The documentary Château Rouge told by its director

The documentary Château Rouge told by its director

Hélène Milano explains the creation of this exciting film about school which follows a third grade class through a school year that is decisive for their direction.

How did the idea of Red Castlediscovered at ACID in Cannes last May before its theatrical release this week?

Helene Milano : From my two previous documentaries, Black Roses And The burning coals which I had designed as a diptych on youth. Meetings and discussions which nourished them which made me discover how, even years later, the moment of orientation and the choice to make at such a young age for one’s future, has left wounds in many which are difficult to heal. So I wanted to explore this decisive year, over the months until the ax fell

We still had to find the college in question. What brought you within the walls of the Clémenceau college, located in the Parisian district of Goutte d’Or?

My husband was the assistant principal a few years ago. So I knew that it welcomed a lot of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and that the teaching teams were waging a daily battle to fight against the ravages of determinism. But it was when he introduced me to the principal of the establishment that my project began to really take shape. Because there was a connection between us straight away. And because when I explained to her my idea of ​​showing the daily commitment of teachers to their students, it was she who suggested that I focus on the children, on these third grade students. And his intuition was right

How do you get students and teachers accepted before you start filming?

It definitely takes time. That of explaining with as much precision as possible what I want to do. To answer the various questions. There are obviously people who will decline, but the help and trust of the principal obviously helped me enormously with my various contacts. And these exchanges will also and above all nourish my film. This is where I am, for example, struck by the acuity of a large proportion of these students in the way they view the educational institution. And that my job will be to ensure that they manage to convey the same things during filming without losing their authenticity.

Is that why you interviewed them on camera, in addition to what you captured from them during filming?

Yes and no. Because it was not planned at the start. What I quickly decided to organize was a sort of workshop where every Tuesday, I brought together volunteer students – around twenty in total – to share with them different texts, ranging from Virginia Woolf to Joël Pommerat in going through Musset and Koltès and doing improvisations. And all of this will contribute to the construction of the film which is based on two different temporalities. On the one hand, the temporal trajectory of the school year which ends with the choice of orientation. On the other, a more spiral trajectory nourished by a form of introspection at the heart of what adolescents go through. And it was my producer Céline Loiseau who pushed me to do these interviews. I was rather reluctant because I had already done quite a bit in my previous films and I didn’t want to repeat myself. But I let myself be convinced and the moments found in the final cut are essential to the film.

Do you start editing during filming?

The real work really begins at the end of the shots. And I had the chance to find Cécile Dubois, my editor of Burning coals. I knew that she would immediately look at these young people in the same way as I did. That she would be as touched as I was by them. There is in her this mixture of delicacy and rigor which was essential to this project. And neither she nor I are afraid to suggest things to each other and screw up. Our work process is truly organic.

When and how do we know that filming is finished?

First of all, there is the entire construction period where we build, we change the form, we change the content. And then we enter a phase which looks more like a search for inner movements. From there, we know when we are approaching something that will live and breathe in this movement. And we don’t change the dance anymore.

Red Castle. By Hélène Milano. Duration: 1h47. Released January 22, 2025

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