Gaspard Ulliel remembers the first day of his death during the screening of More Than Ever in London

Director Emily Atef and producer Xénia Maingot paid tribute to late French actor Gaspard Ulliel on the first anniversary of his death at a screening of his latest feature film in London More than ever on Thursday evening.

The title was the last film Ulliel worked on before he died in a skiing accident in the French Alps on 19 January 2022 at the age of 37.

In the drama, Vicky Krieps plays a woman who retreats to the Norwegian fjords with a life-threatening respiratory illness. Ulliel starred as her devoted husband who struggles to come to terms with her decision to go it alone.

“Today is a special show. To be honest, I could not have done this event in France today because Gaspard was so loved in France,” Atef told the audience at the French Institute’s Lumière cinema.

“The French have a very special relationship with their actors that I haven’t seen anywhere else,” she added.

The director suggested that Ulliel started acting at a young age, appearing first on television and then making her big screen debut at the age of 17. Brotherhood of the WolfFrench audiences felt a special bond with the actor.

Over the course of his career, Ulliel has amassed 50 film and TV credits, highlighted by Jean-Pierre Jeunet A very long commitment 2004), Bertrand Bonellos Saint Laurent (2014, Xavier Dolans It’s just the end of the world (2016).

“The French public saw him grow and that’s why it was a shock for him to just disappear,” she said. “It was a great pleasure to meet him and to have him partner with Vicky Krieps in this film.”

Thursday night’s well-attended show marks the start of the UK release of More than ever by Modern Films to 15 screens from Friday (January 20), in cinemas in France last November.

Eve Gabereau, founder and CEO of Modern Films, said the film’s booking on January 19 was not intentional.

“We always planned to release it in January. It was only when we organized the screening at the Cinema Lumière that we realized the importance of the date. I asked Emily and Xénia if they thought it was ok to go ahead with it and they agreed because it was in London and not France.

Atef, who spent a decade getting production off the ground, said Ulliel’s death didn’t affect the film’s plot or final edit, but it did change the course of its release and reception.

“When he died, we were pretty exhausted, so this tragedy didn’t change the film or his role in the film, but it did have an impact on how we ended the film with extreme emotion and how we ended it. presented the world.”

“It was not just a film about an existential issue. It was also his last film. As I said before, the French, despite not knowing him, had a very deep, emotional connection to him, which shaped the way the film was shown and promoted and how it was seen or not seen , was not affected.

In a Q&A after the screening, Atef recalled Ulliel’s dedicated approach to preparing for the role.

“He was a really hard worker. We started preparations in 2019. He would come to Berlin, where Vicky and I both live. He would have his scripts full of notes and thoughts, while Vicky is very instinctive,” said Atef.

“With each new draft I felt he was reading, writing and wanting to discuss new things while Vicky didn’t want to tell me, but I could tell she hadn’t even read it, which upset me,” she continued.

“It wasn’t until much, much later, two months before we started shooting, that I realized Hélène’s character was just too heavy for her to carry. It wasn’t until we were on set that she was finally able to dive in.

After the pandemic halted filming scheduled for 2020, filming finally began in the early summer of 2021. The production traveled to Norway in May with a truncated international crew of just 11 cast and crew due to strict Covid-19 regulations. 19 restrictions.

Due to being quarantined and only allowed outside to congregate, Atef said it was a happy spring that began with a period of hiking and cold-water diving in the fjords.

“It was terrible (from a production perspective) but also very, very wonderful. We spent our time outside, with that light, hiking and kayaking,” she said.

The director fondly remembered Ulliel invading the set.

“Gaspard didn’t have much to do in Norway, but he was with us all the time, so he was quite bored, so he did the slapping and this and that,” she explained.

“It was very special when his parents came to see the film…one of the first things they said was how happy he was in Norway.”