Cannes 2015, Pete Docter: We have strange ideas … – Le Figaro

INTERVIEW – The Vice Versa producer Jonas Rivera and his sidekick have out of competition on the Croisette their new creation Pixar, six years after the success from up there

Back on the Croisette after opening the festivities with the masterpiece Là-Haut in 2009, producer Jonas Rivera and director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.) have this year the great novelty Pixar out of competition: Vice Versa, or diving in the brain of a little girl of 11 years. A hilarious story leading to a remarkable personification of emotions that is reminiscent of the classics of the famous animation studio.

LE FIGARO. – How a male in his forties gets into the head of a little girl of eleven

PETE DOCTER?. – The idea came to us thanks to my daughter who was exactly that age at the time. Watch the evolution of an energetic child become a more reserved preteen. It is also a mixture of memories of my own childhood, which was not necessarily easy. Our female colleagues have helped us a lot! It is they who shared friendships that evolve when we had eleven years, first boyfriends in college …

JONAS RIVERA. – They gave us lots of small ideas sketches

Up There was the opening of the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. What is the return on the Croisette to you?

PD – It’s an incredible chance to come back here. This is revolutionary to be part of this festival that celebrates cinema today.

J.R. – This is the ultimate honor. It is inexpressible. The first time we came we could not realize what was happening.

While the story deviates from that from up there, Vice Versa found the DNA of Pixar classics brilliantly …

PD – Yet we are constantly trying to write different stories. But in the end, it ends with trust our own observations on life. Whether on fish, monsters, cars, one always puts a lot of us in there.

J.R. – This is a combination Pixar invent new stories and develop imaginary worlds in which the public can, I hope, to identify. I will not lie, we must admit we love originality.

P.D. – We have still a little weird ideas!

J.R. – Yes, take the example from up there. On paper, the pitch of the film is rather strange: an old widower who flies …

Admittedly, Vice Versa is relatively hyperactive. Writing the script was certainly special?

PD – It all started with a list of places where you could walk around the brain. We all have a place where we arrange our memories, good as evil, in a corner of our heads. But where do our most boggling dreams? It was a chance to play with this kind of concepts to which everyone thinks but no one can view it.