Back to the second edition – “Huit Clos” 

Mathieu Nolhier, 28 years-old, was born in Paris. 

 

After graduating a business school, I decided to create my own bags and t-shirt business, to promote young French artists. 

During week-ends with friends, I enjoy creating short horror movies scenarios, and filming my friends who create their own characters. 

After going to school, I started an internship at a video games editor, where I spent 5 years working. 

After a while, I was assigned as a director during regional contest. I was asked to write the stories, choose the accessories and lead a team for the picture and and sound to shoot the video. I really enjoy doing this project,  and I later decided to materials to be able to film by my own. 

In the end, after directing a more than a dozen short-films, spending hours watching tutorials on Youtube, taking notes watching good classic movies, I reached a better technic in filming and setting up movies. 

I directed “Hélène” in 2018, which enabled me to win the jury’s favorite short-film at the Prix De Court film festival in Lyon, my first ever film festival. 

That same year, I quit my job and joined an animation studio in London. I showed “Hélène” to my new colleagues and the director liked it. She offered my a job as a director. My dream became true earlier than I thought. 

In 2019 I became a PD (Photography Director) on a few sets. I also directed another short)film in London. I finished the writing of the last short-film and the shooting took place in 2020. 

To be continued … 

"Motivation is the only essential tool to make a good movie"
Mathieu Nolhier
Winner of the 2019th edition
Synopsis :

My short film Hélène features a young woman who looks back on her tumultuous adventure with Hélène. The spectator, browsing through the discourse, a story he thinks to be of a fleshly order until to let surprise by the true nature of Hélène. We can then review the film a second time with a new look. I wrote and directed this film about the relationship between drugs and their subject so that viewers can see addiction in a more sensitive way. More than just physical dependence, drugs enter our lives and establish strong links with their subjects. It is not remembered that all these relationships usually end in tears, pain and sometimes death. The apartment where she stands represents her hermit cocoon but also her spirit, emptied of everything but her drug. I wanted to surprise the spectator by announcing the true nature of Hélène only at the end so that he could remember better the idea that I wanted to pass in the paragraph above. I did some research on heroin for the writing of this film which takes into account the three phases of addiction, the way of consumption and especially its hidden name: Hélène.