The Mouse is Under the Table
This is the 1st feature in the Three Exercises of Interpretation ( Trois exercices d'interprétation ) trilogy based on Three Conversations by Russian writer and philosopher Vladimir Solovyov. The actors’ ‘exercises’ developed into a minimalistic trilogy on cinema and literature, social and spiritual life, acting in film and in real life. A working class solider named Jean-Benoit is dragged by his childhood friend – now grown up and ‘grown out’ of their old interests – to attend a bourgeois lunch complete with earnest philosophising and snobbery.
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Three Interpretation Exercises is not exactly a film. It happened to become a film. There is a French association called Les Chantiers Nomades that arranges workshops for professional actors in France with film directors, theatre directors, and scriptwriters. In 2008 I was invited to Grenoble, where I chose to make a film based on Harold Pinter’s Ten Sketches, and since it was a good experience, they invited me again. In the spring of 2011 I went to Toulouse to lead another workshop, this time on acting for cinema, with actors who I would cast blindly. I didn’t know what to do, exactly, until I said to myself, “This is a good opportunity to redo Rohmer.”