'BLOODY ORANGES': Interview with Director Jean-Christophe Meurisse

1. There's a kind of horrible satire to this film, what drew you to that type of acidic material?
 
Yes, there is indeed a satire of the French landscape, but these are three different real stories, so this film is well nourished by reality. The acidity or the possible violence that the audience can feel is because the world is like that, it is violent. Obviously there is cinema, but it is the world that is violent, it is not only my cinema.

2. Your filmmaking style, the coverage you shoot, consists of lots of wide-shots that allow the actors to work within the space. What was your philosophy towards coverage and shooting the scenes?
 
As I let the actors improvise within a frame, I tend to leave long sequences where the actors are free to move in the space to achieve this quality of play, this particular play. So it's not a cinema of interpretation, of tape on the floor and of things that are meticulous. It is rather a cinema of actor where the technique is at the service of the actor. Nevertheless the image alternates between definite movement and big wide fixed shots as I like them with some Scandinavian filmmakers.
 
3. What goes hand in hand with your philosophy in shooting that coverage is your philosophy in directing actors. How did you approach directing your actors in this film?
 
There are a lot of rehearsals beforehand. I like them to use their own words. They trust me as I trust them. However, since it's a very tightly structured improvisation where I can whisper things to them, there are a lot of rehearsals beforehand. I don’t want them to focus on the state of interpretation but rather on being right in the situation by looking for the right words to live it, which gives this particular play, ultra naturalistic prolific and messy, as in life. 
 

4. This film has some pretty disturbing scenes of horror in it, namely the rape scene of the Financial Secretary. How do you prepare for something like that with your actors, and what is your main approach to horror?
 
We prepare it with great joy, with great pleasure and with great playfulness because the more horrible it is, the more joyful the mood should be on a set. And it was the case for Bloody Oranges. Those scenes were very technical and very rehearsed. There's something very childlike about gore, it's like putting your hand in the jam jar and getting it all over your face like kids do and they feel like they are bleeding. For me it's the same.
 
5. I'm always interested in on-set stories. What was a particularly difficult day of shooting, and how did you overcome it?
 
The shooting went well from start to finish. I don't remember any particular difficulty.
 
6. Finally, I wanted to ask about what you thought the specific theme that ties together all of the stories was? There are themes of financial ruin, and psychopathy in plain sight...etc. What do you feel ties those two things together?
 
I'm interested in monsters, the monsters that exist in all of us. That's what these three stories have in common: they tell the story of monsters. 

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Interviewer

​Stephen Tronicek is a director/screenwriter focused on psychological horror and comedy. He grew up and is based in St. Louis. Stephen discovered film at a young age and became a professional film critic in his junior year of high school. This eventually led him to write screenplays and make short films. His horror screenplay, "Pieces" was a quarter-finalist in the Launch Million Dollar Screenplay Competition. Focuses include character-driven stories, violence as an extension of the psyche and seeing how much emotionally resonant story material you can get away with if you stick to the theme.