Back to his native land! The director Melanie Auffret will be on Saturday January 28 at 8 p.m. at the Cinéville de Vannes in order to present to the public his latest film The Small Victories. Accompanied by two actors, she will discuss with the spectators after the broadcast of the film. Mélanie Auffret is best known for having directed in 2019 the film Roxane starring Guillaume de Tonquédec. Unidivers looks back on the career of the director and her (young) filmography.
On Saturday January 28, the public will have the pleasure of attending an early evening preview of the comedy The Small Victories which will be released in theaters on March 1, 2023. On the bill, we find in the main roles: Julia Piaton, Michel Blanc and Lionel Abelanski, the screenplay being by Michaël Souhaité and Romain Compingt. Mélanie Auffret, the director will be present with two actors: Julia Piaton and Lionel Abelanski. All three will introduce themselves after the film and answer questions from the audience.
The comedy Les Petites Victoires talks about the desertification of the countryside but also about the solidarity and intergenerational support.
The comedy was shot in the heart of Argoat, wooded Brittany, precisely in Juch, a small town not far from Douarnenez in Finistère. The setting chosen for the film is that of a region of central Brittany which has gradually become depopulated and which seems abandoned. It has no more shops, no more doctors, no more except the school which still remains one of the last services in force, however threatened with closure.
Because the mayors of such a territory are always on the front line in a fight for survival, The director explains the choice of the title The little victories, as a tribute paid to one of these mayors, who, once the balance sheet of his term of office has been drawn up, claims minimal successes, small advances such as, for example, having welcomed one or two families of three or four children who have come to swell the ranks school, or for having encouraged the opening of an associative bar-grocery store. Mélanie Auffret could have chosen other rural countries to serve as the location for her film. But she reminds the public that she is a daughter of Plescop (56) and therefore it seemed obvious to her that the region chosen for the filming of her comedy is Brittany. The comedy also deals with the theme of illiteracy, a reality presented here with infinite humanity.
The film The Small Victories tells the story of a meeting between 2 characters that everything opposes. On the one hand, there is Alice (played by Julia Piaton), the 30-year-old bachelor who is both a one-class teacher and mayor of the small town, on the other hand there is Émile (played by Michel Blanc) , this old boy who after the death of his brother is lost because of his illiteracy and who decides to impose himself on the benches of the school.
“Between her obligations as mayor and her job as a teacher in the small village of Kerguen, Alice’s days are very full. The arrival in his class of Emile with an explosive character, decided to learn to read and write at the age of 70, will make his daily life unmanageable. ..”
Melanie Auffret was born in Morbihan, in Plescop, a town located 7km from Vannes. However, her grandparents were farmers and had a dairy farm near Corlay where she spent most of her free time. When she was 20, she enrolled in a film school in the capital. She participates in many internships as an assistant on filming. She is also making a short film.
But when she finished her training at the Paris Film School, in April 2016 she made a short film on the peasant world and finished first in her class. She receives her Prize in Paris for her short film ” Be happy my hen “, following its participation in the Alpe-d’Huez festival in 2017. The production was family performed by real farmers. The short film financed only up to 1000 euros allows him to be spotted, since the producer Foucauld Barré and scriptwriter of Quad Films Production in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine) then offers him to develop a feature film, from a similar idea. For the young Breton, the experience is incredible and promising.
Mélanie Auffret directs Roxane, the film released on screens in 2019. It also takes place in Brittany in Corlay, Kerpert and Saint-Connan in the Côtes d’Armor department.
“Always accompanied by his faithful hen Roxane, Raymond (played by Guillaume de Tonquédec) is a chicken breeder and producer of organic eggs in Corlay. He is also a theater enthusiast.. He has a well-kept secret to make his hens happy: declaim the tirades of Cyrano de Bergerac. But faced with the pressure and the unbeatable prices of the big industrial competitors, its small exploitation is threatened. He will come up with an idea as crazy as it is incredible to try to save his farm, his family and his couple: to make the buzz on the Internet”.
The film totaled 314,337 admissions in France. Critics describe the film as social, relevant, a rural and poetic comedy, full of fantasy which does not evade the tragedy of the peasant world, but which transcends it and to conclude: A nice film about rurality in crisis
The tour through France
Les Small Victories is a film filled with optimism, the reason why Mélanie Auffret chose to introduce it first and foremost to the inhabitants of rural areas. It was therefore obvious to the director that the previews of the film could not take place in Paris or in the big cities, but in cinemas on the scale of the cantons, small towns, as close as possible to the people represented. in her film: She therefore began her national tour in the fall of 2022 with Brittany and first in Douarnenez, Gourin, Plestin-les-Grèves, Châteaulin, Questembert, Quiberon, Auray, etc.
She will be present in Vannes at the Cinéville cinema, Saturday January 28, 2023. The Small Victories : session at 8:30 p.m.
Valves. Director Mélanie Auffret presents her film Les Petites Victoires