Pauline & Flavien

The title of the film comes from a piece of advice. More than ten years ago, Pauline asked her mother how she had met her father. The answer fit in one sentence: « Be a friend first, before becoming a lover. » Pauline and Flavien have known each other since school; in their group of friends, they are called the old married couple, and it makes them smile. While typing her vows on her phone, Pauline even watched her autocorrect turn « vows » into « old ». Some coincidences can’t be invented.

Behind the lightness, a more intimate story: the daughter of parents who never married, Pauline had kept that childhood fear that, without a wedding, everything could one day come undone. This yes meant something.

And then there are the two of them. Flavien, who tells our camera he doesn’t know how to express his feelings, and whom Pauline nonetheless describes as the poet of the couple: passionate about nature, a modern-day druid, distinguished in front of the in-laws and a living legend in a bucket hat as soon as her father turns his back, if his brother-in-law is to be believed. Pauline, nicknamed Mitch as a child after a hurricane: « my tornado with a tender heart », her father would say.

As for us, we kept the line that Pauline’s witness and best friend borrowed from the French poet Grand Corps Malade, and which could have given the whole film its title: « It doesn’t matter what’s on the table; what matters is who’s around it. »