INTERVIEW: Frédéric Mermoud spins taut mystery in ‘Moka’
There’s a double master class to be found in Frédéric Mermoud’s captivating new suspense film, Moka, currently playing New York City’s Film Forum. Not only are the actresses Emmanuelle Devos and Nathalie Baye turning in solid performances, but Mermoud has crafted this tale as a taut whodunit that feels more like a whydunit. It’s a simultaneous master class in acting and directing.
In the film, Devos plays Diane, a woman who recently lost her son in a hit-and-run car accident. She is determined to find answers about what happened and why the driver pulled away without helping. Her latest lead brings her to the shores of Lake Geneva on the border of France and Switzerland; it’s here that she starts investigating the couple of Marlene (Baye) and Michel (David Clavel). What she finds, and what she is forced to accept, are surprising to both Diane and the audience.
Recently, Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Mermoud about the new film. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What about Tatiana de Rosnay’s novel inspired you to tell this story?
First, I wanted to make a new movie with Emmanuelle Devos, a movie in which she would be the center of gravity. I told her that I wanted to shoot a ‘portrait of a woman’ with her, to capture her soul, to film her skin. By chance, I read Tatiana’s novel and thought it brought all the necessary elements of the story I wanted to tell with Emmanuelle: because the character is very active, alone but focused on her target, like a hunter. Diane wants to find the person who destroyed her life and to confront her.
How did you come to cast Emmanuelle Devos and Nathalie Baye? What do you think they bring to the movie?
Emmanuelle played in my first movie, Accomplices. And I had her in my mind when I wrote Moka. When I was looking for the other actress, I asked Nathalie straightaway to read the script. Emmanuelle and Nathalie are both great actresses, but so different. Emmanuelle is more introspective; Nathalie is more sunny, pragmatic and highly sociable. One is brunette, the other is blonde. They don’t have the same energy or age. And they have never worked together. I think that these contrast[s] are the heart of Moka, which is also film about the encounter of these two wonderful actresses. In my work, actors and characters are so important. They make a movie unique.
Was the movie shot on location? Were there challenges with the production?
We shot the movie in [the] incredible landscape of Lake Geneva. Partly in France — in cities like Evian and Thonon — and partly in Switzerland. It was very important to me to shoot in these locations, because the lake, the mountains, the water, the mountains built another character in the film. It made the ‘geography’ of the film. I liked that the locations are built like an arena: the lake with the mountains around it. Both characters lived in cities, which are situated across from one another. A ‘face to face’ like in a western. Because the movie tells not only the story of an encounter, but also of a confrontation or a duel.
Do you feel the movie is inspired by other mystery films of the past?
It is difficult to mention the inspiration of a movie, because a lot of inspiration is unconscious. I was very impressed by [Alfred] Hitchcock’s movies of course, and Vertigo more specifically. Because the beginning of Moka can be felt as very ‘mental’: We are inside the exclusive point of view of the main character. And I also had in mind some movies of [Roman] Polanski, like Ghost Writer and Repulsion. Both directors are huge artists, building up a very stylized world. I was also influenced by Lodge Kerrigan’s Keane, a great movie about a father looking for his kidnapped child.
What do you believe the character of Diane is seeking? Justice, revenge, understanding?
This question touches the heart of the movie. At the beginning, Diane (Emmanuelle Devos) thinks that revenge will cure her sorrow and help her to accept the death of her son. So, Marlene (Nathalie Baye) is like a target or ‘prey.’ But in the long run, Diane is discovering this woman, her life, her daughter, her lover. And she seeks jutice and truth. But she comes to understand that she will find relief elsewhere. She has to make a long journey, experiencing a lot of emotions and feelings, to be able to accept the unacceptable.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Moka, directed by Frédéric Mermoud, is currently playing at New York City’s Film Forum. Click here for more information and tickets.
