Chances are you know So Me (née Bertrand Lagros de Langeron) even if you’ve never heard his name before.
As the graphic designer for French label Ed Banger Records, he’s created posters, T-shirts and album art for some of the most cutting-edge artists in France (including, but not limited to, SebastiAn and Justice). He’s also directed videos for non-Ed Banger talent like MGMT, Kid Cudi and Duck Sauce. The playful impishness that was present in his illustrative work is very much there in his music video work. It was a leap, for sure.
His latest leap is “Banger,” his feature directorial debut, which just debuted on Netflix worldwide.
In “Banger,” Vincent Cassel plays a middle-aged DJ named Scorpex, who is pulled into an undercover role by drug enforcement officers looking to bust a young DJ. It is drawn, in part, from a project that So Me spearheaded over the pandemic – “six short films that were happening in lockdown in France.” For So Me’s installment, he picked a character from his upcoming feature. “I put them in a lockdown situation and tried a bit of the tone,” So Me told TheWrap. “We had a stroke of luck with Vincent Cassel reading it and liking it and accepting to like, embrace it. I think that’s what helped the screenplay to actually come to life.”
The experience was new for the director, since he had only directed music videos and commercials prior. In particular, he appreciated getting to work with the actors on the short, which he said took up four or five days and was shot in an apartment. Cassel, who can also be seen in the far more serious David Cronenberg movie “The Shrouds” this spring, had a blast. At the end of production, So Me asked him, “If we turn this into a feature or if we move to the next chapter, would you want to be involved?” Cassel enthusiastically said yes.
The tone of “Banger” is singular – it’s breezy and never gives into the darkness, which would have been easy and very tempting considering the movie revolves around a drug sting. So Me said he was intent to not have it be too gag-heavy and, in his words, “rely on provocation.” “It’s just fun for all ages,” he said. “It’s warm and colorful. And in a way, I think I injected some of the stuff that I also do as an illustrator or graphic designer. It’s not that premeditated, but it’s what I see also when I see the final project.”
The filmmaker said that in the lead-up to production, he spoke with a cinematographer who told him, “I don’t know how to light a comedy or frame a comedy, I don’t know if it’s for me.” He remembers telling the cinematographer, “We don’t want the movie to look funny.” So Me described his approach as “let’s do the best we can visually, story-wise and then it’s going to be funny, because that’s just the way I like things.”
Obviously, being so involved in the electronic music scene, So Me drew inspiration from real life for “Banger.” “It’s all true and nothing is true,” he said. “I think the movie flirts with showing the audience that it knows what it’s talking about, but at the same time, I’m not trying to show it the way it really is.” He said that if he really showed what the life of a DJ was like, it would be incredibly disappointing. Even for some huge artist on the main stage of a festival, if you went back stage, you’d find “a few beers in the fridge that are lukewarm, there’s nothing crazy going on there.” Instead, he said, he tried to “entertain the mythology” of something crazier but have that bedrock that feels credible, which makes for a more grounded layer in which to “throw all of these surreal and completely fictional” elements.
Not that “Banger” is totally free of connections to his real life – there are cameos from Justice, SebastiAn, Myd and Ed Bangers founder Pedro Winter. “There’s a lot that are really hard to find,” So Me said of the Easter eggs (you can spot Justice pretty easily – they’re rifling through bins at a record store, of course).
Another way that “Banger” embraced its verisimilitude (and its roots in actual electronic music) is the incredible original score by Belgian music duo Soulwax — aka David and Stephen Dewaele — who are credited here under their DJ alias 2manydjs. So Me said that he is dear friends with the brothers, but that it was hard to get them because they are so busy (they run a record label, produce other artists’ music and put out music of their own). “They really showed great involvement and respect for the thing. And they really delivered. They worked as hard as they could, which I’m very grateful for. I just really like these guys. They’re really savvy about all things, including cinema,” So Me shared. He also said that their chameleonic tendencies helped on “Banger,” since the filmmaker asked them for tracks in completely different styles and musical genres. “They had so much fun doing it, I think,” So Me said. And, yes, several of the tracks will be out later this week on the streaming service of your choice.
What’s interesting is that “Banger” is surprisingly restrained, free of the visual flourishes that you would probably expect from a designer like So Me – that is, until the closing credits. That’s when Scorpex can be seen doing a DJ set from his living room (just like the original short film), with the credits for the movie spiraling around him, eventually squeezing Cassel into a small rectangle in the middle of the screen.
So Me called the effect “The Pyramid.” He thought it could be used to extend the story a little bit. And he wanted it to feel different from other credits. “I didn’t put too much of myself as a music video director in the movie, because I wanted to let the story decide what the aesthetics should be. But there are moments in the movie where I could not stay still my chair like I did for the rest of the storytelling,” he explained. “That was the perfect occasion for me to do something more along the lines of what I do graphically.” Still, So Me admitted, “I have no idea how long Netflix is going to allow for that credit scene to unravel, because they have a policy of bringing the click to the next thing so you don’t zone out.”
He doesn’t know what his next project will be, but he noted that he is “not paralyzed exactly, but I’m curious to see the reception and then I’ll see what the mindset is for the next movie.” And while that specific idea remains out of reach, he did say that he has “this romantic idea of doing movies that are pure creations.” Like “Banger,” he’s looking for something that only he could deliver. And if he does accept an assignment from a big studio or brand, at least you know it’s going to have a killer soundtrack.
“Banger” is now streaming on Netflix.
