Behind the Scenes of Illusions Perdues

"My job is to look at a place that doesn't necessarily inspire dreams and imagine what we can offer from it."

On December 12, TéléSorbonne had the honor of welcoming Riton Dupire-Clément, a production designer with twenty years of experience and winner of the César Award 2022 for Best Production Design for Xavier Giannoli's Illusions Perdues, on the occasion of a screening of the film at Cinéma Les 3 Lux on December 13, 2023. He walked us through his creative process.

From Literary Realism to Cinematic Realism

The film is an adaptation of one of Honoré de Balzac's most essential works. Set in the 1830s, it follows Lucien de Rubempré, a young poet with grand ambitions who leaves the provinces to seek his fortune in Paris, only to discover the corrupt reality of the literary world. Xavier Giannoli had wanted to adapt this novel for over twenty-five years. He entrusted the reconstruction of 19th-century Paris to Riton Dupire-Clément, with whom he had previously collaborated on L'Apparition.

The first step is always research. Dupire-Clément immerses himself in the iconography of the period, studying in depth every element referenced in the book: the printing presses, pre-Haussmann Paris, the social codes of the era. All findings are compiled into a reference booklet. "Xavier didn't have the screenplay yet and used it as a foundation to write it."

"I'm a bit like a conductor. I bring people together and launch the ideas."

One of the film's most emblematic sets was the Galerie de Bois, a covered wooden arcade that served as a marketplace and meeting place in Balzac's Paris. "It was a challenge because nothing like it had ever been done in cinema." The entire set design budget came to 2.5 million euros. "A large budget for a French film — but still not enough." The decoration team alone comprised nearly a hundred people: illustrators, researchers, graphic designers for shop signs, calligraphers for newspapers, builders, painters, upholsterers, and prop specialists.

From Paper to Set

The second step involves developing the visual atmosphere and technical drawings. Only once those drawings are finalized can the director begin planning the sequence breakdowns. Any modification at that stage creates a crisis: "That's why we have to stick to the drawings."

The story opens in the outbuildings of the Château de Balencourt. The set was built from a garage. "My job is to look at a place that doesn't necessarily inspire dreams, and imagine what we can make of it — what I can offer to the direction, to feed the actors' performances and the screenplay." For the printing workshop scenes, wooden presses were borrowed from the Musée de la Presse in Nantes; others were built from scratch. For the grand boulevards, the challenge was not only imagining the space but thinking through every camera movement in advance, then using a system of wires and poles to delineate the different areas so that extras wouldn't walk through walls in post-production VFX.

Studio work is entirely different. "We start from drawings and plans. The carpenters assemble and disassemble, the painters apply finishes and patinas, the furniture team furnishes, handles the fabrics, the lighting."

Whatever the approach, the goal remains the same: "The spectators must not realize it's fake. The set must disappear."

Despite the enormous workload, Dupire-Clément describes Illusions Perdues as "the most complete and extraordinary project I've ever done. It's a blank page and a cliff to climb."

— Lyna Tadount, Télésorbonne