Hope is French: A comedic short film about the hunger for happiness!

Hope is French

A short, comic film about the hunger for happiness.  Support our project and help us to spread around some laughter and Hope.

Synopsis

Ever have a bad hair day?  The kind where you should have just stayed in bed?  Set against the backdrop of Paris, city of lights and rain, Polly struggles to survive clogged toilets, STD heartbreak, a sinister sister, rejection from her therapist, a handgun surprise and the French police, and that’s all before she even goes to work.  How can she get through such a day AND master French verbs?  There’s always Hope.  Hope the cat.  But can even Hope survive?

Our comedic short will be shot in English and French with the intention to submit it to a number of international film festivals.

Director’s Note of Intention

Everyone has had a bad hair day.  A day where, no matter how good we may feel, no matter how confident we may feel beforehand, we can be emotionally destroyed in moments by things out of our control.  These moments, and our reactions to them, are incredibly tragic, but also darned funny.  With the gift of time we can look back at being dumped, at the worst problems, with laughter.  The human spirit is so great that we will do anything, say anything, and try anything, to keep on going.  There is always hope.  And that is lovely, but it also makes for pretty darned funny moments.   This film is about those moments.  What choices does Polly make in the face of her world going mad?  Especially when she is obliged to speak French?  Hope is funnier with a French accent (where the French don’t know how to pronounce the “h”).  Language and language problems make Polly’s situation even worse, and perhaps even funnier.  How we speak helps determine how we see the world.

And France is the world of Sarte, de Beauvoir, and it’s the adopted home of Samuel Beckett.  But it’s also the backdrop for beautiful and schmaltzy romantic films, like An American in Paris. A city full of existential dread, but also of love and light and the French joy of life. C’est comme ca (it’s like that) is an acceptance of life, good and bad.  Don’t forget that the French say “merde” for “break a leg,” because for them, stepping on shit is lucky.  France is a country of contradictions.  This is why we chose Paris as the backdrop for Polly’s story.  It’s like life.  Sometimes you step on the shit, and ‘c’est comme ca.”

So the themes of this comic short film include hope, charm and also existential despair.  We will try to convey these themes stylistically and visually.   Cinematographically, our film will pay homage to contradictory France, and French kitsch, with coloring evoking An American in Paris, and lighting evoking Amélie.  The world is real, but colorful, contradictory, and improbable.

Visual Influences

Amélie

Two Days in Paris

Two Days in Paris

Delicatessen

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Who are we?

The Crew

Chris Mack: Director and writer

Chris Mack directs and writes plays and films in Paris, where he resides.  Directing credits include, The Race of the Ark Tattoo, Paris Doll, Seventy Scenes of Halloween, Virtual Reality,  and "Vampire Vermont". Chris is an acting coach for a variety of schools in Paris. He teaches/has taught acting for stage and screen for Blanche Salant, EICAR, Les Ateliers du Sudden, Bilingual Acting Workshop, the American University of Paris, as well as for episodes of some TV series, like The Bureau Des Legends. A co-founder of Paris Playwrights and a former member of Blueprint Theatre, The Empty Space Theatre, and Annex Theatre in Seattle; he is a former advisory board member for ESTRENO, which promotes Spanish plays.  Chris taught theatre, communications and voice classes within the City University of New York, where he also ran Bronx Community College's Theatre Workshop. He is also a Paris-based voiceover artist. He does voiceovers for numerous documentaries, commercials and films.

Clarence Tokley: Producer

Clarence Tokley is a Paris-based teacher, filmmaker, writer and corporate coach. A native of New Jersey, Clarence attended Rutgers University, obtaining a degree in History and Film Studies. After graduating, he worked with kids and teens as a social worker for 6 years while also writing and working as a filmmaker. He has written in various forms of texts ranging from theatre, spoken word, and cinema. To refresh himself Clarence attended the New York Film Academy in New York City obtaining a certification of film production. He then packed up everything and moved to Paris, wanting to get a taste of the European style of storytelling. Clarence fully immersed himself in the film industry and quickly landed his first job in Paris. Some of his credits include Rush Hour 3, Truth in 24 (Audi Le Mans racing Doc), Exes, Lapin Cretins, the Cherry Orchard, The Big Funk, In My Other Life and various other productions. He teaches theatre and film acting at schools in and around Paris and also works with the New York Film Academy Paris Office. Clarence is an experienced corporate and individual coach with past clients being L’Oreal and Credit Agricole.  Clarence continues to work professionally in film, theatre, coaching and teaching in and around Paris. He has a strong love for creating and collaboration.

Vincent Moya: Director of Photography

Vincent is a videographer and web content producer based in paris. He studied Fine Art at the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury, England and completed his Masters in Communications at the University of Nice. Soon after, he packed his bags, crossed the Atlantic, and landed in New York to learn from the Big Apple. It was there, at the Digital Film Academy, where interest turned to passion, and he immersed himself in the various aspects of audio-visual creation. He has since filmed for networks and brands such as Discovery Networks, Fashion One Europe, VMC Entertainment, Chanel, Lanvin, Uber, Nikon, and has screened some of his work at the Anthology Film Archive (New York) and the Palais de Tokyo (Paris).

Leticia Belliccini: Production Manager

Leticia Belliccini is a 34 years old actress and director of Sicilian origin. She began acting lessons at the conservatory of the 9th arrondissement under the direction of Stéphane Auvanoroy and Julien Koseleck. She is also attending classes at Pygmalion studio with Pascal Luneau. She has appeared in several Patrick Alessandrin's films " Banlieu 13 Ultimatum", Pascal Chaumeil's" L’Arnacoeur ", Laurent Bouhnik's" Q "," Il reste du jambom"by Anne Depetrini," Toi, Moi and les autres ". 'Audreu Estrougo,' Video 'by Nicolas Keitel,' Mea culpa 'by Fred cavayé ... She just finished a romantic comedy' Fast love '. In the series, "les bleus", the Disney series "SOS SUPER HEROS", "The source" Xavier Durringer, "Amanda" for France 2 ... In the theater, she plays "Eva Peron" by Copi, "Le premier » by Israel Horowitz, "The 3 Musketeers" by Laurie Jesson, "L’amant" by Arold Pinter. In parallel, she writes news, freelancers for the website "les 3 coups". She also writes several scenarios. Since 2015, she directed 3 short films, "The principe premier", "Spin" and "Hölty ». She is currently working on writing her first feature film, "Girl's Walk" and is developing HÖlty, the series.

CAST

Elizabeth Wautlet: Polly

Alicia Wolf: Sally

Johann Morio:  Jean Francois

David Olivier Fischer:  Henri Pierre the Flic (the Cop)

 
TEMPORARY CALENDAR

March-April 2018: KissKissBankBank crowdfunding campaign.
 
May 2018: Primary photography and shooting schedule of short film. The film will be shot over the span of 5 days in the beginning or mid May.
 

May-June 2018: Post production work on film. Hope is French will be edited, color corrected and mixed during final weeks of May and beginning weeks of June.
 
June-July 2018: Private screening of the movie for donors and award winners in Paris, France. The exact date of the private screening has not been set as of yet but plans to take place in the end of June or early mid July.
 
August 2018: Submission to a number of international film festivals.