Teddy

"We grew up in a remote corner of Lot-et-Garonne, between corn fields and kiwi orchards. And it was the monsters that saved us from boredom. Our mother - Stephen King's most fervent admirer - inoculated them into us from the cradle, through the news she would read to us. These monsters were for us faithful companions who wandered through the deserted streets of our village. We had at heart to make a film of it, and this fantastical country film is Teddy!" - Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma.

In 2016, at the age of 23, the twin brothers Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma co-directed with Marielle Gautier and Hugo Thomas their first feature film Willy 1er,. This one was awarded the Ornano-Valenti Prize for the best first French film. Teddy, their second feature film for which they also wrote the script, is both a comedy and a tribute to the horror films that cradled their childhood in the 80s.

By setting the scene in the Pyrenees and by making their main character, Teddy (Anthony Bajon) a young antisocial, orphan and in perpetual revolt, Teddy easily manages to set up a special environment and especially to breathe into French comedy a real wind of renewal. Far from confining themselves to a succession of scenes putting this young delinquent in situations of permanent revolt, the two directors and screenwriters give him a real psychological depth and surround him with adoptive parents, a girlfriend whose parents view their relationship with him with suspicion, and above all by making him an employee of a small massage parlor whose owner Ghislaine (Noémie Lvovsky) constantly sexually harasses him. Whether it's a tribute to soldiers who died for France, a crime scene or an evening with students, the main character gives the film many successful comedy scenes and makes us immerse ourselves in this atypical film of the French cinematic landscape.

The fantastic element of the film comes from the presence of a werewolf that rages in the region and kills entire herds of sheep as well as people (the promising introductory scene hints at a good horror film). When Teddy is attacked by it, he in turn becomes a werewolf and transforms himself in successive stages so that the film navigates between a successful comedy and a genre film cruelly lacking in real suspense. In discovering this film, it is impossible not to think of the classics of the genre that are Howling (1981) The Werewolf of London (1981), Wolf (1984). This film also reminds us of Carrie (1977) but also of many films of the 80s to which Teddy pays tribute in his own way. Unfortunately, the horrific side of the film is not sufficiently mastered and shows that this film does not have a sufficient budget to unveil the werewolf in action. What remains is an interesting attempt to create a French werewolf movie and an interesting transformation scene.

Presented in the official Cannes 2020 selection and included in the program of the Deauville American Film Festival, Teddy is nonetheless well worth the detour, particularly for the presence in the two main roles of Anthony Bajon (In the Name of the Earth (2019), the Ad Vitam series) but also of the young actress Christine Gautier.

Teddy
Written and directed by Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma
Starring Anthony Bajon, Noémie Lvovsky, Christine Gautier
Music by Amaury Chabauty
Line Producers : Pierre-Louis Garnon, Frédéric Jouve
Cinematography: Augustin Barbaroux
Production : Baxter Films, Les Films Velvet
Distributed by The jokers (France)
Relase date: January 13 2021 (France)

Seen on September 5, 2020 at the Casino Cinema (Deauville)

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