Confronted With Your Roots: Thomas Vernay On His Short "Miss Chazelles"
Director/Producer/Editor Thomas Vernay directed his first short film Dryad in 2015. The film was selected for more than 70 festivals and went on to win 15 awards. After directing multi-awarded music videos, Vernay is back with his next short film, Miss Chazelles, which questions social and sentimental determinism. He is currently writing his first feature inspired by Miss Chazelles, which will be produced by Qui Vive.
Clara and Marie are rivals. Marie won the famous Miss Chazelles-sur-Lyon pageant, while Clara was the first runner-up. While in the village the tension rises between Clara's friends and Marie's family, the two girls seem to have an ambiguous relationship.
Miss Chazelles has already won many high profile awards, and It has been selected to be screen at the Oscar-qualifying Odense International Film Festival in August. We had the pleasure of chatting with Thomas about his film, its origins, social and emotional determinism, and much much more!
How did you come up with the concept for Miss Chazelles?
Chazelles-Sur-Lyon is the village of my childhood. The characters in the film are entirely inspired by people I have known. I project myself a lot into Clara. I wanted to evoke social and sentimental determinism through this character. Clara, as I did, tries to emancipate herself and listen to her own desires, but her social context catches up with her.
What about this particular story resonates most with you?
I’m in love with love stories. There are great films about love, and it's such a universal theme. We all face it at some point in our lives. In French there is an expression that says “fleur bleue". A term for tenderness, for poetry. Romanticism in a way. I clearly think I’m "fleur bleue.” But I think that a lot of love stories are about the same things : the poor girl who believes in Prince Charming, who wants to live a true love story and who falls in love with a rich man, who no longer believes in love, who makes a series of conquests and is going to be “transformed” by the girl. The image of the women is really mediocre in these stories.
Then, I had the desire to speak about the female condition and social or emotional determinism. In itself, the beauty pageant is a space for bringing up more deeply rooted issues. We all know that a beauty pageant is not a dignifying phenomenon. And choosing to participate is by no means a free choice. It’s a false liberty, conditioned by the male gaze, the desire to please men and society before being pleased with oneself. I especially wanted to bring up to what point it is difficult for a girl to make her own choices, and to live differently without obstacles.
How did you find your cast?
It’s a mix of professional and amateur actors. I was incredibly lucky to stumble upon the two twins Robin and Tom, who are exceptional. Robin plays in French series Skam, he is very skilled. I worked with him on a music video for an EP that I produced (Sirop – Flesh), it’s a true pleasure to communicate with him on an artistic level. All of the actors were attentive, very invested, I was lucky with the casting. Alice Mazodier and Megan Northam work wonderfully together. Alice had this softness and shyness that gave form to the character. There is in any case a lot of the girls themselves in the characters. Concerning Megan, as I said, I wrote the film with her in mind. We had already filmed together for different videos and every time the experience was very strong. She is magnetic and I really like her diction, her way of making the text her own, her timing.
I would also like to mention Nicolas Teitgen, who plays Matthias. He is extraordinary. He had never acted before, I met him at a casting. His brother was doing the casting and he was waiting on the side. I asked him to give it a try. He gave it a shot, having nothing to lose. It was love at first sight. To me, it’s one of the stronger characters of the film. I found out shortly after that he had passed away in a tragic accident. I was devastated. He was an up-and-coming talent. We still talked often on social media. I was waiting for my next project to be confirmed in order to work with him again. I think about him a lot. I miss him.
What was your approach to telling this story visually?
Miss Chazelles is inspired by tales of princes and princesses. I wanted to completely distort their sexist codes and give substance to a reading focused on female identity. Every detail of a medieval tale is present: The princess dress, the “prince” – who is a woman – the knight’s sword, the standard and the motorcycles which represent the steeds. We also find the castle ball – where the princess exchanges a look with the “prince.” The famous image of a dragon is embodied by the father, whilst the two twins are entirely inspired by Disney movies – looking at the absurdity and surrealism of physical resemblance.
The short is based on the colors Pink and Blue. Two colors that are endlessly used for gender stereotyping. If you look closely, whenever Clara is on screen as the pink dominant, the backdrop will often be a dominant blue. The opposite applies to Marie. This is quite telling in the ball scene. It is used to graphically illustrate that their thoughts are constantly directed towards one another.
And for the format, I used the ratio 1.33 to lock the character in, to accentuate her constant feeling of suffocation. The cage of human condition.
What drew you to the visual arts? How did you get into directing?
Making movies has been my goal since I was 10. At 20, I founded a production company in order to keep my independence. At 30, I decided to produce my own first short film: Dryad. After that I directed some music video clips. Miss Chazelles was made last year. I have always produced my projects, until my future ones where I decided to collaborate with producers who are more talented than me. Producing and directing at the same time is very exhausting. Especially when you put all your money in.
I think that we don’t really choose to become filmmakers – it was like a vital thing. I’m not a big talker, and I need to express myself through images.
What films or filmmakers inspired this film or your overall approach to storytelling?
My first inspiration is Andrea Arnold. I love her writing, the way she paints her characters. I like colors, frames, artistic direction. I love everything about her work, without exception. I have the same fascination for Jane Campion’s work. I’m super sensitive to her universe. I love the cinema of Kelly Reichardt too. Gus Van Sant has this talent to be able to navigate between commissioned films and auteur films. And he has the sensitivity that I'm looking for.
What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
Whether you come from a village, a suburb, or elsewhere, you are constantly confronted with your roots. They haunt us, have forged us, for good or bad. There will always be people to teach you good or evil, social barriers, prohibitions that are imposed to us. But what really matters is what is in your heart. The feelings that inflame us, those that can take us very far. I told you I was "fleur bleue".
I hope that this short film will give the audience a humble glimpse of how hard it is to be a woman in this world, and even more so as it is difficult to be outside of societal norms.
I hear that you’re working on a feature inspired by Miss Chazelles . What are you looking forward to exploring more in the feature film format?
It’s complicated to talk about it, we are just at the beginning of writing. What is certain is that I want to talk about raw love. The one that marks us forever. To talk about social determinism, how it’s difficult to be what you want to be when you’re born in a certain place. The social condition of women, how men constantly orient their choices, how they should behave, what they should look like… How to get rid of the hold of the family, as much as the hold of patriarchy.
These are the themes that I try to explore, they drive me. I am not a woman, so the question of legitimacy is constantly present, but I can’t go against it, I feel like it’s one of the greatest injustices in history, which is still going on. It fascinates me that we are still doubting this injustice, that we even find excuses for it.
Aside from the feature, do you have any other projects in the works that you can share with us?
I’m working on my third short film. This is about the necessity of female solidarity in the face of this male domination. How do we deal with toxic masculinity? How do we change things? The idea of sisterhood is one of the solutions, if you ask me.
I’m also working on my second EP (aka Sirop), with some featurings like Aaron Cohen, or Chelsea Reject. I don't consider myself a musician, it's purely instinctive, but the music is complementary to my work. I don’t think of one without the other. It allowed me to switch angles.
On the other side, I’m always working on some music videos, my last animated one was for Diplo. It allows me to think more lightly. Music videos allow me to develop visual universes, even if I try to keep in mind the themes I want to defend.
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!