10 years Reflection: do you think I got scammed?

It’s been 10 years now, I mean this very month, that Unfaithful has been released so I thought it is about time to reflect and tell some of the things I learned. I shared every step of the making of this movie on this blog and I have some few things left to share with you. I’ll try to keep it short, for your sake…

Reflection on the making

Let’s proceed by themes or topics… First, say, my approach. The way I jumped into this experience. So, I guess my idea is still that I don’t want to make movies where I would boss people around and impose “My vision” to a crew and to the viewers. Because I strongly believe in democracy and also because… how can I put it… This idea of expecting your crew, your actors to perform, instead of welcoming them for who they are, this very hierarchical way of managing the work space or this super authoritative relationship with the viewer, all those things come from the framing of mind of straight white rich dudes. Let’s be honest about that. I don’t think it’s possible to criticize and challenge a system that makes all of us invisible by using those very methods that are made to comfort and maintain the system…

Whatever… No-one had never shown a spark of interest for that idea so… But anyway, to sum it up, my approach is still the same: I gather the conditions for something to happen and have no control over what is happening. And it makes me feel real good.

About the cast

So now, let’s talk about the actor. I guess I wouldn’t pick him if I knew what I’ve come to learn and here’s why. I think he looks good in the movie. He didn’t understand my approach. That’s my bad, I didn’t explain it to him well enough obviously… For example, in the script, I wrote the topics of conversations we would have and we were supposed to improvise… But he came well prepared, i.e. he wrote what he wanted to say and rehearsed those lines. It didn’t go well, though it was kinda cute. So I had to figure out new topics, shake things up, and after, say 3 days, maybe more, we were able to land on our feet well. That’s not why I wouldn’t pick him or indirectly…

The thing is he was not really honest with me in order to land the gig, about his experience, his expectations… I don’t mind that, you do what you have to do. But I pictured him as this underground actor up for some experimental new ways of making movies. After 2 days of shooting, we were small talking when he said he didn’t like the avant-garde movies he starred in and he had pretty conservative tastes. Which is fine, of course, but that’s when I knew he wouldn’t be happy with this movie and he wouldn’t even see the point at all. And that is kinda sad because you want your actors to be satisfied with the outcome.

But at the end, he told me that some filmmakers saw the movie, thought he was good and offered him to audition for other projects.  So I guess it turned out good for him.

The release of the movie

So now, let’s talk about the release of the movie. Pretty early on, a seller, a dealer, I’m not sure how it’s called, contacted me and offered me to find some distributors. It kinda works like an agent, finding you some deals and taking his cut. He, indeed, found some distributors. It made sense to deal with this seller guy, since the very same companies that didn’t message me back when I contacted them, bought the film thanks to him. One of the first things a distributor told me when I met him: “You should have sent us a screener”, well actually, I did… See, the system is rigged for the white straight rich dudes, even for gay movies. And the film was sold throughout Europe, North America and Asia.

Most of the time, I had no contact at all with those distribution companies. Which I guess is unfortunate to say the least. I had a really good relationship with the US company. It’s always nice for a hard worker to find people as diligent. I had a, well I guess you could say terrible, or maybe surreal?, experience with the French company.  To make it short they came with a deal with this seller guy to completely ruin the movie. In the 21^st century, 50 years after the so-called “sexual liberation”, I kid you not, they thought it was a good idea to blur huge parts of the film. To this day, it makes me laugh how ludicrous or dumb or outrageous it is. I thought, I really thought the viewers would throw stuff at them out of anger and call them out. It turned out, no-one did. NO-ONE. To my knowledge anyway. So while I’m very sorry for this poor version of the film that people in some countries had to buy, I’m also frustrated that no-one spoke up and took my side.

So this seller guy, Loic Magneron and his company Wide Management, yes I name and shame, made thousands of dollars out of this movie and to this day, 10 years after we closed the deal, I still have not received a cent, NOT ONE CENT, at all. I’m not saying he’s a crook, I don’t know what happened… I still haven’t figured it out… I’m just saying for the people out there considering working with him, maybe think twice, you might want that money to make other movies at some point. The idea of lawyering up is quite unpleasant. I wish I could live in a world where we all try to be our nicest selves, but I guess I will have to sue those people unfortunately. If you’re a lawyer DM me :-)

But there is a silver lining. Yes I’m an optimistic person. And that is I do own all the rights of my movie back now. No-one to mess with it, ruin it, pocket the money or anything for that matter. It is available in the version I envisioned and I’m very happy about that. And you can watch the film here.