Germinal Roaux

Born 1975, Lausanne (Switzerland). He studied at the Rudolf Steiner School in Lausanne. In 1994 he realized his diploma documentary UNE PLUIE ET DES HOMMES. Then he worked as a photographer for the magazines L’ILLUSTRÉ, L’HEBDO, EDELWEISS, TYPE. In 2003 he directed the short documentary film DES TAS DE CHOSES. In 2007 he shot another short film, ICEBERGS, which won the Action Light Award for Best Swiss Newcomer at the 2007 Locarno Film Festival and was screened at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. In 2009, at Jeanne Moreau’s request, he made the trailer for the 21st edition of the “Festival du Film Premiers Plans d’Angers”. LEFT FOOT RIGHT FOOT is his first feature film.

Director’s statement

“The initiatory poem LEFT FOOT RIGHT FOOT delves into the crossing of the turbulent waters of adolescence to explore this turning point when one has to choose and put one foot in front of the other in order to move forward. From erasing the bond until its re-conquest, this is the story of a couple, an age, an era. A couple, whose relationship, despite its precocity, has already become set in a kind of routine. Two solitary existences linked by the fear of emptiness, who need one another to keep warm in an icy world of appearances. An age on the threshold of adulthood, where one seeks one’s identity, one’s place in society and one’s points of reference in the adult world. An age characterised by the illusion of consuming, the reification of the body, and the trivialisation of prostitution, where the power of money is equivalent to the promise of freedom”.
“The insidious way in which Marie slips into prostitution reflects her lack of discernment about the consequences of passing from word to deed. She finds herself caught in the trap of her own candour, being committed by force to a spiral from which she will not emerge intact. The intensification of existence through tragedy is a central element of the film’s reflection”.
“I wanted to show this singular moment of potential awareness, this unique moment in everyone’s life when everything changes for good, when preconceived ideas are swept aside, and when the spark of a new beginning may arise. I wished to portray the characters’ hunger for proximity with themselves, their need to confront their own shadows to experience the truth”.
“From the skateboard noise to the rhythms in the night clubs, the film music is like the music of this generation: persistent and continuous. It is like a veil drawn over the world, a blinding veil showing that the adolescents’ reality is permanently invaded by sounds”.
“Adolescence, an age of contrasts per se, where everything is either black or white. The means appropriate to portraying this transition from one reality to another could only be black and white, which has precisely the ability to show innermost aspects while keeping us slightly removed from the reality perceived. Black and white erases the anecdote to bring out what is universal. It allows capturing the essence without absorbing us completely. It engages the viewer into somehow becoming a co-author of the film. A film may thus become a means of revealing our own interiority”.