While Three Nights a Week is released this Wednesday, November 9 in theaters, the main actors of the film have confided to Sortiraparis. Pablo Pauly and Romain Eck, better known under his stage name, Cookie Kunty, revealed us their link with the world of drag and their work throughout the shooting of the feature film, with the director Florent Gouëlou, whom we also interviewed.
Florent Gouëlou (Trois Nuits par semaine) : "For me, discovering drag was a wonder".
On the occasion of the release of "Three Nights a Week", this Wednesday, November 9, the director Florent Gouëlou confided to Sortiraparis. The filmmaker talks about the work on this first feature film and the place that the world of drag holds in his life and career. [Read more]
Sortiraparis: Were you familiar with the world of drag queens before making the film?
Pablo Pauly : No. I knew that it existed. I had been to a party at the Flèche d'Or and I found it quite fascinating. But I didn't know more than that. So to enter this universe and to participate fully in it. It's a great opportunity. Artistically, I find it very rich, but more humanly than artistically. I like the show, but I'm much more interested in the human side of it than the artistic side.
The funny thing is that if you liked Cookie Kunty in the movie, you can see her on stage! You play your own character.
Romain Eck / Cookie Kunty : Yes, of course. After, obviously, it's a fiction, so it's not my life that we tell either. Obviously, there is a big part of the life of an artist who performs anyway, which is told in the film. But we put my character at the service of the work. We built a whole universe around this pre-existing character that I have been playing for seven years.
While the film "Three Nights a Week", by Florent Gouëlou, is released on November 9, an exhibition around the film is open from this Friday, November 4 at the Cinema Gallery, until November 26. [Read more]
And the Cookie we see on stage is close to the one in the film?
R. E.: Not necessarily, it's really a fiction. And we told this story through the prism of Florent [Gouëlou, the director], of his vision, of what he wanted to tell.
And so is Quentin, whom you play in the film, close to Romain?
R. E . Even less, and so much the better. It's not so bad. It allows me to take less distance. It is a challenge to be able to interpret someone other than yourself, to really do the work of an actor.
And you, Pablo, what interested you the most in this project?
P. P.: To make a film about homosexuality or, well, it's not a problem anymore. There are many films where, once the homosexuality is admitted, the life of the character changes completely. And here, for once, I find it very well written. It's not a problem at all, it's a love story. There is a sentence of Samia who is interpreted by Hafsia Herzi in it, who asks me if I have things to live and who does not ask me questions about men, women, drag queen, etc. And that, I find that very very very right. It's a love story. So if I can just fall in love with someone without telling me it's a man or a woman, it makes it easier for me. What interests me is the simplicity of this thing. It's a beautiful love story and we can go into it humanly to tell a love story. There's more debate on that. [ 00:03:04][57.3]
Cookie, this is not your first collaboration with the director. What is the relationship between the two of you?
R. E.: Actually, Florent came to one of my first shows, six years ago, one of the first parties I organized and hosted. And that's how he was really immersed in the drag scene. And I think that's what gave him the desire to write about drag. And that's how our artistic relationship to a collaboration came about as we made his short films. We made three of them together and the long one, it was a little the result of all this work done all these years together. It was it was nice, it was really how to say. We closed the loop in a nice way.
And I guess having a director who's part of the business himself is better.
R. E.: Yes, it's priceless. He knows how to shoot what we do. He knew above all what he wanted to tell, what he didn't want to tell. And I think his vision was very accurate.
P. P.: It exudes truth. He knows what he's talking about, and even for me, it's very reassuring to be able to film drag queens while being a drag queen. Yes, you trust and feel that there can be no lies. And that's quite reassuring and very pleasant for the moment.
Florent Gouëlou (Trois Nuits par semaine) : "For me, discovering drag was a wonder".
Three nights a week: an exhibition to accompany the release of the film
