Jour de chance

The vagrant in Frédéric Ledoux’s film is the subject of scorn or fear rather than compassion. Having found a voucher for a free food product, he enters a supermarket and turns out to be its hundred millionth client and, through the magic of chance and advertising, the winner of “Lucky Day”. We will not tell you the twist in the drama.

This is a satire on a vagrant who wanders into the world of show biz. But bad luck doesn’t let him out of its clutches even when it’s his “Lucky Day”. The director makes rivers of champagne flow in just one direction (“Half a glass for Jules, please!”): towards those who make the show. If you believe that all homeless people are alcoholics, you are wrong: in order not to be sober, you need money! It is only in French films and comic strips that you see vagrants reeling along, a bottle of booze in their hand. “Jour de chance” switches between black and white and colour as it passes from reality to reality TV.

Jour de Chance – short film (2002)

Format: 16×9 / black and white and colour
Duration: 26′
Script and directing: Frédéric Ledoux
Image: Patrice Michaux
Sound: Stéphane Lombard
Editing: Stéphane Wery
Production: Ripley Films
Distribution: RTBF,  Zed, CBC,  Radio-TV Canada, NHK
Nominated at the Toronto International Short Film Festival
Audience Award at the International Digital Film Festival (Paris -Cannes/2002)
Nominated for the Hollywood Movie Award (Hollywood/2002)