Chasse Gardée 2: “The first film didn’t work in big cities. Zero!”

The co-director, Antoine Fourlon, returns in Première to the surprise success of the first opus, a hit at the end of the year 2023… especially in the rural world!

In the Top 20 biggest hits of the year 2023. Ahead of the Palme d’Or event Anatomy of a Fall Please !

With almost 2 million entries, Guarded Hunt was a real little phenomenon of winter 2023.

With his first feature, Antoine Fourlon reminded us that a popular French comedy could also be funny, rhythmic and friendly. So what comes out today Private Hunt 2the inevitable sequel, the co-director (with Frédéric Forestier) recounts his great surprise when he understood that his farce in Loir-et-Cher was going to be a hit.

“I was first told, well before the release, that we were going to reach around 400,000 entries” tells Antoine Fourlon in issue 568 of Première (currently on newsstands). “I had accepted a whole bunch of assignments as a screenwriter, telling myself that my career as a director would perhaps end there. When we realized we were going to make a million, we were overjoyed. The second million, we really didn’t see it coming!”

The filmmaker explains that the film’s poor performance in Paris and the big cities did not necessarily bode well for a huge score. But Guarded Hunt found an echo in the small towns of the Province:

“The film did absolutely nothing in the big cities. Zero. Not only in Paris, but also in Lyon, Bordeaux or Marseille. Chasse Gardée really worked in rural areas. The second million came from these remote places where the film was shown via traveling cinemas: screenings with an overhead projector installed in a village hall, the sound in mono, tickets for three euros. We sometimes had 200 paid entries like that… This second million spectators came from there, from territories very far from urban areas. It’s a bit miraculous.”

Funny and well done, Guarded Hunt had everything of an author’s comedy, carried by the little music of Antoine Fourlon: “What’s funny is that auteur cinema, the real thing, is where I come from.” takes up the director who started as an assistant to cutting-edge filmmakers like Serge Bozon or Mia Hansen-Løve.

“Around the age of 26 – I’m 41 today – I came out as a comedian. I started writing jokes and tried to get paid for it. Not easy, but I loved it. At the same time, I worked for Reader’s Digest. Then one day, I found myself at Endemol, via Bago Films, where I was asked to write chain family comedies, very formatted, very energetic, for films that were never made. I did that for three years, alone in an office.

Today he must confirm with Guarded Hunt 2, to be seen everywhere in the cinema.