Dog 51: Cédric Jimenez wanted “a real action thriller that is very generous for the viewer”

Adapted from the novel by Laurent Gaudé, Dog 51 becomes a thrilling futuristic thriller, carried by Gilles Lellouche and Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Originally, there is the novel by Laurent Gaudé, winner of the 2022 Goncourt high school prize, which imagined a megalopolis fractured into three social zones, run by an omnipotent multinational. In the book Dog 51we followed Zem, a Greek exile who became a zone 3 cop, a man broken by History and who only survived by diving back into his memories thanks to a technological drug. During an investigation into a sordid murder, Gaudé unfolded a political fable about inequalities, the climate, and the commodification of the world. Playing both the techno thriller card, but also the political fable and the psychological essay.

Cédric Jimenez chose to adapt this dizzying story, but in his own way: by keeping the framework – the zones and the duo of cops from opposite worlds – and by refocusing everything to summon the effectiveness of the thriller. “What mainly interested me was the relationship between the two characters and this somewhat utopian story in the middle of dystopia”, tells us the director in the latest issue of the magazine First (currently on newsstands). With his co-writer Olivier Demangel, he admits to having moved away from the text, to stick to the codes of pure genre fiction: “A real action thriller very generous for the spectator, who must reside in the pleasure of being hooked to his seat.”

Result: where Gaudé multiplied eras and digressions, could devote an entire chapter to visions, or embarked on a literally Homeric and nostalgic trip, Jimenez decided to bring everything back to a futuristic Paris, “a kind of augmented future”, which becomes the playground for a real-time story.

“I could have stuck to the book and tried to adapt its digressions and all the exciting elements it develops. But it seemed impossible to put everything in one film. Choices had to be made. My proposal is to translate all of this into permanent movement. When the Safdie brothers do Uncut Gemsthey do not explain the world of New York diamond dealers as a whole, which is nevertheless very vast. They take a character over 72 hours, who we follow in his headlong flight. It’s a real proposition, an angle, and once this angle is adopted, obviously, we must accept it.“

The promise is therefore that the dystopian thriller turns into an action film. Carried by Gilles Lellouche as a tired cop and Adèle Exarchopoulos as a partner from another zone, we will see these two characters come together and repair each other in a world in ruins.

Around them, an all-star cast – Romain Duris, Louis Garrel, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Artus – which Jimenez accepts as a generous choice: “To make people want to go to theaters, we must also offer them the opportunity to see actors they like on screen.“With his stated ambition for a total spectacle, Jimenez signs what could be his summation film: a nervous and popular dystopia, where the question of freedom – or its abandonment – is addressed via the thriller. An adaptation which does not seek to say everything, but to make everything felt, in movement and adrenaline.

“Dog 51 comes to close – even if you should never say never – what one could call my ‘police trilogy’ started with BAC North And November (…) My characters, whether they are BAC cops, anti-terrorism officers or an investigating judge, and whether their intentions are good or bad, will always be mistreated by a system that is beyond them. But it goes hand in hand with the question of freedom and a society that can be very oppressive towards individual development. This is perhaps what connects all my films so far.“

“And then afterwards, I will go and see other horizons“, adds the filmmaker who is already preparing his biopic on Johnny Hallyday with Raphaël Quenard.

Official synopsis: In the near future, Paris has been divided into 3 zones which separate social classes and where ALMA artificial intelligence has revolutionized police work. Until its inventor is assassinated and Salia and Zem, two polar opposite police officers, are forced to collaborate to carry out the investigation.

Dog 51currently in cinema

Johnny Hallyday biopic: “Raphaël Quenard knows how to embody difference, mystery” (excluded)