Director and screenwriter Bernard STORA was the guest of ESRA's Jeudis de l'ESRA on February 10, 2022 at the Jean Renoir amphitheater.
The students attended a screening of Bernard STORA's latest film Villa Caprice, starring Niels ARESTRUP and Patrick BRUEL, and then met the director. He began his career as first assistant director alongside Jean-Paul RAPPENEAU and Henri VERNEUIL, notably on the film Le clan des siciliens with Jean GABIN, Lino VENTURA and Alain DELON. Mainly a director of films for television, Bernard STORA attaches great importance to power in his cinematography.
The students began by asking the director about the differences between film and television. In the 80s, TV films didn't have the same look as cinema films, the image wasn't as good and, for budgetary reasons, TV films had to be made more quickly. For him, the way stories are told on TV is different from the way they are told at the cinema; right from the start, viewers have to get hooked on the film, because it's easy to switch to another TV channel. Television films have to be very close to the narrative and the story. Unlike cinema, films are not remembered on television; there is no such thing as a television memory.
Bernard STORA has always been fascinated by shows, circuses and theaters. He takes particular pleasure in writing, knowing how to develop scenes, give them body and write dialogue. On the other hand, he doesn't have the soul to come up with a story with twists and turns. For him, a screenwriter performs several different activities: it's not the same thing to invent a story, develop scenes or write dialogue. They're not necessarily all the same person.
His latest film, Villa caprice , is an eight-camera, mostly open-air affair in which the focus is on the confrontation between the two characters. It's the film he prepared the most; he worked with a new cinematographer, with whom he scouted locations and made visual cuts. Bernard STORA also spoke about directing actors, which in his experience begins with the choice of actors and gives the desired direction.
