Often, I reinvent experiences I've had by making them more fanciful: I'm regularly disappointed by reality and take advantage of films to go further.

After your first feature, Grand Paris, selected at ACID in 2022, you've just completed your second film, Baise-en-ville. How did this project come about?

After Grand Paris, I didn't have much inspiration and was looking for ideas. The Baise-en-ville project didn't seem very interesting to me, but following a discussion with my producer, he spotted a comedic, political and cinematic potential that I decided to develop. It's a film about my own experience, at a time when I was out of work and out of school, when my girlfriend had gone abroad and I had to take my driving test. There are some fictional elements, but they're part of the way I look at the world, masculinity, relations between boys and girls, politics and the difficulties my generation has in accessing employment. These are things I feel, and then I go as far as a situation can take me, trying to unfold the idea. Often, I reinvent experiences I've had by making them more fanciful: I'm regularly disappointed by reality and I take advantage of films to go further.

Baise-en-ville was presented at this year's Cannes Film Festival in a special screening during Critics' Week. How was the film received? What memories do you have of the screening?

It was a special moment, even though I had already presented a film at Cannes at ACID, in a different context. It just so happened that, at the premiere, Culture Minister Rachida Dati was in the audience, as was Gaëtan Bruel, President of the CNC. At one point, the film goes into a bit of a frenzy, taking a swipe at our president, so this provoked a reaction from the audience, particularly in relation to the Minister's presence. The audience laughed a lot, and a kind of emotion developed as the screening went on: I was taken aback, I wasn't expecting it, and I didn't really know how to react. When the lights came back on, the audience applauded loud and long. It was only after a while that I realized how well it had gone, but it's so intimate, so hard to realize. Cannes is a bubble and I don't want to invent a life for myself, but I felt a warmth, a real enthusiasm. I'm trying to do something quite radical, and I also know that my proposals can be divisive. I only like radical proposals; nice or lukewarm stuff doesn't interest me.

In just two films, this is the second time you've been selected for the Cannes Film Festival. What's your relationship with the festival, and what does this recognition mean for your work?

I find it hard to believe I'll be going back given the number of comedies on show, but also because I imagine each film as my last, even if that's less the case with this one. At the time of Grand Paris, I didn't really know what else to do, but now I'm quite inspired, I feel I have a tone that may or may not please, I have something to defend. Cannes represents a great deal of pride and recognition, and I'm happy to be part of it, but at the same time it's almost a circus, a place of performance. The ACID and Semaine de la Critique teams are great people, hyper cinephiles, with whom I've got on very well, but the festival remains a time when the industry puts on a show. It's a time when you're emotionally and physically drained, a place where there's always someone more important than you: you feel like you're the center of the world, but you're derisory next to Tom Cruise arriving in a helicopter. The night of the screening, it's crazy, the TV's there, but the next day everyone's forgotten about you and they've moved on to the next movie, which is a bit violent.

The Institut français has been promoting Grand Paris since 2022 via IFcinéma, its platform that enables the French cultural network abroad and its partners to organize non-commercial screenings. What were the highlights of these invitations to the network?

I learned not long ago that there had been over a hundred screenings of Grand Paris organized by the Institut français, but I haven't had the opportunity to do very many. I did a screening with the Alliance française in Brazil because I was passing through, and, for me, it's crazy to imagine that a film so personal, so intimate, which really tells my experience of a little corner of 77 with my buddies could travel like that. It's quite dizzying that it's being seen in parts of the world I've never been to. I love films rooted in a territory: for example, as a fan of Jia Zhang-ke's cinema, I feel that through this window I'm discovering something about contemporary China that I'd never be able to access otherwise. I imagine that, for people who live on the other side of the world, making films that are hyper-anchored in my corner of the Paris suburbs around Chelles is precious. In the end, lukewarm, universal stuff doesn't tell the whole story; what counts is capturing the universal when you really go to the end of the intimate.

Do you notice any differences in the way the film is perceived by audiences in France and abroad?

Yes, because I realize that my humor is very French with lots of cultural references and untranslatable puns. I feel very Franco-French, but, abroad, I've had some great screenings too. In Spain, I think there's something in my tone that speaks to people, whereas in other countries it's rather hermetic. My cinematography is a bit formalist, inspired by Wes Anderson, and it's still something you can understand despite the language barrier. This image-based work is also based on very contemporary dialogues, culturally circumscribed to a common territory and cultural references, and that's a bit exclusive for foreign audiences. I had the impression that this was less the case with my second film, but not at all.

To finish with your news. What's in store for the second half of 2025? Has a date already been set for the theatrical release of Baise-en-ville?

We're talking about January 2026 for the release, and before that I'm going to meet the public in theaters. I like to talk about my work and exchange ideas; it contributes to the film's goodwill and is an opportunity to use word-of-mouth. I'd also like to take advantage of this time to write during train journeys. I have some fairly concrete ideas, as I'm already writing two feature-length projects for a male and female director. At the same time, I have an idea for a film to make, but I have to find the time to be on three different projects.