5 things to know about the movie La Boum
On the occasion of the documentary “The Eternal Boom” soon to be broadcast on France 5, a look back at this legendary film
This documentation from Celine Chasse and Julie Peyrard this will be broadcast Friday January 20th at 9pm on France 5. This movie is a true french teen movie passed down from generation to generation. According to the press release, this documentary gives us testimonies such as those of actress Suzanne Lindon, comedian Nora Hamzawi, singers Juliette Armanet and Suzane, designer Pénélope Bagieu and journalist Ambre Chalumeau. But also those who played (Sophie Marceau) or participated in the making of this cult film (Vladimir Cosma)!
Tough competition in casting
Thousands of young actresses were auditioned by director Claude Pinoteau, including Sandrine Bonnaire, Christiana Reali and Emmanuelle Béart, before the final choice was made Sophie Marceauto play the role of Vic. “She had a side very worthy, very shyell didn’t try to charm like the other little girlssaid Claude Pinoteau of her. She was very fair, very simple… Well there was work, it wasn’t perfect though she really felt what she was saying. » As for who plays Vic’s (Sophie Marceau) lover, both Anthony Delon and Patrick Bruel almost landed the role, but the latter apparently didn’t make young girls dream enough, so Alexandre Sterling was chosen. The latter continued his career in adult cinema.
A record audience in the theaters
with 4,378,430 entries in Francethe film even went over Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back in relation to the audience. With enormous success in Italy, where it had almost twice as many viewers in the cinemas. The newspapers of the time ran headlines like: The boom, it’s booming! This film, which stayed in theaters for 8 months, convinced the producers to shoot a second part, La Boum 2, which allowed Sophie Marceau to win Best Female Hope in 1983.
A million-selling soundtrack
Vladimir Cosma, who was in charge of the music, had initially wanted Gilbert Montagné to sing the track “Reality”, but he turned it down. A famous stranger Richard Sanderson finally sang this song written by Vladimir Cosma and the success was amazing. It is largely thanks to this music that the film has achieved cult status and has struck a romantic note that fully embraces the yearnings and romantic imagination of Vic (Sophie Marceau) in the film. Result, upon its release, the title Number 1 in sales it flows in about fifteen countries in Europe and Asia more than 8 million copies !
The film launched Sophie Marceau’s career
As she walked to the premises the model agency Fashion, Sophie Marceau was spotted by the film’s casting director. While Sheila O’connor was set to star, she ended up playing Penelope, Vic’s girlfriend. In fact, the director saw some kind of proof by experimenting with the actress who had never acted before. One can imagine the disappointment poor Sheila must have felt after being replaced. Sophie Marceau continued to tour boom 2 (1982) or a film by Maurice Pialat with Depardieu, police (1985) or still under the eyes of his flagship director Claude Pinoteau The student (1988).
Penelope’s problems after the film
Much later, on the set of Jean Luc Delarue, poor Sheila confessed to suffering Bullying at school after the movie. She received letters with death threats, found her mailbox stolen and teased at school. Even his professors abused him with insults such as: Sheila, are you dreaming of your next movie poster? ». His career hasn’t taken off since the film, despite a small role in a film with Patrick Bruel called PROFS as well as the series father and mayor on TF1.
