Les Fantômes (2018) Online
Nicolas Wolf, an Austrian who's just inherited his grandmother's Parisian flat, is shaken with fear as an unexpected nightly visitor refuses to leave. But no-one but Nicolas seems to be able to see the menacing stranger.
| Cast overview: | |||
 | André Schneider | - | Nicolas Wolf |
 | Judith Magre | - | Natalie Delpit |
 | Pierre Emö | - | Guillaume |
| Alexandre Vallès | - | Inspecteur Martino / Xavier Blanchet |
| Sophie Tellier | - | Madame Simonneau |
| Siolé Fakataulavelua | - | L'homme en noir |
| Sania Yenbou | - | La femme du cimetière |
| Walter Billoni | - | Inspecteur Pigor |
| Bastien Gabriel | - | Monsieur Raoul |
| Rodolphe Meunier | - | Le passant |
Upon its premiere at the Straight-Jacket Guerilla Film Festival, the movie was seen by 199 viewers.
André Schneider stated that creating the part of "Nicolas Wolf" was his most demanding work in films. For being physically prepared, he worked out four times a week for six months before filming started. He read books on psychopathy by Robert Hare and others in order to understand the psyche of his character completely. His performance art in the movie was inspired by Marina Abramovic and Maya Deren as well as Isabelle Adjani's performance in Possession (1981). Many of his scenes were improvised, i. e. him playing the piano. In an interview with EDGE magazine Schneider also explained that he isolated himself from the cast and crew during filming to delve into the feeling of isolation.
Les Fantômes (2018) is the last movie produced by Vivàsvan Pictures.
Pierre Emö's scenes were filmed in only one day.
"Nicolas Wolf" was named after Nikolaus Firmkranz and Dominique Wolf, Schneider's co-stars in Der Mann im Keller (2008); "Natalie Delpit" was named after Laurent Delpit; "Xavier Blanchet" was named after Xavier Théoleyre and Rudy Blanchet who co-starred in Alexandre Vallès' directorial debut Bd. Voltaire (2017).
Bastien Gabriel, Walter Billoni, Sania Yenbou and André Schneider all previously starred in Bd. Voltaire (2017).
Judith Magre turned 91 during filming. In the film, her character is only 82 years old.
André Schneider plays a writer for the fourth time in this movie. Before, he was a writer / poet on Berlin Bohème (2000), in the Spanish thriller La paz de tus ojos tristes (2006) and in Sur les traces de ma mère (2016). In Le deuxième commencement (2012), he played a stage director who also writes a bit.
In one scene, when Judith Magre and André Schneider are having tea in the kitchen, there's a poster of Louis Malle's Les amants (1958) visible on the wall behind them. Les amants (1958) co-starred a young Judith Magre.
Almost all of the interiors were filmed in composer Jean-Pierre Stora's apartment.
When the movie premiered in Berlin, Germany, in February 2019, Gesine Laatz and Knut Koch were among the guests.
Vivàsvan Pictures first announced this project in May 2012.
This is the first film since Glastage (2007) in which André Schneider's character's name does not start with an "A".
André Schneider saw Pierre Emö in Call Me a Ghost (2017) and was so impressed by him that he insisted on having him cast as his co-star.