Building on the critical success and renewed public interest drummed up by the Canal Plus series “The Bureau,” and inspired by the U.S. Defense Department’s various Hollywood liaison offices, France’s Ministry of Armed Forces launched its own outreach post, opening the Mission Cinéma in 2016.
In practical terms, that means coordinating requests for costumes, locations and highly guarded materials , while organizing creative scouting missions for screenwriters and producers, depositing film pros on aircraft carriers and letting them witness training drills in order to kindle the spark of imagination.Notre Dame on Fire
“This office has one single goal,” says Mission Cinéma director Eve-Lise Blanc Deleuze. “To bring authenticity and credibility to a project. We’re not here to exalt the military and its activities. We don’t want a hagiography. We just want to show things as they actually are.” For 2019’s “The Wolf’s Call,” the Mission consulted with writer/director Antonin Baudry on questions of authenticity and protocols, offered technical consulting for the sets, and planned real nautical maneuvers to coincide with the shoot. “Even a big Hollywood production wouldn’t have the means to acquire a real submarine,” says Blanc Deleuze.