La mer à boire
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | La mer à boire |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jacques Maillot |
| script |
Pierre Chosson Jacques Maillot |
| production |
Cyril Colbeau-Justin Jean-Baptiste Dupont |
| music | Stéphan Oliva |
| camera | Luc Pagès |
| cut | Andrea Sedláčková |
| occupation | |
| |
La mer à boire is a 2012 French drama directed by Jacques Maillot .
action
Georges Pierret is the owner of the renowned Pierret shipyard , which mainly handcrafts yachts for the top ten thousand. A new studio has just opened when Pierret learns that the bank will cancel the company's loan in a few months. Pierret's shipyard is considered an unsafe item. Pierret turned down the advice to sell the company. He's trying to raise money. His brother-in-law Jérôme Damier, brother of his wife Mathilde, who died of cancer eight years ago and is herself a shareholder in the shipyard, does not give him any money, as he has just invested several million in a more profitable company. When a planned major order is canceled, Pierret is up to his neck. Nevertheless, he lends his friend and former partner Claude, whose company is threatened with bankruptcy, 10,000 euros. He is putting the salaries of his employees at risk. The bank, in turn, agrees to allow the loans to continue as before if Pierret restructures his company: In the future, it will concentrate exclusively on ship construction and stop manufacturing the parts and building the hull. This also means laying off many workers. Pierret necessarily agrees to this solution. Claude's company is meanwhile being crushed by a judge. He gives Pierret the money back and shortly afterwards takes his own life.
News of the impending layoffs is making the rounds. The workers affected decide to strike at their place of work because they are demanding a severance pay higher than just 2,000 euros. The spokesman is the experienced Hassan, who in the end was able to get 18,000 euros in compensation for the workers. This is not enough for the hot spurs among the strikers and so Hassan is replaced by the young Luis. Pierret sees no other option than to have the police clear the occupied area by order of a judge. Luis, on the other hand, succeeds in dismissing the site unnoticed. He goes to a near-completion yacht belonging to client Beaubery and saws a hole in the ground. The yacht sinks and the necessary compensation to the Beauberys brings Pierret again to the brink of ruin.
One day Pierret meets with the rich Russian Serebriakov and his son. Serebriakov is interested in buying a 70-foot yacht, which Pierret has only planned as a prototype so far. Serebriakov buys the yacht and is also inclined to invest 2 million euros in the shipyard. Pierret is to come to Moscow for contract negotiations . Serebriakov is currently negotiating in Moscow and is not expected back in the city for two days. Pierret spends time with the interpreter Elena, who shows him the city and where he is invited to dinner. The next day they both go ice skating and Pierret falls in love with the young woman. Both sleep together. The next day brings the bad news that Serebriakov is being wanted by the police for fraud and corruption and has therefore fled. Pierret travels back to France disillusioned, but promises Elena to return to her and her son Anton. Back at his company, Pierret orders the construction of the 70-foot prototype. The yacht is supposed to cause a stir at a marine show in Paris and bring new orders to the shipyard. At the same time Pierret plans his life in Moscow, sells his house and gets the plane tickets for his trip. At the trade fair, Pierret's courage proves to be correct: not only the 70-foot yacht is sold. The company receives two more large orders and is therefore financially stable for the near future. Then Pierret received the news that he was no longer the owner of the company: His biggest competitor had bought his brother-in-law's company shares and another 15% bank shares and was therefore the majority owner. Pierret leaves the exhibition and the company in consternation. The trip to Moscow is no longer of interest. He walks aimlessly along the quays and one day sees a yacht that he helped develop many years ago. The owner invites him to take a trip on the sea. While driving, Pierret explains to him that the steering wheel was once built by his partner Claude, who is now dead. When the owner makes a flippant remark about Claude, Pierret stabs him in a rage. He throws the body overboard. With a bloodied shirt on, he takes the wheel and drives on, aimlessly out to sea.
production
La mer à boire was shot with a budget of around 7 million euros in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region , in Paris and the Ukraine. Bethsabée Dreyfus created the costumes, Mathieu Menut designed the film . The film was released in French cinemas on February 22, 2012, where it was seen by 130,796 viewers. This made it one of the twelve most unprofitable French films of 2012 in France. The film was released on DVD in France in June 2012. In Germany it has not yet appeared (as of December 2013).
The title La mer à boire refers to the French idiom “Ce n'est pas la mer à boire”, ie “This can be done / feasible”, literally “This is not [like] drinking the sea”.
Web links
- La mer à boire in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ La mer à boire on allocine.fr
- ↑ See Simon Tenenbaun, Jamal Henni: Exclusif: les tops et les flops du cinéma français en 2012 . bfmtv.com, January 7, 2013.