They get along like thieves at fairs and that’s quite normal. Pierre Niney plays a filmmaker inspired by Michel Gondry in The Solution Book which received a triumphant welcome at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes at the Cannes Film Festival. The filmmaker had experienced a big slump during the post-production of The Foam of the Days (2013).
“It was crazy to play Michel for Michel and in front of Michel, confides Pierre Niney to 20 minutes. He was much more understanding and gentle than his alter ego from the past who is very difficult for those around him and his team to live with. It is because he suddenly stopped his treatment for bipolarity that the hero of this fictionalized and hilarious autobiography took refuge in his native Cévennes.
A hilarious autobiography
“Pierre had me on hand to ask me all his questions about the behavior of his character, insists Michel Gondry who had not made a feature film since Microbe and Diesel (2015). He could get information from the source since the source is me. This gives hilarious scenes especially when the filmmaker talks with his editor played by Blanche Gardin. As painful as it is brilliant, this artist does wonders and damage to the delight of the spectator. “What looks crazy really happened and what seems innocuous was invented by Michel”, decrypts Pierre Niney.
The actor is truly hilarious in this comedy that analyzes the creative process with a joyful sense of self-mockery. “I don’t think it is essential to suffer from depression to be a great artist, but it is certain that many are,” comments Pierre Niney. It’s probably a matter of sensitivity. » The Solution Book describes the suffering that the author’s aunt (admirable Francoise Lebrun).
“I refuse to believe that an injury can generate creation,” insists Michel Gondry. This shoot, which evokes one of the worst periods of my life, was one of the happiest. This happiness is contagious in front of the abundant imagination of Michel Gondry of yesterday and today sublimated by the performance of Pierre Niney between sweet fantasy and painful madness.