In August 2021, director Thierry Mauvignier produced his latest work entitled "The legend of the murderous lords". Dylan Besseau followed him throughout his filming to make a documentary there.

The legend of the murderous lords

Here is the title that Thierry Mauvignier gave to his latest short film inspired by a Poitevine legend that he rewrote with his brother: Laurent Mauvignier, writer who has won several awards for his works and who saw his book "Des Hommes" recently adapted to the cinema in June 2021, by director Lucas Belvaux starring Gérard Depardieu, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Catherine Frot, Thierry Mauvignier at wanted to tell through his work all the vices that modern man could have in him. To carry out his project, he surrounds himself with renowned actors from his region such as Frans Boyer, Yannick Jaulin but also Joël Pyrène, Franck Beckmann and Michel Cordeboeuf.

From Strip-Tease to The Legend of Thierry Mauvignier

It all started in April 2021, when director Dylan Besseau organized an evening at his house, with director Guillaume Gevart and Salomé Mauvignier, Thierry's daughter. They chat over a few beers, then Salomé brings up the idea of ​​shooting a making-of on her father's project. “It was a period when I watched a lot of shows like Strip-Tease on YouTube, when they told me about the project I was a little drunk, I gave myself a week to think about it as usual, see whether it was impulsive or a good idea,” Dylan tells us. It was then that he contacted Thierry to tell him about his project, he seemed interested and agreed to bring Dylan Besseau and his technical team on the set.

"Thierry is a wonderful person"

"I was inspired by the real side that we find in Strip-Tease shows and also to highlight the humanist side and desacralize the world of cinema, a bit like the director Philippe Leynaud had done in his documentary Making Mocky" shyly tells us the young director, he goes on "Thierry is a wonderful person, we spent a day together in the Moulière forest before his filming, I found him very calm, he inspires a sympathy that I appreciate it a lot and in addition to being humble, he is a very organized person! “He also explains that his actors present showed great humanity and were very warm, we found a playful and very funny Yannick Jaulin outside filming.

"Dylan Besseau is someone who is always full of ideas and who knows where he wants to go"

To carry out this project, Dylan had to equip himself with three cameras and his lifelong sidekick, the director of photography Antoine Godet, a 26-year-old young man from Vendée. "These are people I'm used to working with, we all started together, Dylan is someone who always has lots of ideas and who knows where he wants to go, we start from a simple idea of making-of to end with a 70-minute feature film. He contributed a lot to our careers with Guillaume, I owe him a lot, even if I know that he expects nothing from us in return and that he does this for the pleasure of sharing with others. If our paths were to separate in the future, I will certainly not forget it. confides Antoine Godet to bounce back "His documentary is a reflection of what he sees, he manages to bring out qualities in people that they themselves had never noticed, let's say he sees the glass at half full”.

“An old friend texts me to tell me to watch the movie Mademoiselle by Park-Chan Wook”

Indeed, after obtaining his general baccalaureate ES at the Lycée de Bretagne, Dylan Besseau began a course in law school to become a lawyer. “I was very bored during class, I had a hard time hanging on to what the teachers were saying, then one Saturday morning when I was at home, an old friend texted me to tell me to watch the film Mademoiselle de Park-Chan Wook” tells us the young man of 24 years. Already fond of cinema from a very young age, this film was a revelation for him. "Whether it's the photography, the music, the story, I was totally transported and even today I still wonder how a simple human being with two arms and two legs could achieve this kind of masterpiece. work ". exclaims Dylan.

From law school to Artwooks Media

Dylan then began a course in an audiovisual school in Nantes, he took a two-year course in video editing and video production, where he met Antoine Godet and Guillaume Gevart, with whom he founded the Nantes audiovisual agency Artwooks Media in 2019, which now has 6 members. The name is a tribute to art and to Park Chan-Wook, but also a variant of the English word Artworks. They begin to offer their services through video editing and then over time move towards production, first of the clip then of the short film to finally arrive at the feature films.

“I still have a long way to go”

"We start first with documentaries because it's less expensive than fiction and it allows us to get our feet wet, my goal is really to do festivals, for the moment my level is very very very far from what they expect. Let's say that I still have a long way to go" Humbly tells us the young director who considers himself behind the starting line while the others are already three laps ahead. To achieve this goal, the director aims to surround himself with professionals in the field "it's a lot of investment at the beginning, because you have to make the site, the design of the site, prospect people, even the poster of my documentary I had to do it alone because the budget was limited and I couldn't afford the services of a graphic designer, but for the next projects I intend to expand the team, we will invest in an Alexa camera but keep our DSLRs for the documentaries” he tells us, while keeping in mind that it is not the material that makes the artist.

What next for this director from Nantes?

Dylan Besseau is preparing several projects including a documentary on Parisian youth with actress Léa Lee, he says "she was one of the first professional actresses to make us trust. She could very well have snubbed us, which she did not do and I still thank her today, doing a project with her again is to express our gratitude to her. This documentary will aim to be distributed to Arte. He is also preparing another documentary with a YouTuber whose name we will not name to keep the surprise... don't forget, if you have a dream in mind, dedicate your whole life to realizing it and don't listen to those who want to discourage you because you are the only masters of your destiny” he concludes.

Article written by Hervé T.