For his next motion picture, ‘C’est le monde à l’envers’, which is set for release in cinemas on 16 October, the director has successfully orchestrated an “almost entirely carbon-free” film shoot.
He has spent decades travelling the world – on foot, by sled or in a canoe – to share its beauty on the small and silver screen. Already well-known for his skills as a documentary maker, for the last 15 years or so he has also been recognised as a feature film director in his own right, down in part to the success of Belle and Sebastian (2013). Throughout his various projects, Nicolas Vanier has always had a heightened awareness of the fragility of nature and the impact of human activity on its environment. This common thread even runs through his work – on every single level.
The film director hasn’t had much time lately to enjoy nature or the countryside near his home in Sologne, despite the changing of the seasons and arrival of autumn. His days have instead been spent glued to his editing table. Only a few weeks have passed since he finished shooting his next film, scheduled for release in a years’ time. The adaptation of his novel, ‘C’est le monde à l’envers’, stars Barbara Schulz, Valérie Bonneton, Éric Elmosnino, François Berléand, Michaël Youn and even former tennis player Yannick Noah, who plays the role of an environmentalist moving to the middle of nowhere. It comes as no surprise, then, that nature is central to this comedy’s narrative, with Parisian trader (Michaël Youn) seeking refuge in France’s rural Morvan region. With the global economy on the verge of collapse, the protagonist flees the capital and experiences a form of rebirth through his encounters with local farmers and villagers.
And it was there – in the Morvan countryside that he has known like the back of his hand since childhood – that Nicolas Vanier chose to turn his convictions into action by ensuring no hydrocarbons were used on site. Once all the technical equipment had been transported to Burgundy, not a single drop of fuel was needed to run the film set. 25 electric vehicles were made available for the technical crew and actors. Energy consumption was cut thanks to LED technology and not a single generator was used, something of a rarity for film sets where they are usually very commonplace. Thanks to its short circuits, canteen with local and organic produce for the crew and solar panels for electric power, the ‘C’est le monde à l’envers’ shoot was “almost entirely carbon-free”, points out Nicolas Vanier, who has long been an advocate of this sustainable approach. “I keep track of technological developments. On every film set, I’ve been able to go that little bit further. On this one, I think we’re really aligned with what we’re fighting for.” To the extent that he even turned down casting a well-known actor who was unwilling to share a car and dressing room. “Just five years ago, we wouldn’t have been able to do everything that we’ve achieved on this shoot,” he admits. “A lot of these innovations are very recent.” Every single crew member was put to task, with the decorators, set designers and costume designers asked to work exclusively with recycled materials. “We adapt and we evolve, that’s also part of our job,” smiles Nicolas Vanier.
Despite a few people “kicking up a fuss” at one point or another, everyone got on board in the end. “At the beginning, we identified anything that might seem like a constraint. Taking a 20-minute break after two hours to recharge an electric car battery is often viewed as a waste of time, there’s no getting away from that. But when you’re there you realise it’s actually quite nice to slow down a bit – you have the time to grab a coffee and make a couple of calls.” Nicolas Vanier is committed to “finding happiness in simplicity” and hopes that other directors will follow suit. A booklet was made at the end of the shoot, listing all the various trades involved so that everyone could share their experience with other crews in the form of a manual. “There’s nothing to hide. In these kind of experiences, we learn so much from our mistakes and a lot of it is trial and error,” he explains. The shoot has been a real success story, with an “environmental” surcharge only slightly over 1% of the total budget. According to a study conducted by Ecoprod in 2020, the audiovisual sector in France has an annual carbon footprint of 1.7 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of 400,000 return flights from Paris to New York. And that highlights just how much is at stake here.
