The Announcement, or the unexpected virtue of family mourning
INFOS
- thème Graduation film
- année Promotion 2024
- durée 14:30
SYNOPSIS
Thomas Devoiseau, a 25-year-old psychiatry student, attends his grandmother's wake at the family home. His grandmother, who had died the day before, was a leading neurosurgeon and an authoritarian figure who had imposed a rigorous educational model on the whole family, based on professional and financial success. In the Devoiseau family, only one path is tolerated: medicine. Breathless, Thomas sees this meeting as an opportunity to announce that he is giving up his studies. But at the heart of this family with its overwhelming expectations, the task looks set to be much more difficult than expected...
This film, directed by Antoine Chevrier and his team, is presented as a comedy. Behind the humour, however, lies a highly precise piece of directing and art direction, designed to elicit both laughter… and unease.
Behind the scenes of the film The Announcement.
The film was conceived as a total immersion in Thomas’s mind. From the outset, the team made the radical decision never to leave his side. He is at the heart of the story, the screen and the dialogue. This demanded a real commitment and a real constraint on filming: the actor is present in almost every shot, which requires great endurance, but above all an ability to constantly juggle between two registers.
Thomas exists as a double. In front of the camera, he is free, ironic, almost complicit with the viewer. In front of his family, he becomes closed, polite and stifled. This discrepancy meant that we had to work very carefully with the actor, particularly on the rapid transitions between these states.
One family, one plan, two realities
The announcement can be identified by the asides integrated into the dialogue. But this is no mere comic effect: these asides are at the heart of the narrative device. To make them both fluid and credible, the director had to rise to a number of challenges. The framing is deliberately wide, so that even when he is talking to the viewer, the family can still be seen in the background, living on. The sound is reworked to create a muffled atmosphere that isolates Thomas’s voice. Finally, the continuity of the play meant that the other actors had to continue their performance without interacting with him. In this way, the ensemble requires a veritable collective choreography on the stage.
When atmosphere serves the story
For the shoot, the team chose to structure itself around two strong visual focal points. On the one hand, the bright, busy, almost stifling reception rooms reflect the social and family pressures. On the other, the grandmother’s bedroom, dark, uncluttered and lit by candlelight, becomes a theatrical, almost sacred space. This contrast guided all the cinematography, with specific work contrasting natural and artificial light.
An accomplished blend of technique and emotion
Some scenes required particularly precise work, notably the sequence where the grandmother catches fire. This moment, which is both dramatic and offbeat, is a key point in the film. Behind the scenes, it involved shooting without any real fire on the body, adding visual effects in post-production, and integrating shots of real flames to enhance the rendering. Editing plays an essential role: the use of slow motion transforms a tragic situation into a veritable comic ballet, in which each character reveals his or her inability to act.
An image in tune with emotions
The film team sought to match the image to the overall tone of the story. To convey Thomas’s inner state, the film alternates between several different shooting styles. The fluid steadicam accompanies the moments when he maintains control, particularly during his asides. Conversely, the fixed camera establishes a distance that allows us to observe family interactions. Finally, the hand-held camera is used in moments of chaos. This play of variations infuses the film with a dynamic rhythm and reinforces the comic breaks.
Sound as a narrative tool
Particular care has been taken with the sound. The asides create an intimate bubble, while the family dialogues sometimes become almost inaudible, verging on the absurd. The return to reality, meanwhile, is marked by a sudden increase in the sound level. This treatment places the viewer as close as possible to Thomas’s perception.
Choreographed directing
The direction of the actors leaves nothing to chance. The Devoiseau family works like a well-oiled machine, deliberately caricatured, where each character embodies an archetype. This demands great precision in comic timing from the actors, as well as an ability to push the envelope without ever losing credibility. At the same time, Thomas undergoes a gradual evolution, going from passive spectator to the driving force behind the action, particularly in the final scene.
The final liberation
The climax of the film, with the speech in front of the coffin, marks a complete change of direction. Thomas abandons his asides, finally becomes audible to the others and takes control of the situation. This moment was conceived as both a narrative and a formal liberation.
The team made a clear choice: to treat a heavy subject, such as family pressure and social determinism, through the prism of humour. The aim is not just to make people laugh, but to shed light on toxic family dynamics, to question the models of success imposed and, above all, to show that it is possible to break free from them.
The Announcement is a film in which every technical choice (camera, sound, editing, acting) serves the same purpose: to make people laugh while telling the story of real freedom.
Crédits
Technical team
Director : Antoine CHEVRIER
1st assistant director : Léila BOISSON
2nd assistant director / casting director : Liliana LEMPEREUR
3rd assistant director / extras manager : Romane LEMAÎTRE
Script : Marius PASSENEAUD
Storyboard artist : Jade RIVIÈRE
Production Manager : Axelle LESTIENNE
Production assistant : Jonas BARRAT
Stage manager : Noah CHESNEL
Assistant stage manager : Kouadio Arnaud AHIGRO
Head decorator : Cloé TRICOT
Head prop maker : Artus GAUVIN
Head costume designer : Jade RIVIÈRE
Head make-up artist / Head hairdresser : Liloue LEREBOURS
Director of photography : Clémentine JAHAN
Shooting operator : Théo BARRÉ
1st assistant OPV : Valentin FAUCHET
2nd assistant OPV : Théo BELLIER
3rd assistant OPV : Delphin DUGUÉ
Steadicamer : Corentin ARÈS
Chief electrician : Tanguy DEBUCHY
Head machinist : Jules LE HENAFF
Sound engineer / Mixer : Étienne LAMARRE
OPS Assistant : Louis MAHIEUX
Perchman : Simon DANIEL
Post-production manager : Célia OMIRI
Chief editor : Anna MANZI
VFX Manager : Arthur PUYDUPIN
Calibrator : Maëva BONNEAU
Composer : Étienne LAMARRE
Artistic List
Rémi LEFEVBRE : Thomas
Juliette ALLAUZEN : Agnes
Nicolas PERRAULT : Xavier
Tifenn BUSNEL : Nathalie
Gaëtan JEHANNO : Bruno
Jean-Yves BOISSON : Pierre
Brigitte DELNATTE : Anne
Marie PAIN : L'amie d'Anne Devoiseau
Emmanuel BUFFET : Doctor Cochard
Séverine ROBIC : Gynaecologist's wife
Véronique CAQUINEAU : Nutritionist's wife