Un Certain Regard: “Tomorrow at Dawn”

Music-loving director Denis Dercourt is back in Cannes three years after The Page Turner, to compete in Un Certain Regard with Tomorrow at Dawn. It’s the story of two brothers: the younger is so fascinated by reenacting historical battles that he is no longer dealing with reality. Their mother has asked the elder brother to try to cure the younger of this addiction…

In this film, which explores the world of role-playing games, the two brothers are played by Vincent Perez and Jérémie Renier. “Vincent Perez has several facets that seem very interesting to me,” Denis Dercourt mused. “First of all, he is someone who has a complex career path: he is at the same time an actor, director and photographer. Secondly, and this was very important for the film, Vincent is an actor who is very much identified with period films and period costumes, resulting from films such as Queen Margot, Cyrano de Bergerac and The Hunchback. He no longer has a real desire to interpret this type of role today, and in my film precisely, you can feel his reluctance to put the costume on, to blend in with the time period. It corresponds well with him.”

“Very quickly, an excellent relationship developed between Jérémie Renier and Vincent, so good that during the shooting, I was often tempted to make scenes last longer, just for the pleasure of filming them together,” Dercourt admits. “The further we advanced, the further the story constructed itself around the friendly dimension of the fraternal relationship, and that owing to the beauty of the pair on screen. They are both physical, very focused, very precise actors who are capable of truly surprising things.”