Tea time avec Tigre
An interview with Delphine Deloget, director of Tigre
Why did you want to place your characters in this age group?
I wanted to film young women at an age where one has major choices in life to make, an age where one can no longer hide behind one’s parents but where one is not yet totally equipped for life. I didn’t want them to have the excuse of adolescence or a carefree life, so the early twenties seemed to me to be the ideal age to tell this story.
What interested you in the disenchanted character Sabine?
Sabine is a little bit like the calm before the storm… good for nothing, capable of anything. I like the idea of telling the story of a young woman who, at face value or at least on paper doesn’t attract crowds, nor company, nor filmmakers. Sabine is a risky character because she isn’t immediately likeable. The aim wasn’t that she generate empathy but rather fascination.
Where did you get the idea for bestiality?
Tigre is a tale, a modern tale that recounts the animal instinct dormant in all of us. It takes just a little something, a sudden betrayal, a wounded ego or a trite disappointment to awaken it. The wounded animal is formidable. The scenario was written starting from the final image of the film that came to me one day in somewhat of a flash. An image (I can’t reveal it here for those who haven’t yet seen the film) which horrified me as much as it made me laugh.
To what extent are you interested in the theme of rejection of others and do you plan to make other films dealing with this question?
It’s not so much the theme of rejection of others but the theme of betrayal that interests me; but they are both strong themes because they are universal. Sabine might be a “special” girl or peculiar but the feelings she has are extremely common. I think in all my films and in those that will follow there will always be the theme of a character alone against others, a feeling of solitude, of abandonment. But that’s a bit the driving force of cinema in general isn’t it?
Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom?
Perhaps the short film format makes it easier for the filmmaker to go to an extreme in his choice of words or character. It allows one to dare, to let go, to explore shapes and territories without the pressure of narration, or the pressure to keep a scenario going for 90 minutes. For Tigre, I wanted a film at the borders of different genres: a social drama, dark comedy, supernatural.
