A new Alizée documentary, and some more news

[Samuel Victor]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum, thank you to Merci Alizée for approving my account.

As some of you may have seen in the chat box, I'm a Film & TV producer, mostly working in fiction for the American and British markets, but I'm also a long term Alizée fan since her first single, and I'm very excited about the 25th anniversary Olympia performance, so decided to produce a professional quality documentary about her career to celebrate the occasion.

While I have good connections in the French TV and music industries, I mostly envisioned this as a free fan-lead production and not intended to be for profit, because this will make it easier to use whatever footage is best to illustrate the point instead of being limited to only things that we can easily license, although I will be paying licenses for footage where available, and will be reaching out to people for interviews, and will be travelling around Paris, Ajaccio and other relevant areas when discussing the relevant periods in her life.

Before I was in the film industry, I was in the music industry, and this is actually how I found out about her - we're about the same age and I randomly met her when she was promoting Moi Lolita in London. Since then, while we've never worked together directly, we've been at various professional engagements at the same time over the years and I always stop to say bonjour, and she is always lovely.

I will absolutely make sure the Alizée, Gregoire, Annily, Mylene, Lauren, Jo, Jeremy and anyone else relevant are contacted through their agents to make sure they are aware that its being made but to reassure them that it will be 100% positive with no scandal or negativity, and to offer them the chance to view early edits if they are worried and want anything changed. I have no intention of raking up anything bad its just one big celebration of a long career made by a fan and with the input of fans.

I'll extend a professional invitation to Alizée to be interviewed, along with anyone else she suggests, of course its up to her if she wants to be on record as associated with it, or just keep it as an entirely unofficial fan project, just made in a very professional manner by industry insiders as a tribute to her career. Either way she will definitely be aware its happening, be informed along the way and be able to suggest any changes if she wants.

There will be 2 versions of the documentary, one for French audiences, one for English. So far, I'm working with 2 producers on the French side of things as advisers, and we have started gathering archive footage, making plans for the main structure, and put together a rough "pitch" poster and provisional working title / log line: Lolita Eternelle - J'ai Pas Vingt-Cinq Ans!

The plan so far is for it to be available online either entirely for free, or free through a major streaming service if the licencing for everything are cleared. With independent products I usually also organise a Premiere in a cinema and limited edition Blu-Rays and posters, again this will depend on license restrictions, but I'm confident we will at least have one screening event in Paris.

Of course, part of the reason I joined these forums is because I wanted the input of fans! And as I'm fronting the entire cost of this myself and probably releasing it as non-profit, if anyone is interested in being a producer, we could maybe do a kickstarter or something later down the line so I don't bankrupt myself covering all the license fees But I don't mind doing it anyway I really want to celebrate the 25 years of enjoying being a fan and following her career.

As far as "more news" that I mentioned before, nothing concrete, just the fact that nowdays I live and work in France for 6 months a year, and am starting to seriously dip my toes into producing French language content movies and shows for the French market. This is starting with 2 projects, a romantic feature film, and a comedy special about a English person learning French. I will be reaching out to Alizée to see if she wants to be included on the soundtracks for both and also potentially appear as an actor or cameo, if she is interested. I'm also one of the producers of a big budget American movie coming out in a couple of years, and we could even get a quick cameo for her in that, if she wants.

I know that at one point early in her career it was her ambition to be an actor and work on British and American projects, and I was really impressed with her performance on "Nos Chers Voisins", and its clear from the reactions from her recent appearances and the Olympia show selling out immediately that there is still a lot of interest and support for her from French audiences if she is given the opportunity. Of course she is very busy with her home life and new career as a dance instructor but she could easily appear in both with just a day of work for each, and we could even shoot the cameos and record songs in Ajaccio if its easier for her.

Of course, she may not want to be involved with these extra projects (which is totally understandable) or we might not be able to make it work because of scheduling or whatever. Frankly until recently I would have assumed she wants to remain mostly out of the limelight. But in the last year she has been actively touring, making more appearances on French TV, doing interviews, red carpets, advertising products etc... so if she wants more opportunities for work and promotion, I'm more than happy to do my part in this renaissance era of her career! Of course, I won't post any details publicly about any back and forth that I have with her and her management, that would be very unprofessional. I just mention here to let you guys know that there's several producers in France who actively want to work with Alizée, and will be offering her many opportunities over the next few years, which could lead to even more people offering her similar work.

[Scruffydog777]

That sounds like a great idea. How receptive Alizée would be to it I don't know. I think she's game to certain things as long as it won't take her away from Corsica for any extended amount of time. I think what happened when she lived in Paris left a bad taste in her mouth and it just made her yearning for being in and staying in Ajaccio that much stronger. She's more motivated by family and home than money and fame.
That being said, I feel this still has a good chance of happening and if there's anyway I can help, just let me know.

[Samuel Victor]

Thank you Scruffy Dog!

Yes, as I said I'm about the same age as her and have 2 kids myself - they are now grown up, but like Alizée I was in the entertainment industry when they were little, and for me personally that meant having to spend time away from them in London, which I didn't like. Nowadays I work in the big cities for shooting andpromotion (mostly London, Paris, LA, NYC, Vancouver, Toronto) but I prefer to live day to day in calm quiet countryside places away from noise, press attention, trappings of fame etc.

As I said in my post, the good thing about all my opportunities that I would be reaching out to her agent with, is that the majority of them could be easily shot in a single day each (for cameos, interviews etc only an hour or two!) and I'm more than happy to shoot in Ajaccio, or to do them on a day when Alizée is already in Paris, so they would be extra money and promotion without having to inconvenience her family life in any way whatsoever.

Same with if she was involved with soundtracks, she often does small events in Corsica and records in small studios there for charity events etc, they could even be done remotely with her own team/friends/family if she preferred. I'm very mindful of wanting to help and being keen to hire and work with her, but not in a way that would disrupt her family life or be stressful

The only exception would be if she wanted to play the lead role in the romance film, which of course I would be very excited about and could absolutely make happen (at the moment only the supporting roles are cast and we will be looking for a French speaking actress, 30-40) but that would be a bigger commitment from her and need a few days in London and a few more in Paris. But even then, only 2 weeks max and she could absolutely bring Gregoire and the kids and her mum to babysit, and make it a family vacation all covered by the expenses of the film - I can even get free tickets for places like Disneyland and Harry Potter studios so it might make a fun family time, if they wanted But this last option seems the least likely and the biggest ask - though I'd love to see it happen! Alizée starring in a French film that is aimed at the worldwide market (its bilingual, half French, half English) would be really cool

[joebanana]

Alizee promotes her daughter Annily on social networks and takes her to various performances. I think it would increase the chances of engaging Alizee in a project if Annily was involved, either with the make-up she is currently working on or with something else.
Annily can look very filmic, this is a black and white photo that she posted on social networks and I edited and colored it for fun.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CgkacP1KL9y/?img_index=1

[Samuel Victor]

Hi Joe, yes Annily is quite successful in her own right in France as a growing influencer, as far as I know she mostly has ambitions to work in the fashion industry rather than film or music, so I can't help her much there but of course will be inviting her (via Alizée and her agent, not directly, that might seem strange as she is young and we haven't previously met) to take part in the documentary too, and attend any promotional events, red carpets and premieres etc for anything we work on, alongside Gregoire and anyone else Alizée would like there for support and a free trip/holiday

[joebanana]

Annily is young and she has her followers, I'm more interested in following Alizee.
Including Annily somehow in the project is just an idea, in any case if Alizee agrees to participate I look forward to watching the movie/documentary.

[Samuel Victor]

Thank you Joe! Yes of course my interest is in promoting, helping and potentially working with Alizée in whatever ways make sense for both of our careers and schedules. But as you said, she does seem to like doing events if it means she can bring Annily too, to help her career. So this is always an option if they want