Mourad Winter – Love is overrated: “I don’t see myself making a sequel for the moment”

As the Césars approach and for the broadcast of L’Amour c’est surcoté on Canal Plus, we took stock with its director Mourad Winter, who is currently finishing his next film for Prime Video. Still with the Jemili/Felpin/Tranié trio.

First: The last time we spoke, Love is overrated was in operation with a box office of over 300,000 spectators, and you seemed to be both happy and a little disappointed…
Mourad Winter: We finished with 471,000 spectators, a good score a priori given the situation. But if we had come out a year earlier, with the craze there was aroundA little extra thing and of Count of Monte Cristowouldn’t we have done even better? It turns out that last year was difficult for cinema, so coming close to 500,000 admissions is already very good. Besides, Canal Plus was aiming for 300,000. Still, deep down inside me, there was still the secret desire to reach a million (Laughter.) But that’s really being choosy: we had public and critical success, which is rare. As someone who always assumes that I’m going to get taken down, it was a nice surprise!

Are you confident for the Caesars?
I’m told that maybe I can imagine being nominated in the First Film or Best Adapted categories, but I don’t really believe it. If it happens that’s great, and if it doesn’t, it’s not the end of the world. Besides, if I had the choice, I would prefer that Laura and Hakim were nominated because they delivered a very good performance. But if I found myself nominated in a personal capacity, I would be delighted, eh!

We can hope for a continuation of Love is overrated ?
We have a clause with Canal Plus but I don’t see myself making a sequel for the moment. Unless the film becomes iconic over time and we imagine the continuation of their love story ten years later! But hey, when the drawing is finished, it’s a shame to cross out on the table, right? And then I’m in the process of adapting my second book, Girls are good guys.

With a new cast?
Frankly, I don’t know. The ideal would be for us all to leave together, but I also want to see other actors. Many platforms would like us to remake a film with Hakim Jemili, Laura Felpin and Benjamin Tranié, but all that is still in question. And I believe that this the public could tolerate 30-40 years ago, this troupe thing which constantly returns – which was what The Splendidfor example – he no longer completely tolerates it. People get bored more quickly and I imagine that can give the impression of being between people.

But you will still reform the trio of Love is overrated shortly. Where are you Bastardsyour next feature film?
It’s almost finished. We will start post-synchronization with the actors next week, and the sound mixing will be finished at the end of the month. But it won’t be called The Bastards. I’m fighting to change the title because I don’t like it. It was an idea that just happened, and I was already doubting it two days later! Same Prime Video (platform on which the film will be broadcast) think that it devalues ​​the qualities of the film a little.

How would you summarize this film, then?
The concept is simple: a father is shot and killed and his son, played by Hakim Jemili, recovers his bar, with debts and a family inheritance: a brother and a sister, who are played by Benjamin Tranié and Laura Felpin. And I promise you that Tranié does a space performance (Laughter.) We had a lot of fun with his character, which is still very borderline. The bottom line is that between the 70s and the early 2000s, there were slot machines in a lot of bars. And when you entered a code, they turned into games of poker, bingo… All completely illegal, obviously. So when Hakim’s character recovers the establishment, he realizes that it is a bar for prostitutes and gambling, with Corsicans who arrive to place machines in his home. This subject of slot machines has never really been covered in cinema, although it is fascinating. It was a way to calm down all the thugs, who made a lot of money and then didn’t need to go into prostitution, racketeering and drugs. The death of Francis the Belgian in 2000 meant that all of these slot machines were dismantled. And the environment has changed profoundly following that.

And will it be a comedy?
Let’s say we’re looking for the right balance between the valve and the voltage, without falling completely to one side or the other. It was a complicated film to put together but we are very happy with the result.

I saw that Kad Merad and Florence Foresti will also be in the cast.
Yeah, Kad makes the dad’s best friend, a blind bar prop who has a certain lucidity about what’s going on and about his “nephews.” And Florence is the oldest, the queen of prostitutes (Laughter.) A fifty-year-old at the end of his rope who will soon stop. His relationship with the character of Kad is very lovely. In fact, I hadn’t even thought about the two of them at first, I thought it was almost a bit too much… But they loved the script and were very involved.

Is there a release date?
No not yet. At the beginning, we were on a French-language release, so things could go quite quickly. But since Prime seems to like the film, they want to open it to the world. And the processes to send it to 200 countries are obviously a bit long, especially because of the dubbing.

Good news for your bank account, right?
Ah ah, I understood that there was a little money involved but you know me, I am only in the artistic (Laughter.) No kidding, I don’t care much about money. I was offered big projects with big actors and I refused. I’m not necessarily the right person for that… I like to do my own thing. I think I have taken a good turn, and I have good feedback with the broadcast of Love is overrated on Canal Plus. I have set up a sort of universe and it would be a shame to move towards something totally mainstream.

Love is overrated, on VOD and on MyCanal.