Cédric Kahn is an all-around filmmaker: director, screenwriter, and actor, too. With Making Of, presented out of competition, Kahn offers a funny, ironic compendium of what may happen before and behind the camera.
How did you come up with the idea for this film?
I wanted to make a social film on cinema with the tones of comedy. It is a mix of lived experience, with all the fears and expectations that come to you when you are making a movie, and of fiction, of exaggeration. I know the world of cinema very well, and that’s why I wanted to talk about it, to show whatever is personal about it as well as all the things that regular people may not realize happen in the world of filmmaking.
Simon is a famous French director who is facing problem after problem as he is trying to finish his latest film: budget cuts, strikes, and the main protagonist – who Simon lives with – is giving him a hell of a time. Everything seems to push the filmmaker to just quit, but...
You were at Cannes earlier this year with The Goldman Case, a film on events that shocked France in the 1970s. At Venice, you brought Making Of, about social conflict in film. Would you say your creative expression works best when depicting tension?
There is always something social in my films, which might be more or less apparent. Making Of follows in the same tracks. For the first time, however, it will be in comedy form. A departure in tone, rather than in style. Cinema must be social, and it must be political: in this case, I felt the urge to talk about social violence in a world that the general public might not expect to harbour any.
How do you expect audiences to receive your film?
I fear many won’t be interested to watch a film about filmmaking. Anyway, I am happy to present my film in Italy, because I did take inspiration from Italian cinema to make this film, particularly the tragicomedy style. In France, we tend not to blur genres together. For Making Of, I definitely fed on Italian cinema. Nanni Moretti’s, in particular.
