Digital-era update on Cyrano has our hero poking his nose in online
French comedy Mr Stein Goes Online sees an older man embrace online dating, with a younger alter-ego. Jake Wilson speaks to director Stephane Robelin.
Mr Stein Goes Online, the third feature from French writer-director Stephane Robelin, is a comedy about the relationship between generations – and the premise, a variant on Cyrano de Bergerac, is both well-worn and up-to-date.
Alex (Yannis Lespert) is a young slacker who reluctantly agrees to teach computer skills to his girlfriend's grandfather, Pierre (Pierre Richard). Pierre, who has been housebound since the death of his wife, takes to the internet like a duck to water, beginning an online relationship with Flora, an attractive young physiotherapist. But rather than reveal his real age, he sends her a photo of Alex, who is somehow persuaded to stand in for Pierre in person.
The farcical complications that result are not hard to imagine, though Robelin, speaking through an interpreter, says it took some effort to "find the balance between the funny parts and the emotional parts" and to keep the structure clear.
"There are two climaxes," he says, "which for specialists of scripts is already a problem."
Another challenge was to ensure that both Pierre and Alex retained audience sympathy, given their willingness to mislead Flora.
"It was much less difficult for the old man because we forgive old people much more easily, and especially if their aim is noble."
Keeping Alex likeable was a matter of piling on misfortunes for the character while stressing his frustrated aspirations to become a screenwriter. Robelin, whose background is in documentary, says he can relate to this personally, having spent many years working on assignments while writing scripts in his spare time.
This documentary background is evident in the effort Robelin puts into grounding the unlikely story of Mr Stein in realism: he extensively researched online dating platforms, which, he says, have changed the nature of romance in his country as elsewhere. "In France there are 1 or 2 million couples that have met on the internet."
But, he says, the film has no statement to make about this. Nor is it strictly a romantic comedy: the emotional core of the story is the relationship between the two men.
"Pierre's searching for love, so there had to be a woman. But it was not very easy to propose this part to a woman, because for a long time nothing really happened to her."
During the shoot, life imitated art in some respects. Lespert and Richard really did become friends, as their characters do on screen. And there are resemblances between Richard and the Pierre of the film, including his lack of ease with technology.
"Pierre has a smartphone but he doesn't know how to run it," says Robelin. "Yannis was helping him, just as you see in the film."
Physically, however, Richard had much more energy than the frail Pierre. For Robelin, the challenge in directing him was to get him to hold back and explore the "intimate side of what he can bring".
This was something new for Richard, who since the 1970s has been well-known in France as a specialist in slapstick, appearing in farces such as The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe.
"When we had to redo a take, it was usually because he was too active. And I always told him, 'Remember that you're 80!' And Pierre would say, 'Oh yes, yes, I'm an old guy'.
"He's absolutely astonishing for his age," Robelin says, recalling the evenings after the day's work when Richard would stay up with the rest of the team drinking wine till 1am.
"When I look at his friends they are all my age. And I asked him why his friends are so young. He said, 'Well, all the others are dead'."
Mr Stein Goes Online is in cinemas from July 5