The
 Vincent
PEREZ
Archives

FRANCE
1992
17 minutes

Synopsis: Xavier is the grandson of a farmer and the son of a worker. But the sector is devastated and Xavier cannot find a place in the factory. His father is unemployed. Xavier is mortally wounded by his father and during his last minutes he remembers: his memory will turn his past into fate.

Production Photos:

The film was shot in the Deux-Sèvres in Western France, which has served as the backdrop for many films. The reason this locale was chosen was because producer Benoît Jaubert was from Beauvoir-sur-Niort. In 1992, his parents still lived there. Hence, the setting.

Jean-Philippe was a long-time friend of Vincent's, sharing Swiss nationality and training at the Amandiers school in Nanterre under the leadership of Patrice Chéreau. The director was accompanied on location by his companion at the time, actress Marine Delterme. Also present during the shoot was actress Jacqueline Bisset, who Vincent had been dating since 1988. The newspaper pointed out that it was strange to see this beautiful international star strolling in her jeans around the countryside.

La Nouvelle République excerpt:

One afternoon in June 1992. A stubborn sun heats up the courtyard of a small isolated farm among the cornfields near Prissé-la-Charrière. Vincent Pérez is waiting at the entrance to the living room of the small farmhouse. At the signal, he enters: "I have brought you my sun". This sentence by the one who has just triumphed over Catherine Deneuve in "Indochine" will be repeated five times until director Jean-Philippe Ecoffey is satisfied.

For a week, the small farm in Prissé-la-Charrière will experience a joyful bustle punctuated by meals taken around a large table set up in the shade. On the last evening, the actors, director, producers and the technicians from the Moulin du Roc meet in the barn of the farmhouse for a large banquet. With the last bite of chocolate cake swallowed, Vincent gets up to step out onto the edge of a cornfield and sings at the top of his lungs under the moonlight.