“A Second Life”, an interview with director Laurent Slama

Director, scriptwriter, and producer Laurent Slama is at the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for the European premiere of “A Second Life” amongst the Special Screenings. This deeply human and uplifting story, his third feature after “Paris Is Us” (2019) and “Roaring 20s” (2021) – filmed in one single shot in the busy streets and parks of the French capital –, which he both directed under the pseudonym of Elisabeth Vogler, takes place and was shot during the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, outdoors amongst the events unfolding during this special moment in time.

Laurent Slama tells us more about the shooting conditions, in 14 days on foot with limited crew equipped with backpacks, and about how he approaches production in general to make his extremely organic, seemingly free-flowing films. We discuss his characters, stressed out and depressed Elisabeth (Vogler, played by Agathe Rousselle, the star of “Titane”) and the irresistible, pinked-haired, carefree Elijah (Alex Lawther) as well as the new perspective the latter brings, with contagious good spirits, to not only Elisabeth but also the viewer, as we are drawn into perceiving the agression of the world surrounding her, and then the relief which comes with letting go, taking things as they come, and having friends to help you when you fall.

We also ask Laurent Slama about the idea of making Elisabeth hearing-impaired and creating sound design to capture how she hears the world with and without her hearing aids, in this film which indeed revolves a lot around the notion of perception, also expressed by recurring scenes shot amongst Claude Monet’s Waterlilies (famously painted when cataract was already affecting his perception of colours) and mirroring shots of actual waterlilies in magnificent saturated colours.

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