REDEMPTION

REDEMPTION
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

The starting point:

First of all, I had no intention of writing a script or directing a film. The original
idea was to adapt one of the scenes of the feature film «Don’s Plum» with Leonardo Dicaprio.
In the same concern for freedom for the actors as the director of this film, I wanted to shoot with
several cameras arranged in a restaurant and to pick up free improvisations on the text and the
given situation, to give the scene as much realism as possible.
By learning as much as possible about the film and this scene that particularly touched me, I
learned that the actress was not playing but that she really took badly the florilege of insults
improvised by Leonardo Dicaprio.
I will not go into the exciting details gleaned from the documentary
The Curse of Don’s Plum from the New York Post on the censorship of this film in Canada and
the United States. Because anyway, that’s when I realized why I was sensitive to this scene and
started to imagine an alternative story around it.

The development of history:

As I was going around in my room during Covid-19, I thought to myself:
If instead of this black actress and overweight that he calls a whale, I will transpose an Asian who
will suffer an anti-Asian racism exacerbated by the pandemic? What if instead of coming out of it
like a little joke after being sexist and misogynistic towards the one who denounces grossophobia
this character would be avenged by the same people he denigrated?
From that moment on the scenario quickly took shape with the direction of a « revange-women» in breadcrumbs. From purgatory to redemption our antihero will have to go
through several stages that will mark his evolution.
The redemption; Where does she stand?
We can say that the moment or the character of the Asian fairy detaches the protagonist that
marks his evolution but also the climax of the film. He changes his point of view and no
longer sees the ethnicity of this woman as something that frightens him.
The last sequence shows us an epilogue and the final evolution of the hero, who learns from
his mistakes and becomes aware of his wrongs, he finds himself facing his past. Thanks to his
journey
« Purgatory”, he can now work to avoid repeating the same mistakes and become better than
before.
A white man talking about racism and sexism, is that legitimate?
Yes, because this film is presented from the point of view of a white man and his
misunderstanding of his misogyny and racism and the moral harassment he can institute.
A masculine point of view, coming from my own experience and moral learning.
Having been harassed in college for two years simply because I was introverted, I also had
some exploitation material at my disposal to transform to make this story credible.
In addition, not to fall into a moralizing, manichean speech and cause the risk of giving a false
tone of a work becoming mansplaining (in the sense: of a man explaining to a person concerned, while he
himself is not affected by the question), I wanted to give more color and contrast through a situational
metaphor at the service of the engaged subjects that are sexism and racism.

The magic metaphor:

The metaphor of this story can be summed up in its introductory synopsis:
« Sarah, a young law student, was saved from suicide by a soul smuggler. She watches over her in
secret and invokes a fairy to help Sarah, in her wish for the redemption of fallen men.”
As a second metaphor, I exploited the abyss of "Don’s Plum" while winking at the actor
Dicaprio, imagining a redemptive aspect through the notable films of his career of
three directors he has worked with.

- Quentin Tarantino: The key objects indeed comic to recall everything like the non-linear
montage of the film, the shots on the feet.

- Martin Scorsese: The scene in a hallway on the ground or our anti-hero poisoned in Curare,
tries to escape a situation that will only get worse afterwards, which is reminiscent of this scene in
«The Wolf of Wall Street» where the actor struggles on the ground because of the recreational
drugs he took. A sound-desing that does not correspond to what we see in «Raging Bull».

- Christopher Nolan: An open ending and a twist with the end scene back in the restaurant, a
«fracture» of space time that could evoke the film «Inception».
The anti-hero’s point of view
During the climax scene with the scissors or the Asian chambermaid pretends to emasculate our
anti-hero as in Nagisa Ōshima’s «Empire of the Senses» but also by using a rock music that looks
a lot like the B.O of Apocalypse - Now by Francis Ford Coppola, illustrate the point of view of our
protagonist seeing Asians as a threat. Changing and saturated colors are also one of the means used.

The symbolism of the past

The «old film» aspect aims to reinforce a backward vision of women and the world that
surrounds our protagonist.
A stylization of the image in black and white sometimes in format 4/3, the music of Gustav Holst
which is the main soundtrack of the film widely used in time-track or directly during the Hollywood
Golden Age and its very charismatic and macho male heroes.
A wink to Hitchcock twice, the «hair plan» in the scene of the elevator, and that of the handle of
the door typical of his cliffhangers used in «Psychose» with the suspense brought by the music of
Holst and the red filter on the image used notably in “Vertigo”.

Conclusion

I tried in this film not to moralize frontal but to bring an optimistic note on the change. The idea that
a racist macho could mentally evolve and somehow achieve redemption seduces me enough.
I wanted to involve and entertain the spectator with this story, which still treats the meaning of
morality as a subtext, whether he is a film buff or not. So I had a special attention to try to captivate with clarity
with a nonlinear and over-realistic narrative while positively message "front-camera" concluding.