An obsessive’s guide to getting the 1950s true to type
SOME actors like to add a little method to the madness of acting. Daniel Day-Lewis would speak only as Lincoln on the set of Spielberg’s biopic, Christian Bale lost four stones for The Machinist, De Niro learned Sicilian dialects for The Godfather Part II.
Directors are meant to above such a fraying of the nerves, but not Regis Roinsard, whose comedy, Populaire, tells the story of a speed-typing champion in 1950s France. “I wanted to understand what it was like to type quickly,” laughs Roinsard as he explains why he tried to write the screenplay on a clunky old manual typewriter rather than a laptop. “But it was so difficult.”
Roinsard’s film opened the Glasgow Film Festival on Valentine’s Day to acclaim, and is about to go on wider release. Starring Deborah Francois (The Page Turner) as Rose, an ambitious secretary and Romain Duris (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) as Louis, a failed tennis champ who encourages her to enter speed typing competitions as a way of feeding his competitive hunger, Roinsard describes the picture as a mix of My Fair Lady and Rocky. Rocky? “It’s a sport movie,” says Roinsard of Populaire.
He first came across the little known “sport” of speed typing while watching a television documentary about the history of the typewriter. From a 30-second segment about typing competitions, and how they were first used by manufacturers to boost sales of machines, Roinsard’s debut feature grew. He spoke to past champions about the training for a competition, and the pressure before a big event.
Speed typing on a manual for 15 minutes straight takes a fair bit of strength, as he knows. His attention to detail went further than trying to write the screenplay on a vintage typewriter.
“He is extremely precise,” says Francois. “Sometimes to the point of obsession.” She trained for three hours a day for three months to learn how to touch-type, then put more hours in to build speed. At one point she came close to contracting typist’s elbow.
Roinsard’s eye for detail ranged wider. To find vintage typewriters he contacted collectors in France, Canada, Spain, Italy and elsewhere. “We found all the typewriters in the world,” he says. For the look of the film he studied Doris Day comedies and the illustrations of Alex Steinweiss; for the tone he turned to the films of Billy Wilder, Michael Powell, Godard and Truffaut.
Everything had to be just right, from the washed-out tones of provincial France to the way the doors were opened – an act performed more elegantly in the 1950s than now, according to Roinsard. The Parisian’s obsession pays off on screen with a film that is not so much a dip into a certain time and place as a full-blown submersion. If the key to successful romantic comedy is to create a magical world which encourages the viewer to leave all cynicism at the door, then Roinsard, 40, has found it.
After studying film, Roinsard, who is originally from a small town in Normandy, went on to do every job he could connected to the cinema, from assistant director to set decor. From there he graduated to ads, music videos and music documentaries, including RendezVous Avec Jane, a film with Jane Birkin and Marianne Faithfull that was shot over 10 days.
AS a fan of Serge Gainsbourg, Birkin’s artistic partner and lover, and Antonioni’s Blow-Up, in which she starred, Roinsard says meeting Birkin was a landmark moment. “I love that woman. She’s a very strong woman.” In his mind, the Rose of Populaire (named after one of his grandmothers) would grow up to be a Jane Birkin.
For a debut feature, Populaire had a relatively large budget of 15 million euros (£12 million). Making a period drama will always be more expensive, says Alain Attal, the film’s producer. “An extra in a period film costs about 1000 euros per day as opposed to 130 euros for a contemporary film. Makeup, costume, hair plus the necessary staff soon raise the expense.”
Having rising star Duris in the cast, and crew members such as the cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman (who worked on the fiveOscar winning The Artist) proved vital in raising the money.
Duris was easy to work with, says Roinsard. “Even though it was my first feature he was very cool with me.” Perhaps it helped that Duris hurled himself into the character of Louis. “He decided to learn tennis and play exactly like they did in the Fifties with a wooden racket.”
After the global success of The Artist, French comedies such as Untouchable began to have something of a moment. Even French-language dramas, such as Michael Haneke’s Oscar-winning Amour, have benefited from the buzz. With the Weinstein Company, which backed The Artist and Untouchable, acquiring the US rights to Populaire, it is set fair for a similarly good show.
Roinsard doesn’t know how long French cinema’s moment will last, saying that these things come and go. “Maybe next year, or in 10 years, it will be Scotland, or Spain.”
His next film won’t be a romantic comedy but it will be period. “I love that kind of movie, it’s a kind of filter through which you can put very personal stuff.” And of course, it allows for plenty of that lovely attention to detail.
Populaire opens in cinemas on May 31