PRODUCTION STATEMENT

Ulysse Kelbert, executive producer

 

 

I first met Franck Marchal on the shooting of a student short movie about Heavy Metal - “On The Floor”. Right away, he told me about his movie project “Taro” with such energy and conviction that I was obliged to listen. The story could have ended here. However, when it comes to Franck, one idea is an arrow to the next. That day it became clear to me that there was a whole universe in his head, that he needed to share through cinema. I felt that this dreamy – yet pragmatic - entrepreneur had a strong project, a life project, with high artistic and intellectual ambitions.

 

This story of deep friendship between two teenagers, with at its core the question of sexual identity, seems to illustrate perfectly Bossuet’s sentence: “our true enemies are within ourselves”. I was touched by it because it addresses the way we limit our own spheres of action and thought, as if we had built our own jails within our heads. Indeed Marc, shy teenager that he is; would have stayed at home without Taro, preventing himself from discovering all these things. However we all have the capacity to evolve, to transform ourselves and to try new things – even though we sometimes don’t know it. I think that everyone, in a way, can identify to both Marc and Taro.

 

The originality of Taro also relates to the way the subject is treated. In that sense, the metaphor of this crazy, chaotic and immense squat is in my opinion a perfect illustration of the entry in the adult world.

 

 

 

But as I said, it’s not only a film, it’s a whole universe Franck has in his head. Its coherence was clear to me from the beginning. Indeed, 2 other short films are planned, and they are intimately bound to Taro, revolving around the same themes and ideas. One feature film, La Falaise (“The Cliff”), is also in the pipeline – the first scenario Franck has ever written, but also the most secret. He only speaks about it with great care, keeping mysteries unveiled. Thus, Taro will allow Franck to release what has been in his head for so long – just like his character Marc.

 

Taro is also the first step to creating Les Films de la Falaise, the start-up production company that Franck has been willing to found for so long. Its ambition is to produce a cinema that crosses boundaries, resisting cultural and social conventions. The idea is to make engaged films that challenge – maybe disturb – the spectators, and make them reflect. Cinema is a pleasure, an entertainment, a way to escape, but also a way to think and to grow up.

 

Les Films de la Falaise will also welcome projects from other authors, the fundamental requirement being always a sense of engagement and a total freedom of creation.