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BASED ON PHOTOS BY WILLY HUVEY - EMILIE DE LA HOSSERAYE LE MÉLA KAD MERAD A FILMBY FRÉDÉRIC BERTHE n IE D ou TEY Few and LGM Cinéma present KAD MERAD MÉLANIE DOUTEY MANU PAYET STUDIOCANAL A FILM BY INTERNATIONAL MARKETING With 1 PLACE DU SPECTACLE Francis RenaudFRÉDÉRIC Pierre Laplace BERTHE Daniel Duval 92863 ISSY LES MOULINEAUX CEDEX 9 FRANCE TEL. +33 1 71 35 11 13 RUNNING TIME: 1H28 www.studiocanal.com FRENCH RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 9, 2009 Synopsis Arthur’s life is simple, shared between Florence, his partner for the past five years and working in a specialist sports shop. Everything is just fine until one day, with no warning, Florence announces she’s leaving him for another man. She’s going to get married, and she’s going to live abroad. In shock, Arthur is convinced that Florence is losing her mind and is determined to get her back, even when he learns the wedding is taking place in Miami in a few days time. Of course he’s not invited but his mind is made up nonetheless: Arthur is going to the wedding. Meanwhile, master thief Emilie Vergano has stolen a painting from a famous Paris museum, the heist commissioned by another Miami resident. She and Arthur cross paths at the airport in Paris on their way to the States and from then on, are bound together: On the run from the police, Emilie has slipped the stolen painting in Arthur’s bag, thus plunging him into an adventure he could never have imagined – a crazy way to spend his few days off... INTERVIEW WITH FRÉDÉRIC BERTHE director What appealed to you about this project? projects and the two different worlds. For TV, I shoot a great deal in Paris. I’ve always lived there, I was born there and It’s a special film. It’s a romantic, exotic, adventure comedy, although I like shooting there, familiarity wears down your the likes of which hasn’t been made for a long time. The illusions a little. So as soon as I’m away from Paris, even just challenge was to bring together several genres into something a little, I get a boost. This is particularly so given that sets and with rhythm, humor and emotion. It’s also a story about an location are very important to me. I’m incapable of finalizing atypical couple who are very appealing – nothing like the a scene when I haven’t found the right location. out-of-this-world superheroes you often find in movies. I find that refreshing. You want to follow their progress, you want When I agreed to do the shoot, I didn’t know we’d be them to succeed, and you want them to succeed together. shooting in Miami because back then, the story was set in For me, the project was also an opportunity to get back South Africa in locations similar to those from ROMANCING together with the producers who brought me into movies: THE STONE. But Kad had just shot SAFARI and we thought that Cyril Colbeau-Justin and Jean-Baptiste Dupont. shooting there again would neither be good for him nor for the two films. My producer Cyril Colbeau-Justin came up with the idea of shooting in Miami. A decade or so ago, taking What did you think about shooting the majority of the hikes into the desert or the Amazonian rainforests represented movie in the US? an adventure and Miami was a overused visual universe. Ten years on and it’s the reverse. Hardly anyone shoots in Florida My job is to tell stories. I do it equally well for TV as in movies anymore and we suddenly got the chance to rediscover it by and I like that compartmentalization. I’ve just shot a 6x52” filming it in another way.T he city and the region are amazing. series for TV in three months. You just couldn’t envisage that I’d never been there before but it’s absolutely true that just for movies. And I enjoy both kinds of shoots equally. I alternate like the US as a whole, it’s the stuff of dreams. How did you decide on the casting? Arthur Lepage is not a clown, he’s just an unhappy man in freedom. When casting is done well, when the situation is set boat at night, against a backdrop of illuminated buildings. In love. He’s lost, launched into an impossible story far away up and you know where you want to take the characters, the film, this scene marks a real turning point and it benefited Kad Merad is just one of the excellent casting choices in this from home, far from his habits and reference points, and that the film becomes simple and you have to give the actors the from the partnership which became established between film.I t might seem obvious now because he’s having success alone makes him funny. freedom that sometimes leads you to some very pleasant these two actors who shared many experiences, including after success, but one must not confuse cause and effect. It’s surprises. an airboat crash! because he’s good and he works very hard that he is where For the role of Emily, I was the one who chose Mélanie Doutey. he is. People feel close to him, probably because he is what There are few action roles for women in France and at first, I’m the first member of the audience and the scene must he seems to be: A nice guy, a real guy, to whom nice things Mélanie did wonder about the right way to breathe life into first work for me. I look at the actors in the setting we’ve built What is the difference between the shoot in France and happen both in life and in movies. Kad could easily be Arthur, her character. She got into it, believed in it and she became together and I pick up what they give, whilst making sure it the shoot in the States? the hiking shoes salesman he plays in the film. He’s a simple totally credible. She had a lot of fun. Just like in real life, she’s makes the movie progress. character with a normal life, projected into an extraordinary superb – a blend of charm and real force of character. Thanks he shoot in Paris was in sequence with what happens in the adventure. to her, this character who starts out incredibly cold and film. Just when Arthur was about to ask his girlfriend to marry beautiful gradually lets slip a more human side, shows some Do you remember the first scene you shot with Mélanie him, she dumps him for someone else and heads for Miami to If you have a hero with the face of a hero, handsome like an flaws and finally reveals her true self. Even if one is more used and Kad ? get married. Meanwhile, Mélanie’s character has just ripped advertising model, you can easily imagine that he goes off to to seeing her in auteur films, I think it’s great that the general off a priceless painting which Manu’s character was guarding. Miami to get his girlfriend back. But when it’s a real person, it’s public can discover her in this popular cinema genre – in the We began with the scene where she slips her “package” And then everyone takes off! a different story. There’s also something delightful in imagining most noble sense of the term. She’s at home here, too. into his bags, kissing him to create a diversion. We were a guy like Kad plunged into the situations that occur in the immediately right into these two characters just how they In the US, we were based in Miami and went as far as the film. You want those things to happen to him. You’re keen for It was Cyril’s idea to offer the role of Serkine to Manu Payet. I are at the start of the film: She’s a lone international thief, Everglades, some 25 miles away. I arrived with the director of him to experience these adventures and encounters and didn’t know his work but from our very first meeting,I knew he sure of her charm and ready for any challenge; he’s a photography, Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci; chief set designer, you want to follow him on his way. was right. He envisaged the role in exactly the same way I did. simple and safe guy, his morale at rock bottom and ready Franck Benezech; my irreplaceable first assistant director, He didn’t want to play this cop like a comedy character but to do anything to get back the girl he loves. The situation is François Ryckelynck; and script editor, Bérangère Saint-Bezar. I like the idea that a man who doesn’t seem like much of a to take him at face value. Just like Kad and Mélanie, Manu fairly representative of the spirit of the film. We reversed the I always go with them if I can. The rest of the team were lady-killer can be so charming that he manages to seduce brings a lot to his role, sometimes at his own expense! When conventions. It’s the girl who throws herself at the guy and American. For just under a week, we were a little wary of each with such class. He’s a man who you love for who he is.

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