A shark in Paris? This is the pitch of Under the Seine by Xavier Gens which will be broadcast this summer on Netflix. On the eve of the Olympic Games, the City of Lights suffers an unexpected trauma when a shark threatens to transform the festivities into a country buffet. A scientist with a charged past tries to warn the authorities without being able to make herself heard. It is Bérénice Bejo who plays this determined woman. In Gérardmer, she and Xavier Gens came to present the first images of what is already shaping up to be an event in front of an audience of enthusiasts.
“We did not approach the subject in a parodic way like Sharknado, explains Xavier Gens. This is a serious and committed film which presents the shark in an unusual way. He’s not just bad in Under the Seine. » The director of Farang benefited from a comfortable budget, significant technical resources and complete freedom to bring his project to fruition. “No one would have given me these possibilities for a theatrical release,” he says. It would have been too risky to release a genre film like this in theaters. I am grateful to Netflix for giving me this opportunity. »
Bérénice Bejo gets wet
Bérénice Bejo did not hesitate to invest fully. She had to learn diving for the many underwater scenes required by her role. “I was excited by the idea of doing something so new to me,” she says. His character is powerful: it allows him to play comedy while having an important physical dimension. “I was sometimes afraid but the security conditions were perfect. All I had to do was wave my hand and a diver would come and help me if needed. »
The actress has never really dived into the Seine. Its underwater sequences were filmed in Alicante and in a studio in Belgium. “The water was so salty in Alicante that it stung our eyes and made it difficult to swim,” remembers Bérénice Bejo.
A cinematic puzzle
The film was a puzzle to harmonize the sequences so that the viewer could not see the difference between the different filming locations including Paris where certain passages were filmed. “We had difficulty obtaining authorizations because we can only block the Seine for two hours a day,” explains Xavier Gens. The images seen in Gérardmer are very promising: competitors in a swimming event are attacked by sharks.
As the water turns completely red, we deduce that the shark has found something to eat. “This scene, filmed in Alicante, was impressive,” says Bérénice Bejo. Cameras attached to cables passed above us. This feeling of participating in a big production had something magical. » The actress’ performance is particularly highlighted by this device.
A hungry shark
The shark was also considered a star, the subject of copious research before being launched into the adventure. “It’s a female called Lilith,” explains Xavier Gens. We developed it with a model before handing it over to the visual effects people. I also sent them images of shark attacks so that they could reproduce them realistically. » The latter are still at work to refine the shark and digital effects intended to be invisible to the viewer.
A titanic job
“The light and water are reworked so that we really believe we are in the sea or under the Seine. It was a complex process to homogenize everything and the public should not realize it,” insists Xavier Gens. What he showed us confirms that it really works. “We shot the film in preview with stand-ins for the actors and the means at hand so that I could work out the details of the staging,” he says. This allowed me to plan everything before filming and be less stressed. »
A fin on the Seine
If the suspense is omnipresent, Lilith’s meals are not shown in an overly graphic way. “From the point of view of violence, Under the Seine is at the level of Jurassic Park, he announces. Not really gory and watchable with the family. » Enough to make you want to meet Lilith and her prey who will appear on Netflix screens just in time for the Olympic Games. We can already start looking at the Seine in search of a suspicious fin.