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Director Valentine Cadic Used the Olympics’ Crowds, Athletes and Fan Zones While Shooting ‘That Summer in Paris’: ‘I Like to Mix Make Believe With Real Life’

Director Valentine Cadic used Paris Olympics’ crowds, athletes and fan zones while shooting ‘That Summer in Paris.’

Building on her background in documentary — and taking inspiration from Justine Triet’s debut, “Age of Panic,” which worked in a similar vein — Cadic wrung fiction from fact, using the crowds and fan-zones as high-production value backdrops for a more intimate drama about a lovesick young woman looking to reconnect with her estranged kin. When preparing a low-budget feature, you can always find a reason to delay production, while the financing process can take so long that you sometimes lose sight of why you ever wanted to make a film — so having a fixed date and framework kept us motivated and energetic.” As the title would suggest, “That Summer in Paris” is less a postcard from the games than a snapshot of the City of Light at a very particular moment in time — and here too did the unique circumstance enable this gung-ho production.

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