Family Tree

After working together on several films where the camera had to be as light as possible, we wanted for the treatment of this story to return to a more sedate style, where the camera would be less intrusive, more modest. We therefore opted for a classic grip package and for camera movements as discreet as possible.
We knew that the film’s subject (family reunion, settlement of scores, buried secret) would lead some to compare it to Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen. But the purpose of this film is totally different. My reference was Visconti’s Conversation Piece, with its claustrophobic ambiance and this impression of a dying world.

Family Tree is a film of late autumn, a film that we wanted dark and dusky. We attached great importance to the progression of the color of the landscapes during the shoot, repeatedly modifying the work schedule to achieve the desired shades...
We shot in anamorphic with a 100% photochemical finish (except for one shot... you’ll have to guess which one) and I enjoyed every step of this traditional workflow, as if it was my last time doing it.

The films of Jacques and Olivier are always shot in a happy atmosphere and the team around them is, for the most part, the same since their debut twelve years ago... This "family spirit" is so rare these days, that I must speak of it, and say that it allows us to shoot movies in the joy of being together !