Le petomane: Parti avec le vent

Based on a true story set around turn-of-the-century France, it follows the lives of two men: Joseph Pujol and Dr. Marcel Baudouin. Pujol was an entertainer at the Moulin Rouge who was gifted with a unique backside, which could take in and release air in measured increments thus producing amazing and humorous noises. Dr. Baudouin was obsessed with Joseph's "instrument" and pursued him doggedly for many years, ultimately resulting in his undoing.

I used to be a comic and I used to a bit about Joseph Pujol or Le Pétomane. A couple of years later I switched to writing professionally and wrote a full-length spec script based on his life story.

A cinematographer friend of mine, who loved the script, asked me if I could re-write it as a short. I did.

The project was to be self-financed for hard costs and reliant on favors for everything else. We would shoot it on HD, using whatever locations we could get. We were about use the fantasy suites of a swinger club/porn studio for the interiors (study, doctor's office, etc.) and a turn-of-the-century historical park for the exteriors, when we got an offer we couldn't refuse from Universal Studios!

By the time we were done, over three hundred people had participated. The props, costumes and actors are all top notch and the post-production was done by the book.

While the characters names and professions are correct, the interactions are, for the most part, fictionalized. However, the props, sets and wardrobe pay a great deal of respect to history.

When all was said and done, we had created an absurd experiment in "drama;" the story of man discovering his gift, the love of his woman and his deliverance from the Jevert-esque pursuit of a doctor gone mad.

On the first day of production, I made a promise. I told everyone we would be making the biggest, stupidest period piece we could. I believe in my heart that we have succeeded.