Fleur and Manu

Directors Fleur and Manu grew up watching MTV when it still played music videos. It was then the Paris-based couple, who met in Biarritz 11 years ago, felt an urge to make promos themselves.

In the past two years, they’ve realised that aim, signing with Les Télécréateurs and working for the likes of Sébastien Tellier and Tricky. Their recent promo for Bag Raiders – produced by Les Télécréateurs’ promo wing, Division – was their biggest undertaking yet, mainly because they made things so difficult for themselves when it came to casting, explains Fleur.

“The song is really pop; it’s a love song and we didn’t want the video to be too cheesy, so we decided not to make a love story between a woman and a guy,” she says. “At first, we were going to use a man dressed in a monkey suit, but that’s been done before, like the guy in the dog suit in the video for Da Funk by Daft Punk. We needed to go further than that, so we thought it would be great if we could use a real monkey.”

So they created a narrative about a woman falling in love with a monkey called Coco, who she liberates from a zoo. He ends up enjoying the outside world too much, going off the rails and getting locked up again. Monkeys are unpredictable to work with, says Fleur. “The first thing we shot was the nightclub scene. I was holding the monkey’s hand and he hit another girl in the face really hard. The next shot was the scene in the car, so we were worried he’d do it again, but he was quiet then.”

The chemistry between woman and beast is surprisingly convincing – something that came from nurturing their real-life relationship. The actress had been taken to the zoo every day for a week before shooting began. “We thought she was going to have to work really hard to get reallooking reactions, but it was the opposite,” says Manu. “The monkey really liked her. When he saw her among a group of even 20 people, he would go to her and nobody else.”

However, he would only ever do what he was supposed to for a few seconds before “going crazy”, so the directors often had to improvise. “We couldn’t really stick exactly to the original storyboard,” adds Manu. “It was more a case of editing what we had.”

Fleur and Manu have also made some stunning ads. They won a bronze Lion and a yellow Pencil last year for their anti-smoking PSA, Chance, made for French health association INPES. Using stock footage, the spot lists the incalculable odds of each human born, then points out the grim chances of surviving a smoking habit. It’s a simple idea that makes you realise how lucky you are to be alive. Manu describes their style as “more about texture, a patchwork”, adding: “We like it when a commercial is a little bit tough; not too clean.”

While they’re keen to make more spots, it’ll always be promos that get them excited, says Manu. And the pair are determined to move on with every project and take things to the next level, but after a woman-meetsmonkey love story, who knows where the next level may be?