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“A real cinema challenge”: Jean Dujardin and Jan Kounen tell us the man who shrinks [exclu]
The actor and the director present their remake of the cult film, on the cover of the new first issue.
20 years later 99 Francs, Jean Dujardin et Kind found themselves to bring up to date The man who narrowsFantastic film directed in 1957 by Jack Arnold. A monument in the B series, which the duo transformed into a French blockbuster (in the cinema on October 22), an object rare enough to be interested in it closely.
Star of the film (he is alone on the screen during three quarters of the story), Jean Dujardin is also the initiator and the producer of this remake whose staging to his old friend Jan Kounen: “There are not ten thousand directors in France capable of shooting such a film“, says the actor. Extracts from the interview to be found in full in the new Firstcurrently in newsstands.
Premiere: Jean, you are still behind the project. Can you explain to us where the desire to adapt a classic from the Hollywood series from the 1950s to France?
JD: One day, I came across Fnac on the DVD of The man who narrows – The jacket is magnificent. I took it and the same evening, I watched it. Three times in a row. And I immediately projected myself in the idea of a remake. At one point, I wanted to provoke Alain Goldman. “It would be great to redo the man who narrows in 2025, right?” The allegory on life, on death, on the passage of time, on illness, forfeiture, the reduction of the body: these are motifs that do not age. And at times, strangely, just say the things so that they do. This is exactly what happened.
When you said that there were not ten thousand people capable of making this film, you immediately thought of Jan?
JD: I know, at least since 99 Fthat Jan can have fun in places that frighten others … He likes technical, technological, visual challenges. In addition, there are not many directors who really have visions. And this project required to have them.
Jan, when Jean offers you this project, what is your reaction?
Jan Kounen: I saw Jack Arnold’s film when I was a kid. In midnight cinema or the last session, I don’t really know, and he had deeply marked me. I must have been 11 years old. I have never forgotten this film, but I have never seen it either. The idea of making it a new version was all the more exciting since the original film is also an adaptation of a novel signed Richard Matheson. So we went to draw from the two works. In addition, this proposal was a real cinema challenge. For each new project, I need to find a strong idea of staging: the way, the point of view, the look with which I will connect with the plot. There, what I proposed is not to do “the man who narrows”, but rather “the man who lives in a world which every day is growing”.
What was it involved?
JK: That the camera always remains from the point of view of the character of John. She reduces with him. When it is large like this glass placed in front of us, we pretend the team stayed at its size. We don’t change scale. We see a little man, but as we would see a rider in a western lost in a canyon: he is small because the world is immense. Everything is seen from his perspective. This was the main idea.
And did this approach immediately seduce you, Jean?
JD: Yes, because there was a slightly experimental side. I said to myself: we are in a laboratory and they will do what they want from me. I was very confident with Jan. If it’s a laboratory, then everything can explode, but it’s worth trying. There was a share of unconsciousness which was exhilarating.
Interview by Gaël Golhen and François Grelet
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