film shoot

i have walked by several film shoots around our neighborhood in the last couple of months. first there was a shoot where a car came screeching to a stop as a police car with sirens cut it off. i thought i heard it was for a tv show. then there were trailers with stars dressing rooms near our apartment. the area around a fruit and vegetable store was blocked off. i didn’t stay to watch, but the apartment windows were open and every 20 minutes i heard a series of gunshots. that was about the right amount of time to reset everything and do a “take”. then we were all heading out to run an errand and walked right into another film shoot on our street. p noticed that daniel auteuil was right there, standing next to us. he is possibly the #2 known french actor after gerard depardieu. the 2 of them played opposite each other in marcel pagnol’s story “jean de fleurette” in the 70’s, where auteuil plays an unrefined country man. then auteuil was in the sequel “manon des sources” playing opposite emmanuelle beart, whom he later married. these are 2 great films, with classic storytelling. i highly recommend seeing them. anyway, there he was, daniel auteil, playing a cop chasing after cars shooting at them, on our street. we watched a few run throughs. the director was italian. someone yelled “seee-lance” (silence) and then “acsheeon!” (action) and then the actual car chase, with a grand finale of the car running into another car. i hadn’t expected the car to actually hit another car, so i sort of said “jeeez!” a little loud. “coupé!”(cut!) (rhymes with toupee). i was afraid they’d ask “WHO YELLED JUST NOW!?” but was glad to find no one noticed. jj took video of the shoot. i had thought all these shoots were for the same film, but in fact, they were 3 different projects. this film is called “le guetteur” directed by michele placido, also starring mathieu kassovitz. we’re in hollywood, france!

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