Suprêmes: “The NTM story is the story of a huge brawl” – Actus Ciné

THIS ARTICLE IS SPOILERS regarding the movie “Supremes” currently in cinemas.

While the Suprêmes d’Audrey Estrougo worn by Théo Christine (JoeyStarr) and Sandor Funtek (Kool Shen) was released in theaters on Wednesday, we interviewed Olivier Cachin, music journalist and biographer for NTM among others, to do some checking” The facts” and compare the film’s story to reality.

AlloCiné: You know NTMs from their inception, before we get to the point, when you are told “Supreme NTM”, what is the first memory that comes to you?

Oliver Kashin: For me, the first memory related to Suprême NTM is when I go with the Rapline Show to Saint-Denis to shoot what I think is our music video. I rap (which was their song in the Rapattitude compilation) And when I arrive, they say “No, actually we’re going to shoot another song we just did called” Energy‘, which will be one of the strong songs to feature in their debut Maxi World tomorrow.

And there I see all begs 93 NTM, meaning Kool Shen, JoeyStarr, DJ S, Chi NO, Reak (…) and got to know what would become the most powerful group in hardcore rap at a time when French rap was just beginning to exist and really despised – although not yet In the media – incredibly powerful.

The method surprised me, because it was the music that carried, along with rock, the most exciting things, both in terms of what they said in the lyrics and what the actors were experiencing.music.

You are a group specialist, how did you find the movie?

I found it great for several reasons. So of course there are some liberties taken with the timeline and some anecdotes, but overall that’s the real story. Above all, embodied by Didier Morville and Bruno Lopez (Joystar and Cole Sheen), she’s exceptional.

For Sandor Funtek we have the impression that he ate Kool Shen (…) and for Théo Christine it’s different because at first we tell ourselves ‘He’s not exactly JoeyStarr’, he didn’t sting him, he didn’t I didn’t catch the big rock sound, but what he did was Too high.

[Notamment] In the two really strong scenes with his dad, there’s one where his dad’s screams stick, which is the kind of scene that, if it doesn’t work out, makes you laugh out loud. And there, I watched the movie again at Grand Rex for the big preview, the room was silent, and we felt like something was going on. He really had a way of playing the character that was very effective.

Fans privately wondered if they would manage to capture the motion picture NTM could shoot on stage. Hey you saw them a lot at the party, how do you see these sequences?

They are very successful. You have to see the movie really covers the early years of NTM so it’s totally messy, and it stops at Zénith of 92 which is kind of the first climax, there will be more, but all the concert scenes we see lit up a vacant lot with cars because the official concert was banned By the city council, and the Confort Moderne in Poitiers where they were in front of the baddies of dogs, they are well seen. We feel the strength of the group and there is also the sense of humor – because these are also moments of defeat – because they live in absolutely amazing conditions (…).

I mentioned the movie’s devotion to reality, giving you a “fact-checking” moment with four iconic scenes from the Supremes and NTM. Allow you to comment on them however you like, here they are:

• Kool Shen and JoeyStarr writing their first script together, helping each other, in a movie scene or true story?

It’s a movie scene because it’s well known – and they’ve both confirmed that throughout their careers – they never wrote together, which is the amazing thing about NTM. It was always something out of the question as everyone wrote something on their own and then when they got together, often in the studio, it stopped and assembled. But the aspect of “writing together as two friends skipping responsibility” may have happened once or twice at first, but the cinematic vision still shows a friendship confined around the lyrics.

• Were there shouts between the two 1990-1991?

NTM’s story is the story of a huge brawl right from the start! You have to know that they haven’t been close friends since the middle of the second album, which is 1993. And there was always that tension. When we see (…) Didier’s bacon head, Bruno’s stubbornness… But their hostility is also their strength, because one without the other, they are great artists, but one with the other is NTM.

And this is part of the myth of all the groups: everyone knows that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have not been friends for long, just read their bios. It’s “one for money, two for money, three for money!” But that’s okay, because when you go see bands that hate each other, there’s a magic that suddenly, something happens.

• NTM who gets to the punk festival and turns the room in his favour?

Yes, there have been many times, at festivals or as the opening act of La Souris déglingués, they have had to face this crowd of punk dogs and rockers and yes, they did. And even if rap among rockers is music that stays a little bit smelly, it’s the only French rap group that can claim to have that rock attitude and have the respect of a rock audience. Because they had to make their way in a time when rap parties didn’t exist, and where they found themselves among rockers who had to prove that even without instruments, they had power and authority.

• The concert on a vacant lot?

Yes, it is one of the legendary moments of their career, even if it was not made into a movie for reasons of time (…). It has already happened. Le frère de Kool Shen, Gilles, que j’ai revu à l’avant-première n’était pas sûr que ça soit à Mantes-la-Jolie (…), c’était quand même il ya plus de trente years . (…) But yes, it is part of NTM’s underground legend.

The film above all a artistic work of imagination. Are there some shortcuts to reality as you know it?

Without too many spoilers, the moment JoeyStarr finds his mother isn’t when the movie comes out, but rather earlier, and what made me laugh is that during the rehearsal there’s a huge feud with the DJ which happens while mixing up Kool Shen, JoeyStarr and Lady V, and Joey’s speech In front of the DJ is the speech he gave in front of the boom operator in the famous incident with France 2 TV news. He says : “What’s wrong with you?! Hold your pole!” And there becomes: What’s up, pull out your turntables! It’s a fun little shortcut.

There are some songs we hear but that was done a little later. When they give their concert at Mantes la Jolie, we hear dancing man And it’s a song that comes a little later, but it’s not a big deal. It’s like Bohemian Rhapsody, that’s generally true, but for movie dramas it’s sometimes useful to animate certain moments or embellish others, which is why it’s written on. The movie poster is “loosely inspired by the early years of NTM” but 80-90% is out there, and the rest is legend.

How did Sandor Funtek and Théo Christine become Kool Shen and JoeyStarr?

The interview was conducted by telephone on 19 November.