It's one of the most innovative French films of recent years and it's released in theaters today! – Cinema News

In France, in 2023, there were nearly 118,000 drone owners according to the activity report of the Civil Aviation Safety Directorate (DSAC). An impressive number that only increases from year to year. For his first film, director Simon Bouisson is interested in this flying machine which arouses as much suspicion as fascination. With Drone, he makes him a real cinema character.

Émilie (Marion Barbeau), a young student architect by day and camgirl by night, discovers that she is being observed at her apartment window by a flying object that seems to analyze her every movement. The machine becomes more and more insistent as the days pass, but who controls it? And what does she expect from Émilie?

Simon Bouisson, co-writer with Fanny Burdino and director, is no stranger to on-screen experimentation. He is the author of an interactive film, République, and the Stalk series which focuses on new technologies. “The hardest part of the ambition of this project is to convey the idea that the drone will be the antagonist of the story“, he explains to AlloCiné.

Dystopian reality

The idea was born eight years ago when the filmmaker himself came face to face with a drone levitating in the sky. “The first time I saw it, I thought I was in a dystopia“, he admits. With a hint of paranoia, Simon Bouisson develops a thriller that questions the outside and unknown perspective.

“This drone really materializes all the technological endings that surround us in our liveshe explains. He also questions us about who looks at us in society, who follows us, by addressing the subject of the male gaze.”

Top and Short

The film multiplies the impressive shots taken using real machines. One of the big challenges was to film in authorized locations because drones are now subject to significant regulations in France. There is also the whole technical aspect. “In the movie he's silent, but in life he's a 10-kilo circular saw flying through the air“, adds the director.

A machine flying at more than 150km/h

The team equipped itself with FPV drones – racing drones – which went up to 150km/h, as in the parking lot scene, one of the riskiest to shoot. “For this sequence, Marion Barbeau had to put crazy trust in the machinehe remembers. We were all hiding behind posts.” At the controls of these machines, professional pilots were equipped with virtual reality headsets.

Top and Short

Never before has a thriller experimented with such equipment in France. This is what makes Drone strong and curious. With this film, Simon Bouisson intends to offer a story which is aimed, in part, at young people: “It’s a public that needs to be shown a society that reflects on itself, that deconstructs itself.”

The director's primary objective is to offer stories that have never been told. “I couldn't make a film that could have been released ten or twenty years ago, I don't have that nostalgia at allhe admits. With more than a hundred years of cinema behind us, we can sometimes say that we have covered everything but my obsession is finding new stories“, like this Drone.

What is it like to shoot in front of a drone?

For Marion Barbeauthe main actress of the film: “It's very strange because we feel that it's organic, we feel that it's not just a machine. There is a pilot behind. It can go very fast or very slow. It's like he has different moods. Facing a drone is like facing an actor, I had no other choice but to trust him.“

For Stefan Crepon, actor in the film: “The rehearsals terrified me. In the end, when we were on set, it was okay. But in preparation, you have to imagine that it weighs extremely heavy. It makes a hell of a racket. Above you, you're getting doses of wind, you can no longer hear anything around you. Even if there are people around who control it, it puts you in a kind of bubble. You're only with him, it can be quite scary.”

Comments collected by Thomas Desroches, in Angoulême, in August 2024.

Drone by Simon Bouisson can be seen at the cinema.