Eye Haïdara on French comedy C'est la vie!

Good news Francophiles: Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, the writing-directing team behind The Intouchables, are back on top form with their latest feature C'est la vie! This delightful comedy follows a wedding from the point of view of its staff (all played with deadpan comedic perfection) as competing egos and the demands of a 17th century estate wreak havoc on the plans. 

Jean-Pierre Bacri’s Max heads the catering staff, while Eye Haïdara plays his highly competent but uptight deputy Adèle. Ahead of C'est la's vie's UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival, we sat down with Haïdara in the Caledonian Hotel – a stone’s throw away from the EIFF’s Filmhouse headquarters – to discuss her role in the film.

The Skinny: What initially drew you to the project?

Eye Haïdara: Well first of all, it was just a regular audition! But the way the directors [Toledano and Nakache] talked to me about it, it just seemed like the next big movie I had to do. In the audition I just read one scene, the first scene with Jean-Pierre Bacri, who plays the wedding caterer Max, which was my first step. After that I went back to their office and I read the whole script and fell in love with it, and then I left with the screenplay. I met Bacri back at their offices about a week later, and we worked on the screenplay together.  Then I left, and then I called my agent and asked her “what does this meeting mean, do I have the part?”, and she told me yes, I did. So I was really, really happy and excited to work with Toledano and Nakache, and this was my first comedy – with those two leading the production it was an amazing experience.  

Did you find doing a comedy different from your past work?

Yes, because I’ve always had the feeling that comedy is more difficult than making a dramatic movie. First of all it’s about rhythm, and then second of all I think it’s about sincerity – in the comedy itself and in each other when performing. Without sincerity, comedy does not work. And then in comedy, every word is right – every word counts in the delivery. I really learned all of this with Toledano and Nakache, they helped me capture the rhythm and sincerity and combine them so that it works. It’s simple to say but hard to do it!

What was it like working on the set with such a large ensemble?

It was kind of a family, it was great. It was such a large team working on set – we had many departments, many people, and we all worked hard to create a work environment in which we could make a wonderful movie. We had a lot of fun. But we had really bad weather the entire time. We just had to go beyond it. There’s the saying that everything that can go wrong will go wrong, but the directors made us forget about everything that went wrong. That’s the great thing with them – they make you forget about everything else and just focus on what you are doing in the moment.

I remember one day in particular when the world was against us. It was raining all day so they had to change the schedule last minute. We were supposed to be doing a day shoot and then it had to turn into a night shoot. When we came to set it was sunny, so we felt that this shoot would work. But when the sun went down and we were going to start, it started to rain – crazy rain and hail. And we were all just in a tent – the wedding marquee – and the hail started echoing on the roof so we couldn’t shoot or record any sound. Everything was against us. So Toledano and Nakache did something very crazy. They put the music at the end of the movie on very loud and we had a huge party – there were 200 extras and then all of us character actors – it only lasted about 30 minutes, but it was really, really big. People were dancing on the tables, and it’s like we washed everything away.  And then the song finished, the rain and hail stopped, and we could work again.  

Essentially, everyone could have been really down because the weather was depressing, but after this little party we were ready to shoot. The directors were able to bring the cast back together again – it was like a miracle. Otherwise we would have just been sitting there waiting for the rain to stop and being miserable. No matter what, we had to wait until the rain stopped, so why not have fun? We had everything we needed to have fun! We had music, we had food, we had drinks, so why not?

This is the UK premiere of C’est la vie!, but it’s played in a few festivals so far (Toronto, Zurich, San Sebastián). How have the audience been around the world, and what was it like in Edinburgh?

The movie has been very well received everywhere, so we are really happy about that. The movie is a product of about 45 countries, which is just magic. That’s the goal of the cinema. Cinema has to be shared all around the world, cinema has to cross borders, and it’s always great to see how different countries, different cultures can react and laugh – the situations and characters in the film aren’t just French, they’re universal. It’s not just French humour, it’s a kind of humour that goes beyond borders.

This film is about marriage – although it’s shown from the behind-the-scenes perspective – and of course in the UK we’ve just had the Royal Wedding where we all went a bit crazy for the whole ‘fairytale’. What do you think C’est la vie! brings to the table in terms of wedding films, as the wedding we see here is from a different perspective and so many things go wrong?

We weren’t trying to send any message or trying to say something was the right or wrong way, we were just questioning and I just feel that if we just accept each other’s differences, it’s easier to work together. I guess this is what this movie shows. As actors, we all come from different backgrounds, and the characters inside also all come from different universes. Like Adèle – Adèle is a professional who works with Max, she brings her friends who know nothing about the work they’re doing, and then Max brings his brother because he’s kind of depressed and needs something to do. 

We have some characters who are dedicated to their jobs, and we have some just trying to make some more money. All this makes up this little society and all those people have to stick together and build together because they are all working towards the same goal. I guess what we can learn from this movie is that we should stop trying to separate people, because it’s so much easier to stick people together and to go forward together.