The Heart Spoke is Hadrien Don Fayel’s first documentary. It went into International Film Festivals around the world and won the Aurora Gold Award for Documentary – Cultural
Tiphaine was of great help for my film. She was there from the very start of its creation: she helped me create the interview and came with me to meet Jean Touzet. Then, when the film was finished, she took care of the subtitles, and then took care of the international submissions of the film.
As a result, the film has been shown in many venues, mainly in the states and in Canada.
I am now working with her as an actress on my next project, my first Feature Film, Nature’s Breath, where she plays one of the lead. The project is in post-production.
The films offers actions scattered in time but that coordinate when juxtaposed in order to suggest what Jean Touzet’s activity was within the Cannes Festival. As a matter of fact, his experience in managing a great number of people as a choir or orchestra conductor or as the director of many theatre shows played a large part in his directing of the festival. So that the key word when it comes to qualifying Jean Touzet’s work in the festival is Coordination.
Similarly to the work of choir singers in the old days, the work of the numerous “actors” present at the festival had to be done in unison.
The man says it : all is organization, coordination, result.
Thus the pretendingly scattered fragments display the path Jean Touzet was able to give to the festival : from the idea to the result.
According to him, be it a film or a venue such as the festival, it all starts with a feeling, grows administratively, materializes into a result and ends up as a feeling within the spectator this time.
As Jean Touzet explains it : before depending on the ministry of Culture, the cinema belonged to the ministry of Industry. Therefore the people working for the festival were first serving Industry, then Culture. Later on, the cinema found its place and artistic criteria came prior to financial choices or cultural choices specific to each country. A single committee was set up to choose the films to be shown at the festival. From that moment on, the selection was solely determined by the communion of a few people’s artistic taste for the cinema. It is in this state of mine and with no commercial purpose that Jean Touzet launched the Cannes Festival.
The film shows this process based on the feelings of a man moved by numerous passions that he later used to make the Cannes Festival evolve from what it was in the 30’s to its incomparable achievement in the 60’s.
Echoes is Perrine Lievois’ first feature film. It went into International Film Festivals around the world and won the Sandcastle award for Best Feature Film at the Moondance Film Festival in 2008.
Tiphaine was more than the lead actress : she took part in the project from the start, and had a big role in making this adventure happen :
There was a lot of improvisation during the shooting of the film, both in front and behind the camera, and Tiphaine was capable of adding a lot of life and creativity. Some crucial scenes in the films where created from her ideas of improvisation on the day. (like the conductor’s scene).
Once the film finished, she found plenty of ways to help us :
As we didn’t speak enough english at the time, she got in charge of translating the script to create subtitles, and managed to find english translater to help her make it perfect.
When we got stuck for one music back ground, and even though she was then traveling in Canada, she managed to find a group ready to record a song that would fit our needs in Montreal, and had it sent to us. (The scene where Alize runs after the bus).
As soon as the film was finalized, she took care of all the international entrances to festivals. Thanks to her work, Echoes has been part of the Official Selection of 10 festivals outside of France, in the USA, England and South Korea.
When we went to Boulder, Colorado, to claim our Winning Price as Best Feature Film, she came with us and took care of all the translation needs.
Last April, during the End Of The Pier Film Festival, where she went to represent us, she found a sales representative interested in distributing the film to Scandinavian countries, ans is still working with him to make the sales happen.
Because she believed in our project, Tiphaine Siovel became much more than a talented actress, she became part of the core team, and thanks to her, the film has already had some good successes and awaiting more…
This is the story of the awakening of a relationship between a woman and Nature. The main character of the film is a young woman who finds herself lost in a nature reserve, facing the elements alone. Instinctively, a dialogue begins.
Like the main character, we have tried to follow our intuition, starting with a very simple synopsis, in order to let ourselves be guided, and therefore offer a ?mise en scene experience? rather than the application of a scenario.
Our objective was to be able to capture a sense of what the environment offers us and to film our responses.
So we let ourselves be guided by the weather, the tides, and whatever consequences they might have on us. The result is the echo that nature had on our consciousness during the time of filming.
In order to have all the freedom possible, we shot with a reduced crew, three or four people at most, with no funding nor time limit.
The scenes which presented themselves during the shooting were developed to a narrative form during the editing process. In this way we have tried to depict our impression with as little intellectualisation as possible.
I just watched your film and I wanted to thank you, it was a wonderful experience and I’m inspired! I admire the process you must have been through to achieve what you have. You’ve clearly –been devoted to it, and your talents compliment each other – a great team! The film evoked the senses and was also sensual – and truthful in a way that many cinematic experiences are not, at least for me. The interior monologue (dialogue) which pervades life (not always helpfully!) accorded with my experience, and all the little contradictions and judgements suited the theme of nature perfectly. Moments reminded me of great films I love like Fellini’s Eight and a Half, The Thin Red Line, Wings of Desire, and Robert Bresson’s tactile film craft. I liked how subconscious thought (such as dreams) doesn’t have language associated with it, since this is somehow deeper and more associative. The ebb and flow of pacing and sound design were equally well-crafted, and I love how you’ve brought the whole thing together on such a modest budget. It really deserves a wider audience. There are not many films like this – that have a transcendental quality, a spirituality. I don’t know if it’s just the way we see the world as filmmakers or artists, but as you can tell it’echoed’ with my view of reality! I’ve probably said too much, especially since the ultimate lesson is silence. Paul Andersen, film director
The Heart Spoke is Hadrien Don Fayel’s first documentary. It went into International Film Festivals around the world and won the Aurora Gold Award for Documentary – Cultural
