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| It's Raining Men |
A lively, entertaining comedy which sees a middle-aged woman’s life turned upside-down when she rediscovers her sexuality through a dating app, It’s Raining Men – initially released in France as Iris Avec Les Hommes – stars Laure Calamy as you’ve never seen her before. it’s now in cinemas in the UK, and director Caroline Vignal agreed to answer some questions about her creative process.
Jennie Kermode: It’s great to see a film that’s so positive about sex without the characters being punished for it at the end. Was this a starting point for you? Were you always determined to keep the film upbeat, even when addressing the problems that Iris’ adventures create in the rest of her life?
Caroline Vignal: Yes! That was exactly the plan. A kind of anti-Madame Bovary! Iris does not seek love by meeting men other than her husband; she is not ‘punished’ for her actions, and no one suffers collateral damage from her antics. Not her husband, not her lovers, not even her daughters. On the contrary, even if things sway a little along the way, everyone seems to ‘win’ in the end, in terms of freedom, libido, openness and joy. It may be a bit utopian, but I think it works! And beyond sexuality, which is the path that Iris takes to reconnect with life and other people, for me the message of the film is that withdrawing into oneself - or into the couple, the ‘mononuclear’ family - is as asphyxiating as it is reassuring, and that we have everything to gain from going to see what is happening on the other side of the door.
JK: I found the scene in which Iris and her daughter discuss consent interesting. Do you think that there’s a generational divide in attitudes?
CV: The notion of consent is still quite new in France. A few years ago this word was used very little. It is very important and very positive that we talk about this to young people - girls and boys - who approach sexuality, but it seems to me that more or less consciously, in the collective imagination, it is the girl who consents or does not consent, and the boy who must interpret it. Without really saying it, it makes girls prey, again and again, and boys predators; desire is primarily masculine. Girls’ desire makes them respond to it (or not), but it is not a driving force. This is what Iris is trying to say (very clumsily!) in this scene; but she is at an age where one has a better idea what one wants and is more capable of handling it...
JK: I always enjoy watching well-directed scenes in which sex is awkward or unsuccessful. It’s a great opportunity to tell stories. How did you approach those scenes in this case?
CV: I re-watched Belle De Jour by Buñuel a lot when I was writing the film. I wanted the film to skip the actual sex scenes. We've seen so much... Well, ultimately, I haven't skipped everything, but let's say I don't linger. What interested me was the interaction between Iris and the men she meets, and how these scenes could tell the story of the evolution of my character. With Sylvain, the first ‘date’ with whom she takes the plunge, she is almost like a 15-year-old girl who loses her virginity; then there is the (re)discovery of pleasure, and her freedom and audacity grow, as well as her confidence in herself... until she is able to win back her husband!
JK: There’s a lot of humour surrounding Iris’ addiction to checking her phone. Were you interested in exploring that as an independent issue, and perhaps prompting older viewers to think about why phones are so important to younger people?
CV: I find that phones, omnipresent in our lives, are often very absent in cinema - and to tell the truth, I came to understood why, a bit, during the making of this film: nothing is more annoying to film than this object! I believe that you can develop an addiction to your phone at any age, and yes, it amused me to counter the cliché of teenagers constantly on their phones and adults who read real books or contemplate nature...
JK: There are obviously lots of possibilities when it comes to telling stories about individual sexual encounters. How did you decide which ones to choose?
CV: One of the things that dating apps allow, as long as you are a little adventurous, is the chance to get out of your environment - professional, friendly, social - your local area, and even your generation. Everything is possible! There is something exhilarating (and very funny) in this catalogue of humans accessible with a click...When you live in a big city like Paris, you cross paths with thousands of people every day, but you don't meet many of them, only a few dozen, and for the most part, they look the same... Beyond sex, I wanted Iris to confront otherness. I just saw Ali Wong's stand-up on Netflix, Single Lady, in which she talks about her rediscovery of sexuality in her forties, after a divorce. She says, in a very funny way. that she started by meeting men who were not the most desirable according to majority criteria, because she was sure they would be full of gratitude! Married to a very handsome man, Iris dates imperfect men; it says something about her fragility, about the image she has of herself…
JK: It’s great to see a film that celebrates the variety of middle aged bodies and the way that people with lots of different body types can be desirable. What did this mean to you, and do you think that we need to see more of it in cinema?
CV: Oh yes! I think it can do a lot of good for people to see bodies that look like theirs, and which are not shown as asexual. Still, I don't make it a subject, like certain films fascinated by ‘different’ bodies which make them - often with the best intentions in the world - into freaks of a sort. The bodies in It’s Raining Men just seem normal, human, to me. And very desirable.
JK: It’s rare to see scenes set in a dental surgery. How did you approach these? I’m particularly interested in the range of equipment we see in use, what that was like for the actors, and the way the masks created an opportunity for comedic acting using the eyes.
CV: I found it amusing that Iris had a job that involved people whom she had to ‘behave’ in front of, but who were deprived of speech – their mouths were open! Laure Calamy and Suzanne de Baecque spent a day with a dentist learning the basic procedures; this same dentist, present on the set, could advise or correct them for each scene. This job also allowed me to play with sound (which is added to the vibrations of Iris's phone) which I did not fail to take advantage of! As for the masks, I admit that it was not something I planned. Laure has large, hyper-mobile and expressive eyes, Suzanne has endless eyelashes - in these scenes with little dialogue, the masks focus the viewer's attention on their looks. I can thank Covid!
JK: Making a film like this work obviously depends heavily on getting the right performances. Can you tell me a bit about your approach to working with actors?
CV: I knew Laure Calamy well because she played Antoinette in my previous film [My Donkey, My Lover & I}. The role of Iris was written for her, more than that of Antoinette. She is a bourgeois woman, married, mother to two children, elegant, quite far from what we are used to seeing her play. We had a lot of fun finding the character: hairstyle, glasses, make-up, costume... All of this evolves over the course of the film, as the character is rejuvenated, gains confidence and becomes more and more sexy. As for the directing of actors itself, like Claude Chabrol, I think that it is 90% down to casting! If I'm not mistaken when I choose the actors, the work on set consists of helping them to give what I know they are capable of giving...
JK: What would you like viewers to take away from your film?
CV: The film is a comedy, so I hope people have fun with it, but I know it also makes some people think, it provokes discussions. Perhaps it does good for women who are my character's age and who have bought into the idea that it's all over, that they are no longer fresh and desirable, that it's almost time to take up knitting! Going from there to giving them the idea of registering on a dating app, I would not want to bear such responsibilities.
JK: What’s next for you as a filmmaker?
CV: I am currently writing my next film, another comedy about a female character, but this time it will not be about love or sex. A challenge!
