Céline Roustan
Making a baby can be the easiest thing in the world or a long journey that tests the strength of a couple. In Faire un enfant (Making Babies), writer, director, and lead actor Éric K. Boulianne presents a series of vignettes that explores the ups and downs of the journey. With a raw honesty he captures both the fun moments and the more challenging ones, making a film that is as emotionally compelling as it is fun.
“I think it’s about trying to stay together and preserve love even when you face big challenges”
There’s a universality in the film’s premise that makes it instantly relatable. Boulianne confessed that he was inspired by his own procreation journey – he and his partner were warned it might be difficult, yet they became pregnant on their first attempt. “That’s how the idea came up, by imagining what it could have been”, he shared. While this is one specific story, I believe that it’s the couple and their bond that give the film its potency. “I mostly wanted to talk about resilience in a long term relationship. I think it’s about trying to stay together and preserve love even when you face big challenges”, Boulianne explained. Structuring the film with chapters truly contributes to building the short’s narrative journey, with each obstacle encountered making the audience feel the weight of time, triggering our impatience and effectively building a mounting tension.
The simplicity of the set-up is what allows us to focus on the emotional roller coaster the two protagonists embark on. The film is inherently about sex – amongst other things – but despite the number of sex scenes in its 19-minute run-time, it’s not these moments that truly leave their mark. The nudity never feels like a gimmick, instead it always feels natural and allows us to be in the couple’s intimacy without veering into voyeurism. Boullianne cites Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore and the OG version of Scenes from a Marriage as key influencers for the intimate bedroom scenes. “I tried to keep the storytelling, the setups and the cinematic language as minimalistic as possible”, he added, allowing DP François Messier-Rheault’s (Landgraves) lens to gently capture the feelings at play – from the comedic ones to the more touching, even devastating ones.
Faire un enfant was shot on 16mm adding to the intimate warmth throughout much of the film.
Shot on 16mm, visually the film has a warmth that I still remember from the first time I saw it and it allows Boulianne to truly convey the love between his two main characters. As both the director and the lead actor, he admitted that he put a lot of trust in his DP, his 1st AD and the intimacy coordinator. However, it is his chemistry with his on screen partner Florence Blain Mbaye that makes the film unforgettable. As a couple, they are instantly so loveable that you can’t help but root for them to conceive. Whether it’s the lighter, comedic moments, the scenes when they are supporting each other or when they hit different levels of frustration, they make the whole journey feel so real and authentic – taking you from laughter to tears in a split second. This makes the ending feel like such a genuine relief. And ever since seeing the film, listening to Isaac Hayes’ Walk on By always makes me smile.
Making Babies had its World Premiere at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival, where it earned the Best Directing Award. The film went on to screen at numerous festivals, including TIFF, Winterthur, Aguilar, the Norwegian Short Film Festival, Curtas Vila do Conde, Show Me Shorts, and the Palm Springs ShortFest – where it took home the award for Best Live-Action Short Over 15 Minutes. Boulianne is now set to premiere his feature debut, Folichonneries (Follies), at Locarno, with a follow-up screening at TIFF.