes comedies, but I never made this movie with the idea of taking it to Cannes. It was really strange for me, when the directors of Cannes called me to say, okay, we saw your movie, you are in the official selection, I fell out of my chair!

Then I was afraid of the audiences because they can be really hard – especially with comedies, they can be quite silent. It was then very comforting because we actually received a 17 minute standing ovation when the film finished. I was crying like a child because I couldn’t believe in it. It was like a fairy tale and then the second day, the critics came and they were all like, “it’s fantastic”. Even now I don’t believe it.

I imagine with a comedy, as soon as you get that first laugh, you must be so relieved.

Gilles Lellouche: Yes, people were clapping their hands during the movie, which is so rare in Cannes. I looked at my agent, actors and producers and I was like, woah!

Before we talked about how physically demanding it was for each of the swimmers, but I assume that shooting the movie itself was quite a challenge because there’s a lot of underwater cinematography and shooting inside massive pool halls. How was that?

Gilles Lellouche: Alot of people ask me that question, but for me, it was really a pleasure to make this movie. I never had the impression of it being something difficult to do. It was a long time of shooting, we shot for four months, I had a lot of different sets, a lot of things to shoot, but it was such a pleasure to have all these actors and actresses with me.

It was like a child’s camp you know, I took so much pleasure in making this movie, it was one of the best experiences in all of my life. I can tell that it was quite difficult sometimes, but I was as happy to do it each day – that’s the way I think about it.

I bet that atmosphere really helped with the chemistry between the cast.

Gilles Lellouche: That was something I did not expect. When my actors were doing their training, they met in the water, they hung out afterwards in the locker room and then they’d go and have a drink together, so when they were in front of my camera, their chemistry was exactly the same as when they weren’t. It was very graceful for me, to have my characters so involved.

Speaking to that, one of the film’s greatest elements is that it puts a focus on these sort of male emotions and how important it is, especially for middle aged men, to open themselves up and lay themselves bare, which they do – physically and emotionally – in their post-swim meetings. For you, was this an important part in telling the story?

Gilles Lellouche: I wanted to have working class characters, guys who are making it themselves. I wanted to have some sadness, because I didn’t want to make a typical sports movie, I didn’t want to make a competition movie. I wanted to make a movie about the difficulty of being a regular man today, when you are not one of those guys who has the sports cars, the beautiful wives and a beautiful life.

I wanted to get simple guys who are trying to make their lives as beautiful as they imagined it when they were teenagers, but is unfortunately not the case currently. The opposites of the guys who you can see in the public eye, in the media, in the newspapers, you know, who make you feel like you are nothing, that you don’t have a life which is brilliant. I wanted to show the life of the everyday person, that’s why I wanted to do this movie.

With the international success that the film has had, how long do you think it’ll take Hollywood to do their English language remake?

Gilles Lellouche: (laughs) I don’t know. Some producers and studios asked me for the rights, but I’m really afraid about it. It’s because I don’t want my movie to become just a comedy, I want it to continue to have both drama and comedy, sadness and happiness, which is what is really important to me if there is a remake.

Speaking to that success, are you currently setting up another film to direct after this?

Gilles Lellouche: Yeah, I’ve got plenty of ideas, but I’m looking to vacation at the moment, a quiet time to think about everything, without any pressure. I want to make the movie I want to see, just like what I did with Sink or Swim.

Film Inquiry thanks Gilles Lellouche for taking the time to talk with us.

Sink or Swim will be playing at the Australian Alliance Française French Film Festival this year, details about upcoming sessions can be found here.