DEVANT SOI

It came as a total shock to us all to learn the devastating news of a ski accident that took life of Jacquou le Croquant actor – Gaspard Ulliel on January 19, 2022. What a tragic loss. 💔 He was only 37 years old. 💔

Ulliel was one of France’s best known actors and worked with critically acclaimed filmmakers in Europe and abroad. He began acting at the age of 12 with an uncredited role in the French TV movie “Une Femme En Blanc” (“A Woman in White”). After several TV films, series and shorts, he held small roles in Christophe Gans’s “Brotherhood of the Wolf,” Jean-Paul Salomé’s “Belphegore: Le fantôme du Louvre,” and Michel Blanc’s “Embrassez qui vous voulez,” before landing his first leading role opposite Emmanuelle Beart in André Techiné’s “Les Egarés” in 2003. Four years later, he took his English-speaking debut in Peter Webber’s “Hannibal Rising.”Marvel’s upcoming “Moon Knight” series with him come out in the end of March 2022. RIP dear Gaspard 🙏😪💔

Devant soi is an original soundtrack song from the film Jacquou le Croquant (2007) by Laurent Boutonnat. Jacquou le Croquant marks the return to cinema of Laurent Boutonnat after Giorgino in 1994. It took him over a decade to get back to the cinema. This time fortune had smiled at him and muses blessed him with the inspiration.

Really nice compilation of the film and the song:

More Giorgino and Boutonnat in this chapter

I have seen the film and loved it. I hope Laurent will create more beautiful films as I find his vision picturesque and original. The beauty is in the eye of a beholder they say and Laurent indeed sees a beauty in anything even ugly and disturbing…Perhaps, they have that in common with Mylene…It always baffles me how she just experiences everything without rejection or judgment – just taking it all in, just observing with an open emotions. Its beautiful.. I hope to be like that when i grow up 🙂

The song is melancholic and produces such a familiar aching sensation as with many beautiful melodies from Boutonnat. I think he figured out the formula for touching human heart and soul and translates that formula into the notes 😊 Don’t you think?

Mylene’s voice for the song is deeper than we are used and gives us a glimpse into the “future” Mylene of Désobéissance. This one is however ahead of its time (by far) but I love it so much – I can’t find the words. It is the song that lives in my head for days and weeks at the time. It is a main theme of Jacquou for me. It is a shame that the song is not included into any albums of Mylene.

The lyrics to Devant soi were written by Mylène Farmer. Although it is not exactly the usual style and themes but she still puts her signature wherever its possible.

Il a vu les loups surgir du bois ("He saw the wolves come out of the woods") for instance...hope, love, loss...all ties very gracefully with the film and still gives her a chance to remain "herself" even in the soundtrack.
Music composed, produced and arranged by Laurent Boutonnat.
Sound recording and mixing: Jérôme Devoise

The soundtrack of the film is composed by Laurent Boutonnat. There is a single song, Devant soi which concludes this soundtrack. A support (a CD with 21 tracks) is on sale from January 07, 2007. It reaches the 40th place of the top albums in France.

Released on French screens on January 17, 2007, the film met with great success, attracting 900,000 spectators. Devant soi also concludes the film (for the end credits) with a different version of the song compared to that of the CD.

Movie is released Jacquou le Croquant on DVD September 26, 2007 for hire then October 10, 2007 for sale. Devant soi is on the credits at the end of the film.

On June 26, 2020, Laurent Boutonnat offers on streaming and download platforms a De Luxe version of the soundtrack of the film with a total of 41 titles and in particular a new mix of the song Devant soi.

Lead casting

Gaspard Ulliel, Léo Legrand, Marie-Josée Croze, Albert Dupontel, Tchéky Karyo, Olivier Gourmet, Jocelyn Quivrin

Movie events take place in 1815. Jacquou, a young peasant from Périgord, lives happily with his parents.

Through the fault of a cruel and arrogant nobleman, the Comte de Nansac, he becomes an orphan and miserable.

Vowing to take revenge, Jacquou will grow and flourish under the protection of the good priest Bonal who takes him in. Thanks to sure friends and to Lina, a patient and luminous young girl, he will become in a few years a determined and attractive young man.

He will know how to transform his desire for revenge into a fight against injustice, and to prove that a simple crunch is not devoid of greatness. Year of shooting: 2005

Mylene’s both nieces Clemence (daughter of Mylene’s late big brother Jean-Loup) and Lisa Gautier (daughter of Mylene’s little brother Michel) were participating in the film as a part of the cast.

Lisa Gautier played a small role in the film. More about Lisa HERE. Clémence Gautier however had a bigger role as a young Lina.

Birth of a project

From the year 2003, begins to spread a rumor. Almost ten years after the commercial failure of the film Giorgino, Laurent Boutonnat is more and more determined to go back behind the camera for a new feature film.

Two projects are regularly cited: a film based on the research of Joseph Mengele, a former Nazi doctor and criminal, guilty of torturing and killing many Jews during the Second World War and already … and an adaptation of Eugène Le’s novel. Roy, Jacquou le Croquant

“Before embarking on the Jacquou adventure, I was working on an Anglo-Saxon thriller, the action of which did not take place in France. A film much simpler and less burdensome in economic terms, but that I would have undoubtedly took more time to impose on co-producers”. (Laurent Boutonnat – Fanzine “MF et Vous”)

At the beginning, there was a click …. thanks to a video recorder.

It was during a weekend with friends, while trying to operate a VCR for a child that Laurent Boutonnat rediscovered the soap opera shot in the 60s. Touched by “historical force” and “convinced that it there was material for a beautiful film “he immersed himself in this novel” very dark but very strong “untila movie for the big screen.

“I had seen this soap opera when I was a kid then I was seduced by Eugène Le Roy’s book which touches on many things to which I am very sensitive: the human aspect, the struggle between the good and the villains which constitutes the backdrop … And this historic period both fascinating and unknown to the Restoration “. (Laurent Boutonnat)

Before the film … the book. Novel by Eugène Le Roy serialized in “La Revue de Paris” in 1899.

Son of sharecroppers, Jacquou, a nine-year-old boy, was plunged from childhood into the appalling living conditions which are those of the French peasantry in the nineteenth century.

His father, a sharecropper, is operated by the Comte de Nansac. He is unjustly convicted of a murder he did not commit and is deported to the galleys.

Jacquou endures everything, the hunger, the cold, the misfortune and the tyranny of the Count of Nansac. But, faced with adversity, it has two weapons: its energy and especially its instinct for the natural environment, this corner of Périgord where it moves like a fish in water.

Her mother died soon after. Orphan, he is taken in by the priest Bonnal who takes care of his education. As an adult, Jacquou will never cease to fight the injustice of which his family has been the victim and to take revenge on the cynical Count of Nansac.

Thanks to reliable friends and a patient and luminous young girl, in a few years he would become a determined and attractive young man. He will know how to transform his desire for revenge into a fight against injustice, and to prove that a simple crunch is not devoid of greatness.

The author of “Jacquou le Croquant” should have been a priest. At least that is the fate that his parents, respectively steward and linen maid at the Château de Hautefort, in the Dordogne, had planned for him.

Attending, as a teenager, the School of the Brothers of Périgueux, the young Eugène le Roy (1836-1907) however did not acquire a vocation there. On the contrary, he will become from adulthood fiercely anticlerical, militant Republican and active Freemason.

Eugène le Roy did not know Jacquou’s miserable childhood. Boarding on a farm during his early youth, he nevertheless closely approached the world of peasants and the harshness of their existence, which he will make the subject of most of his future writings.

Engaged at 18, for four years, as a horse hunter in an African regiment, Eugène Le Roy then pursued a career as a civil servant. In 1863, he was appointed tax collector in the southwest, a post from which he was revoked in 1871 for having manifested his Republican sympathies too clearly before being reinstated in 1877. Eugène Le Roy married civilly and had three children. He died in the Dordogne at Montignac.

If the first work of Eugène le Roy (“Le Moulin du Frau” – 1895) had won him a success of esteem, it is with “Jacquou le Croquant” (1900), initially published as a serial in “La Revue de Paris “under the title” La Forêt Barade “in 1899, which the author gained notoriety.

More than a simple “regionalist” or “country” novel – a genre made fashionable by George Sand (“La Petite Fadette”, “La Mare au diable” …) – “Jacquou le Croquant” claims and indeed owns a larger dimension. In addition to a fine and faithful description of peasant habits and customs at the beginning of the 19th century in Périgord and of the provincial Restoration society, and beyond a certain “folklore”, it is a novel of social denunciation, a militant work that stigmatizes the return to the Ancien Régime, the discretionary power of the king and the aristocracy, the influence of religious … and pleads for equality and republican justice.

When it was released, the success of the book was immediate and would last. Because this great human adventure, this novel of learning and initiation, tells a timeless story: that of a being struggling for his survival in a hostile world …

 “Jacquou le Croquant” is now studied in secondary schools.

casting: https://www.mylene.net/mylene/jacquou-le-croquant-casting.php

May 2005: Périgord (near Sarlat, Senli, Périgueux …)

“We found many people there still very marked by the importance of the myth of Jacquou le Croquant, a true local hero, and very excited to bring it back to life in the cinema. ” (Laurent Boutonnat)

September 2005: Studios in Stains (filming location for several clips of Mylène Farmer) for the retakes.

Chrisitan Marti and Laurent Boutonnat have done meticulous work of iconographic referencing. They were inspired by paintings of the time in particular those of Jean-François Millet, painter of the peasants, but also of Louis-Léopold Bally, Géricault and Illia Répin, Russian painter.

Rembrandt, although from the 17th century, also inspired them for the interiors and the quality of the lights.

There was no desire to perfectly reconstruct the period of the novel, but to keep the “freedom to seek out atmospheres and atmospheres from other countries and periods other than those of the 1820s or 1830s”. (JD Vuillermoz). “We did not try to reconstruct the decor of the time with perfect fidelity” … “but we did so without ever losing sight of historical realism, aided in that by our pictorial references”. (Christian Mati)

For her role, Jocelyn Quivrin had to be ugly and aged which required two hours of makeup each day.

Jocelyn Quivrin was initially supposed to play Jacquou but the actor was not interested in the role. Laurent Boutonnat then offered him the Count of Nansac.

Gaspard Ulliel initially hesitated to accept the role of Jacquou. He had just finished filming Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s film, “A Long Engagement Sunday” and was reluctant to the idea of ​​making two “popular (s) with great spectacle” films. Laurent Boutonnat will convince him.

Laurent Boutonnat as seen by Gaspard Ulliel: “He knows how to let himself be carried away by movement, by energy, by the life of a scene. Basically, there is no rule with Laurent. ” (source: commeaucinema.com)

Jean-Daniel Vuillermoz, costume designer with head costume designer Séverine Demaret made 500 costumes in total with 4,000 pieces of clothing requiring 10 months of preparation and production.

At the end of the four months of shooting, 150,000 meters of film were available … editing could begin.

Laurent Boutonnat’s film retraces only the first twenty years of Jacquou’s life. “I abandon Jacquou at 20 when he is 90 at the end of the book! But to develop such a story, to focus on the characters, it takes time”. (Laurent Boutonnat) —> A difference between the book and the film

The character of Lina (played by Judith Davisdan) dies at the end of the novel, which is not the case in the film.

“It is true that it is at the base of a very dark novel. There are indeed things towards which I did not go. In the novel, Lina dies, commits suicide. In other times , maybe I would have killed him “. (Laurent Boutonnat, La Montagne, 01/16/2007)

First TV broadcast in France on Canal Plus on Wednesday February 27, 2008 at 8:50 pm. Broadcast on France 2 on Sunday October 31, 2010 at 8:35 pm. The book which inspired it all: anovel by Eugène Le Roy serialized in “La Revue de Paris” in 1899.

The author of “Jacquou le Croquant” should have been a priest. At least that is the fate that his parents, respectively steward and linen maid at the Château de Hautefort, in the Dordogne, had planned for him.

Attending, as a teenager, the School of the Brothers of Périgueux, the young Eugène le Roy (1836-1907) however did not acquire a vocation there. On the contrary, he will become from adulthood fiercely anticlerical, militant Republican and active Freemason.

Eugène le Roy did not know Jacquou’s miserable childhood. Boarding on a farm during his early youth, he nevertheless closely approached the world of peasants and the harshness of their existence, which he will make the subject of most of his future writings.

Engaged at 18, for four years, as a horse hunter in an African regiment, Eugène Le Roy then pursued a career as a civil servant. In 1863, he was appointed tax collector in the southwest, a post from which he was revoked in 1871 for having manifested his Republican sympathies too clearly before being reinstated in 1877. Eugène Le Roy married civilly and had three children. He died in the Dordogne at Montignac.

If the first work of Eugène le Roy (“Le Moulin du Frau” – 1895) had won him a success of esteem, it is with “Jacquou le Croquant” (1900), initially published as a serial in “La Revue de Paris “under the title” La Forêt Barade “in 1899, which the author gained notoriety.

More than a simple “regionalist” or “country” novel – a genre made fashionable by George Sand (“La Petite Fadette”, “La Mare au diable” …) – “Jacquou le Croquant” claims and indeed owns a larger dimension. In addition to a fine and faithful description of peasant habits and customs at the beginning of the 19th century in Périgord and of the provincial Restoration society, and beyond a certain “folklore”, it is a novel of social denunciation, a militant work that stigmatizes the return to the Ancien Régime, the discretionary power of the king and the aristocracy, the influence of religious … and pleads for equality and republican justice.

When it was released, the success of the book was immediate and would last. Because this great human adventure, this novel of learning and initiation, tells a timeless story: that of a being struggling for his survival in a hostile world …

“Jacquou le Croquant” is now studied in secondary schools. In France

REMIXES

Polyedre I.Q remix (cleverly played QI ): https://soundcloud.com/polyedre_remixes/devant-soi-iq-remix

more remixes: https://soundcloud.com/search?q=devant%20soi%20mylene%20farmer

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lyrics with translation

Il a bu dans le cours d'un ruisseau
Parcouru les montagnes et le bourg
Il a vu dans vos yeux tant de haine
Qu'il s'est cru un instant plus le même
Il a pris des chemins solitaires
Privé d'os comme un chien qui se terre
Il s'est mis à pleurer comme on aime
Continue à prier quand même
C'est devant soi qu'il faut se voir
La vie n'est pas toujours ce que l'on croit
C'est devant soi que je veux vivre
J'ai devant moi beaucoup de vies et de rires
C'est devant soi qu'il faut se voir
La vie n'est pas toujours ce chemin droit
Il faut me dire quand vient le noir
J'ai devant moi beaucoup de vies et d'espoir
Il a vu les loups surgir du bois
Suspendu aux branches de vos lois
Il a perdu l'amour, deux étoiles
Qui brillaient dans son cœur qui se voile
Il a compris quand gorge se serre que la vie ouvre porte à l'enfer
Mais là haut, un faucon se déploie qui protège son nom, son choix
C'est devant soi qu'il faut se voir
La vie n'est pas toujours ce que l'on croit
C'est devant soi que je veux vivre
J'ai devant moi beaucoup de vies et de rires
C'est devant soi qu'il faut se voir
La vie n'est pas toujours ce chemin droit
Il faut me dire quand vient le noir
J'ai devant moi beaucoup de vies et d'espoir
C'est devant soi qu'il faut se voir
La vie n'est pas toujours ce que l'on croit
C'est devant soi que je veux vivre
J'ai devant moi beaucoup de vies et de rires
C'est devant soi qu'il faut se voir
La vie n'est pas toujours ce chemin droit
Il faut me dire quand vient le noir
J'ai devant moi beaucoup de vies et d'espoir

He drank in the course of a stream
Walked through the mountains and the village
He saw in your eyes so much hate
That for a moment he thought he was no longer the same
He took lonely paths
Deprived of bones like a dog that hides
He started to cry as we like
Keep praying anyway
You have to see each other in front of you
Life is not always what you think
It's in front of you that I want to live
I have in front of me a lot of lives and laughter
You have to see each other in front of you
Life is not always this straight path
You have to tell me when the dark comes
I have before me a lot of lives and hope
He saw the wolves come out of the woods
Hanging from the branches of your laws
He lost love, two stars
That shone in her veiled heart
He understood when throat tightens that life opens the door to hell
But up there, a hawk unfolds that protects his name, his choice
You have to see each other in front of you
Life is not always what you think
It's in front of you that I want to live
I have in front of me a lot of lives and laughter
You have to see each other in front of you
Life is not always this straight path
You have to tell me when the dark comes
I have before me a lot of lives and hope
You have to see each other in front of you
Life is not always what you think
It's in front of you that I want to live
I have in front of me a lot of lives and laughter
You have to see each other in front of you
Life is not always this straight path
You have to tell me when the dark comes
I have before me a lot of lives and hope