UK HORROR SCENE
AN INTERVIEW WITH
@EmilieFlory by @dean_sills
Bonjour Emilie, thank you for your time and welcome to
UK Horror Scene!
UKHS- When did you first discover your passion for filmmaking, writing and acting and which job do you enjoy doing the most?
As a child I wrote and drew a lot, I was fascinated by
genre films and enrolled in a theater to overcome my timidity. My father was a
weapons’ engineer who helped make movies about submarines and that had a great
effect on me. I have a fairly active imagination; I like dreams… That was back
when Star Wars came out. I saw it at
an outdoor theater in Saint-Tropez when I was seven. It made such an impact on
me that the only dream I’ve had since then was to direct. Writing has always
been a major focal point, the center of everything. To me, directing is an
extension of writing. I can’t dissociate them. Directing is also writing.
Filmmaking includes writing and all forms of art to give us a specific work we
call a movie. It’s magic.
As for acting… I practiced it for a long time since I
was lousy at math and because of that hadn’t been able get into a film school.
I loved dramatic art so I opted for that. Until, suddenly, I had the occasion
to do what I had always wanted to do. Writing and directing are two passions
that fill my life. Acting is not what I’m looking for.
UKHS- Before I asked you about 'Trauma Dolls'
can you please tell us a little about your 10 min short,
'Processus 5'? You directed and wrote this SciFi short.
When do story ideas usually hit you
and what was the
inspiration behind this one?
Processus 5 was initially a project I was supposed to co-direct. I had already started
writing it when my co-director was called elsewhere. Since the movie was my
idea, I was able to see it through to the end of what I wanted to try out.
I think my ideas always find their source in what
haunts me and in what I’m unable to express. My dreams and nightmares are my
best allies. Of course, there’s also my wanting to know certain worlds, to
learn and understand our reactions and emotions as human beings.
For Processus 5,
I started with this familiar and desperate situation that a lot of young people
experience. I thought of what these kids might do to get out of a rut, shock
the planet, speed up awareness and a change in the way world affairs were
going. And since computer science has taken a major role in our lives, I went
looking for well-informed people who knew all about cyber warfare. Things
gradually fell into place in my mind, then onto paper.
UKHS- I believe you shot 'Processus 5' in 35mm?
I know film is more expensive and after watching your short
I have to say you did a superb job, It's got a great cinematic look to it.
In the age of digital technology
why did you decide to shoot this in 35mm?
Thanks for asking me this question, Dean, and thanks
for the compliments, I’m touched.
I’m especially sensitive to the esthetics of things. I
have a huge feeling of emptiness when I see all these awful images that pollute
our screens and heads. But the beautiful will make a comeback. Maybe through
genre films which have always been visually powerful. We should to be able to
hand down this art, continue to make it grow emotionally and spiritually and
avoid betraying the beauty of what the great filmmakers we admire have passed
on to us. We all have images of movies imprinted in us that will never leave
us.
I really prefer 35mm to digital and I love scope. In
the end, it’s what comes closest to what our eye sees. I was quite lucky to be
able to shoot Processus 5 in 35mm. It
was really what I wanted. I don’t know if I’ll have that chance with Trauma Dolls. For Processus 5, a producer friend gave us scraps of unused film he had
sitting around. Sometimes we didn’t even have enough to finish certain scenes.
You have to know that film has an immediate cost, but
that compared to digital, shooting your movie on film can turn out to be less
expensive in terms of total costs. These are things you have to evaluate.
I’m not so sure that 35mm will disappear because film
makes for the best medium of preservation. In labs like Digimage, digital
movies are transferred onto film to be stored. We’re even required in France to
copyright the movie we shot on film!
UKHS- Ok, let's talk about 'Trauma Dolls'.
The films is an horrifico glamour slasher that takes place
in the worlds of fashion and neuroscience in Paris.
What was the inspiration behind the story
and can you tell us a little about this awesome project?
Trauma Dolls tells the story of Bijou, a brilliant, sweet and beautiful young lady who
dreams of joining a prestigious dance company.
Unfortunately, nothing goes according to plan. Bijou goes from setback
to setback and rejection to rejection, until she dies… Bijou refuses this death
on the operating table while the surgeon tries to bring her back to life. She
“resuscitates” but doesn’t come back the way people knew her from before. She
comes back as a dark part… Yet, this “Being”, who has become cold, dangerously
attractive and morbid is going to be fantastically successful in the fashion
world.
My inspiration for this story goes back to 2009 after
the post-production of Processus 5…
Like this story’s main character, I constructed myself
through an endless series of all kinds of setbacks and rejections… Up until
2005 when I got run over. I came close to death and had to say goodbye to
myself. What happens is that you become another person after an experience like
that. There’s a huge amount of reconstruction, both physically as well as
psychologically.
When the company in charge of promoting French movies
turned down Processus 5 with the
excuse that I hadn’t directed it, I totally lost it. I got so angry that for
the first time in my life I seriously wondered if I wasn’t going to start
hurting people and become someone evil. The idea of crossing over to the other
side (even though I work every day trying to become a better person) and
thinking of myself as a monster horrified me so much that I had terrible
nightmares. And that’s when the idea for Trauma
Dolls came to me.
UKHS- Can you tell us a little about International Supermodel Patricia Schmid who stars as Bijou in the film and is she a fan of
horror movies?
Patricia Schmid is shooting a commercial in Spain
right now. She’s getting ready to work in an arthouse film that’s supposed to
start filming the beginning of next year. She has a number of projects in the
fashion world. Now that Paris is the showcase for the art world once more,
Patricia spends a lot of time going back and forth between France and
Switzerland and the other European countries. I think she’s just discovering
the world of horror but she likes it.
UKHS- I know you have done some acting in the past
and since the movie is about fashion and you are
a beautiful French lady will we see you in front of the camera
or just behind it?
Thanks for the compliment, Dean, I’m flattered
although that’s not necessarily how I see myself. There’s no way I’m going to
step in front of a camera. I want to stay behind it. Besides, it’s really hard
to control directing when you’re acting at the same time and I hate that. I
admire people who can handle both. But I don’t choose to do so.
UKHS- Will the film be French speaking with English subtitles
and
can you tell us when it will be released?
The movie will surely be shot in English with English
and American actors. Besides I have a distributor who’s very interested in
distributing it for the North American market. When you think about it, the
movie’s DNA really isn’t very French. I don’t have a French mentality. We
haven’t set a release date yet.
This is a timely question because the movie is busy
looking for its producer. Along with the movie’s screenplay, which reached the
semi-final at Shriekfest and the final at the Frightnight Film Fest (Fandom
Fest 2014), we have a solid artistic package, a presentation trailer officially
selected at HollyShorts and we’re ready to shoot right away but we don’t have a
production company and casting still has to be done.
UKHS- Finally, are you working on any other projects
that you can tell us about?
Absolutely. I just shot a few scenes of some zombie
attacks for a supernatural web series that will be in editing soon.
Plus, I just created a series concept called Off
Screen Terror in response to a request for projects by a producer. And I’m in
the middle of writing a science fiction screenplay whose theme, which I won’t
divulge, is a real challenge for me.
English translation by Cameron Watson
