“Rien à Foutre”, presented at the FIFM: “Those who don’t give a damn are low cost airlines”

The directors of the last film with Adèle Exarchopoulos were in Mons to present this feature film which plunges us into the life of an air hostess.

The Mons International Film Festival is a spotlight on world cinema. But it is also a showcase for Belgian cinema since it programs five productions or co-productions from our flat country, presented in preview.

In this context, Rien à Foutre was presented on Sunday evening at Imagix in the presence of its directors Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre for their premiere at the FIFM. The feature film features Cassandre Wessels, flight attendant for a low-cost company (any reference to an Irish company is not at all coincidental), who lives her life from day to day and seems have it…nothing to give a shit about the rest.

“Rien à Foutre, it’s a kind of motto, of self-conviction, explains Julie Lecoustre when asked about the meaning of the title. When we hear it today, it’s always in situations where the young people who claim it really don’t give a damn, as you can see on their faces. It’s a bit like saying ‘not even bad’ when in reality it hurts us deeply. When we think about who happens to give a damn, it’s some low cost airlines or companies that don’t give a damn about their users or their employees, there’s also the risk of juxtaposing lots of ‘nothing give a fuck’ individuals who, boomerang, could create a society that will not give a fuck about individuals. And that worries us gently.”

Through Cassandre’s journey, the directors wanted to show the failings of a society of excessive flexibility, “in which we are constantly encouraged to move, continues Emmanuel Marre. We are in a world of the pure present, as we see it on social media.” A world in which the heroine protects herself with a I don’t care attitude, “but where she doesn’t really have a choice in fact. We are more in lucidity than nihilism. We live in a world where everything pushes us to detach ourselves and the film also speaks of this dimension of detachment and attachment”, continues Julie Lecoustre.

To embody the air hostess who, in the film, is from Huy, the directors called on Adèle Exarchopoulos, a trendy actress in French cinema. A choice that may seem curious, but “there was no casting obligation. We first looked for a real air hostess or a little-known face. But when we were asked the question of taking a well-known actress, her name was never mentioned.And yet there is a duality in her: she is a well-known actress who we see at the head of all the magazines, on social networks…And then there is has the young woman of 26 years old at the time with her pains, her sadness, her vitality, who has an immense capacity to change emotions quickly and to be able to wash her face of it.”

Even Adèle Exarchopoulos already has a prize list including a Palme d’or and a César, “she liked participating in a shoot with 5 people on the set, without dressing rooms, without make-up, on places that are not blocked, in real parties, in airports without authorization, in real flights… She agreed to immerse herself completely in the profession and the energy of the film.”

The film will be officially released this Wednesday, March 14 and will be back on Mons screens from March 20, at the Plaza Arthouse.