Gregory Lucilly: “I have dreamed of making cinema since my childhood”

Director of the exciting Marmaille which marks his debut in feature film, the Reunion native tells us about his journey to make his dream a reality.

First: What made you want to direct?

Grégory Lucilly: I wanted to tell stories very early on. At the age of 9, I even wrote a 20-page short story, The Incredible Adventures of Mr. Dragon in the Land of Men. I was so proud of it that I wanted to have my fourth grade teacher read it and for that, I slipped it into my notebook. But in front of the whole class, he said, “Gregory, The Incredible Adventures of Mr. DragonI don't care a bit! » It was extremely violent to experience. So much so that I threw it in a trash can when I got home. For a little while, I tried to bring this thing that was inside me to life without knowing how. My father felt that I was a bit of a lonely boy, that I needed to find a way to occupy myself. So he took me to the movies a lot and I had a first shock with The Bear by Jean-Jacques Annaud. The foundation of everything undoubtedly somewhere.

Then in college, I had the chance to meet a professor who, realizing that I had this in me, pushed me to write slightly different essays and the virus definitely took hold of me. I'm going to become more and more interested in cinema. I devour every month Firsteven if it was not easy to find him in Reunion. And the year of my baccalaureate, I borrowed my high school's camera to shoot a short documentary on a philosophical subject around madness instead of treating it through an essay. This film remained on the editing bench because I had no money to finance its post-production. But it was my first try and, to gain access to the Saint Paul psychiatric hospital, I had pretended to be an RFO journalist who was coming to do a report. My stratagem was quickly discovered but the head of department was so surprised by my approach that he allowed me to tour for two days and meet patients.

MARMAILLE: THE DISCOVERY OF A FILMMAKER [CRITIQUE]

How will you succeed in making your dream of becoming a filmmaker a reality?

When I announced my desire to become a filmmaker to my parents, we can't say that they were really enthusiastic! (laughs) So, to manage to go to mainland France, I did a prep class and I won the entrance exam for a business school in Reims. But once there, I pull out all the stops to head back towards the cinema. I shoot short films there, explaining to them that there is no better management exercise. And for my compulsory internship year, I managed to join the international marketing team at Pathé. It was at the end of these twelve months that I knew that I would never finish my business school.

How did your parents react?

I felt real guilt because they had gone into debt up to their necks so that I could go to school. But I think they understood that my passion was stronger than anything. And from then on, I struggle. I participate in short film script competitions, I take on odd jobs to slip onto film sets. It's on one of them, that of Hello Goodbye by Graham Guit in 2008 that I sympathize with the cinematographer Gérard Stérin. And he assures me that if I want to be a filmmaker, I have to get started and not try to get a series of assistant director positions. This sentence was a trigger.

Who actually causes what?

I put everything aside again and decide to return home to Reunion. Because I want to make my first short film on site. At that time, unlike today where Reunion Island has become a filming location, there was not much to make cinema. No equipment rental company for example. So I had to make do with the means at hand but I'm going for it. I am convinced that I am ready. I'm writing a short film script, I'm going straight into it. And this shoot made me realize how much I wasn't ready! (laughs) Because of course, I had seen things (too) big, I had closed streets, I had brought in 200 extras… But this film was able to exist. It even had its little festival life. It doesn't win any prizes but it boosts me. So I'm going to do some more, including one in 35mm because I wanted to confront film. And to earn my living, I work as an assistant director on a TV series which is filmed in Reunion Island, a 70 times 26 minutes for France Télévisions, shot in double team, with four different directors.

When will the idea of Bratyour move to feature film?

At the end of my fourth short film, I tell myself that it is time to tackle the long film. And I'm taking up an idea for a screenplay that has been in my head since 2012. Because I have the certainty that I will do this first feature in Reunion and in Réunion Creole, even if I suspect that it will be a hindrance for the financing and I don't yet know that I'm going to meet the people from Ciné Nominé, the producers ofA little something extra who will accompany me and even push me not to deviate from this path.

What was the trigger for this scenario in which a teenager dreaming of becoming a break dance star and his sister raising her baby alone who, taken away by their mother, finds themselves placed with their father whom they never had encounter. ?

A visit to the child protection offices in Saint-Leu, where, during a discussion, a social worker explains to me that cases of child abandonment by their mother is something fairly banal background. This seems so inconceivable to me that I am going to explore the issue by meeting magistrates, judicial police officers, children and adolescents who have experienced this situation. I understand that this is a problem that is not specific to Reunion Island but rather universal. And that encouraged me to start writing this screenplay, based on the rage of my main character with scenes that are still present in the film in the end.

Do you already have your second feature in mind?

Yes and I already know that it will also take place in Reunion!

Brat. By Grégory Lucilly. With Maxime Calicharane, Brillana Domitile Clain, Vincent Vermignon… Duration 1h32. Released December 4, 2024