Charlotte Le Bon signs a little gem with the sensitive Falcon Lake, his first feature film presented at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and then at the Deauville Festival. The shy loves of two teenagers (the debutante Sara Montpetit and Joseph Engel, discovered at Louis Garrel’s) mingle with a ghost story on the edge of a Canadian lake.
“My film flirts with the fantastic, explains Charlotte Le Bon to 20 minutes. I love the world of the paranormal which offers an inexhaustible well for the imagination. That of its young heroes gets carried away as they experience their first adult emotions by letting themselves be caught up in a bewitching universe that still evokes children’s tales.
Between “Take Shelter” and “Ghost Story”
This first feature film is very freely inspired byA sister, comic strip by Bastien Vivès published by Casterman. He navigates the spectator between reality and the imaginary until blurring the lines of his perception. The “inhabited” atmosphere of the lake landscape refers to the delicate moment between childhood and adulthood when everything still carries mysteries and dangers. “I experienced death very early in my life because I was only 10 years old when I lost my father, confides Charlotte Le Bon. I think that explains why I felt the need to make it something pretty. The anguish of an unexplained presence, which could be that of a drowned person, weighs on the hearts of touching protagonists until a surprising outcome.
“Throughout the film, there is a ghost legend that hovers around the characters, insists Charlotte Le Bon. They feel its presence without being able to explain the phenomenon. This specter that we never really see haunts the holidays of these young people during a summer that will change their destiny. “I see ghosts as people who haven’t quite crossed over,” explains Charlotte Le Bon. This impression of suspended destiny and drama that the public expects to see explode in a clap of thunder keeps them constantly in suspense. “For my film, I thought of Take Shelter by Jeff Nichols and A Ghost Story by David Lowery, two works that bring the Fantastic into everyday life,” she insists.
With Falcon Lake, Charlotte Le Bon reveals the beautiful nature of a filmmaker who is as comfortable describing the celebrations that her heroes experience as in plunging them into a poignant tragedy. Lovers of the director’s universe will be able to prolong the experience with a superb exhibition at the Item gallery in the 14th arrondissement of Paris.