French filmmaker Yann Gonzalez discusses directing Eric Cantona as The Stud in his debut feature You and The Night about a failed orgy which premieres in Cannes Critics’ Week.

So what’s it about?

A couple, played by Kate Moran and Niels Schneider, and their transvestite butler, organise orgies to spice up their lives. The guests arrive – each with stereotypical sexual names like The Slut, The Star, The Stud and The Teen - but the orgy goes wrong, it keeps being interrupted and the characters instead go into their own private fantasies and dreams. The first part is very funny but the second half is more tragic. There’s nothing really pornographic in the film, it’s quite soft.

Eric Cantona and Beatrice Dalle are the in cast. What are their roles?

Eric Cantona plays The Stud, a guy with a giant cock. I fantasised about getting Cantona for the role but thought it would never happen, that he was too famous. I sent a script to his agent nonetheless and a few months later got a message back that he was interested on the basis of my shorts which he loved. He didn’t care about the script, he was just like, ‘I’ve seen your shorts and I want to be part of it.” He’s actually very humble as a person. He was like a guardian angel on the set. Beatrice Dalle has a smaller role in the film. She only appears for five minutes in one of the flashback scenes opposite Cantona as a dominatrix, inspired by Dyanne Thorne’s character in the 1970s Ilsa trilogy.  

Alain Delon’s son, Alain Fabien Delon also co-stars. How did you come to cast to him?

I saw a television interview with him in which he talked about his problems with his father and how they weren’t very connected. He seemed a sort of a lost soul. It was a very moving interview. The character of the Teen is a quite a sad character who is looking for a family and I thought Alain corresponded with this perfectly. It’s his first big screen role. He’s very talented. I did a few screen tests and was immediately moved by the way he acted. I’m not too keen on acting dynasties but I think it’s really in his blood. I tried out fifty adolescents but he was the one who struck me most, the one I wanted to film. There is a sort of rage within him mixed with a type of sadness and melancholy that bowled me over. His character in the film is a sort of sex vagabond.

What’s next?

I’ve just started developing an indie genre, horror movie which I might even try to shoot in the States. I’ve been obsessed with horror films since I was a child. 

Topics