Terri Dunbar-Curran
ONE of the things actress Lika Berning finds most exciting about her latest film French Toast, which opened at cinemas this week, is that it’s more than just another local film shot somewhere in the winelands.
“For a South African audience, it’s nice to have something on our screens that is South African made, but offers a view onto the world. A film that engages in an international context,” she says.
Berning plays the role of Lise le Roux a young photographer who discovers she has a sibling she never knew about. On the verge of becoming engaged to her winemaker father’s right hand man, she flies off to Paris to track down her sibling and uncover her late mother’s long-kept secrets.
“Lise runs her dad’s life for him – she’s even trying to hook him up with a new woman so that he can get on with his life. But she’s not looking after her own life,” says Berning.
“There’s a beautiful metaphor in the film where Lise is trying to take a picture of a painted lady butterfly, but she’s unable to get the perfect moment. The character is a little like the butterfly, but she’s all cocooned and packed away.”
Lise uncovers her mother’s secret when she finds an old diary she kept while working in a restaurant in France. It seems there was more to her mother than just the French toast she would make. When Lise arrives in Paris she finds a friend in chef Jean-Pierre Baptiste (Thierry Ballarin) who aggress to help her on her quest in exchange for photographs for his latest cookbook.
“It’s the dramatic story of Lise and her search overseas. It’s about her blossoming and emerging in Paris with the freedom of expression and food and wine.”
Berning previously worked with Hartiwood Films and director Paul Krüger on Liefling in 2010 which is when the idea for French Toast was first hatched. So when, years later she received a call to see if she was still interested she was thrilled. “I was so pleased that they had remembered and that I was still an option for one of the lead roles,” she says. “It’s the most fun project I’ve done. It has depth – it’s not just your normal run of the mill film.”
Having worked with the Hartiwood team before she knows what to expect from them and what is expected of her – which was useful considering that filming moved from Stellenbosch to Hartebeespoort and Paris itself. Exterior shots were filmed in Paris, and some of the interior shots were filmed in Pretville.
“You won’t believe the empire they’ve built around this movie,” says Berning. “There is the French Toast Koffie Kafee with unbelievable French toast dishes; they put up an Eiffel Tower outside; an I Love You wall and a lock bridge – all in Harties! They are masters of creating an experience for their audience.”
For Berning, a lot of the preparation for a role lies in the script. “I get to know the story and the ins and outs, and what the other characters think of my character. I like to work with tactile things. I speak to the art and wardrobe departments to get a feel for things,” she says.
One of the challenges she faced was learning about photography seeing as Lise hardly ever goes anywhere without her camera. “It was quite fun to hold this Canon camera in my hand and learn a bit about aperture and shutter speed and to feel it around my neck all the time. There are so many fun ways to find a character. She slowly becomes real.”
And, of course, visiting France was a highlight of this project, despite the incredibly busy shooting schedule. She had visited before when she was in school, and lived vicariously through her artist grandmother’s tales of her travels, but going there as an adult was something different. “It was so life-affirming to make Paris my own.”
Longer hours of daylight meant extended periods spent on location, but she and her cast mates still managed to get a taste for life in the city, staying in Montmartre and visiting boulangeries and patisseries to buy staples to prepare their own meals. “What was tough about working in Paris was that we had to think on our feet and work fast.” They didn’t have a base camp so they had to arrive at each location dressed and ready to shoot amongst milling crowds of tourists and Parisians. “We had to be well prepared before hand and we had to think really fast about making a scene work as there was no time for rehearsals. It was exciting and we got a lot of spontaneous decisions and some really interesting tourists in the background,” she laughs.
Location logistics aside, another important factor was continuity, with exteriors being shot in Paris and interiors in South Africa. “Hats off to make-up and wardrobe who did a hell of a job.” They had to ensure that if someone was seen walking into a venue in Paris, they recreated it exactly in South Africa.
Berning is also excited about the film’s music, especially Boom Boom Boom, which the team reckons will become a number one hit.
“It’s a movie for everybody,” she says. “It’s Paris, it’s so romantic and accessible to all ages.”
l www.frenchtoastfilm.co.za