“Nino”, an interview with director Pauline Loquès

May 23, 2025

French Director Pauline Loquès on her debut feature, "Nino": "The idea of the movie is that everything has changed, but nothing has changed."

"Nino", an interview with director Pauline Loquès Bénédicte Prot

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Pauline Loquès, a former student in Literature and Law who first quenched her thirst for writing by turning to journalism, then trained as a screenwriter, has developed a distinctive signature since her first film, the 30-minute short “La Vie d’une jeune fille“, on a young woman about to celebrate her hen weekend who learns upon arrival that her fiancé doesn’t want to get married anymore, and can’t bring herself to tell her girlfriends.

In “Nino“, her debut feature, screened in competition at the 64th Critics Week, and in the running for the Caméra d’or of the 78th Cannes International Film Festival, not only does she work from a similar premise, but she also confirms her interest in small, simple things and her desire to depict her characters as earnestly as possible.

Loquès tells us more about the echos between her film and Agnès Varda‘s “Cleo from 5 to 7“, about approaching reality through small, daily things and the deceptive essence of the uneventful, as well as about Nino’s trajectory, suspended time, a certain cup, and the choice of Théodore Pellerin to play the title character, amongst other things.

Time, space, movement, and what happens

“I don’t know why, but I like all the movies which take place in one day, one weekend, or three days, because you can’t avoid time – which sometimes goes fast, and sometimes can feel very slow… When nothing happens, what happens? Nothing big happens, but there’s things happening inside you, around you. […] Life always continues, I mean when he gets out of the hospital, life is still in movement. He’s alive amongst other lives, it’s not like there’s a brutal stop. There’s always movement all the time, even small movements, but in different spaces in the hostile city… The spaces are different so the conversations are different, so the atmosphere is different, which creates different connections.“

On the camerawork

“We were searching for the distance between Nino and the other people, all the time. Sometimes he is inside himself, and sometimes he feels very far away from himself. Sometimes he feels very close to people, and sometimes very far, and that’s how we chose to film the movie, following his feelings towards himself and others. It was all about that distance and that closeness.”

Plot

In three days, Nino will face a major challenge. But first, his doctors have assigned him two vital tasks. Two missions that will lead the young man on a journey through Paris, compelling him to reconnect with the world - and himself.

Written by: Bénédicte Prot

Agnes Varda Théodore Pellerin

Guest

Pauline Loquès

Film

Cleo from 5 to 7 Nino

Festival

Festival de Cannes

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“Nino”, an interview with director Pauline Loquès