Director and screenwriter Yann GOZLAN took part in ESRA's Jeudis de l'ESRA on January 12. The film Boîte Noire starring Pierre Niney, released on September 8, 2021, was screened for the students prior to the meeting.
Yann GOZLAN abandoned his economics studies to devote himself to his passion, cinema. Marked in particular by The Robin Hood Adventures by Michael CURTIZ and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Milos FORMAN, he enrolled at Paris 8 University, where he obtained a degree in cinema and began writing and directing short films. For 9 years, he sent scripts and knocked on the doors of various producers, while working at Fnac. In 2006, he was spotted by producers at the Gerarmer Festival with his short film Echo. Yann GOZLAN went on to direct his first feature film, through Canal +, Captifs. Since then, he has written and directed 4 feature films.
The director told the students about his taste for atmospheric films and answered the many questions asked about the film Black Box. In particular, he talked about technical aspects such as the writing, the documentation work carried out with the BEA, the mise-en-scene and tracking shots, and the montage of a paranoid investigative film and a thriller, which allows the director to play with rhythm and create a new style. Yann GOZLAN is fascinated by aeronautics and the sky in general. For him, these are poetic and cinematic subjects. He loves the moving power of cinema and the questions it provokes.
Yann GOZLAN also shared his views on sound in cinema. For him, sound is a primordial invisible weapon with which he plays in his films, notably for Boîte Noire. There was no shortage of questions about directing actors. He appreciates the precision of actors with a theater background, and cultivates the subjectivity of his characters. Yann GOZLAN closed the masterclass by encouraging the students to see films, shoot and write, as well as to develop their network and their difference.
