The Essential List: Cloé Bailly
A Parisienne through and through, Caviar director Cloé Bailly grew up in the affluent commune of Saint-Cloud. She studied literature and cinema at La Sorbonne, and shortly after graduating started to gain a lot of attention from her witty, stylish films. She’s directed films for an array of international clients including the Cannes Film Festival, Ikea and France TV.
2017 saw her working on her first commercials outside of France for Huawei and Baileys (for which she was the first female director to helm its global campaign) as well as being nominated for Shots Best New Director and winning Gold at the Young Director Awards for her ‘Alexa on Alexa: Dating Alexa Chung’ for British Vogue.
Her debut short film, These People, is picking up a respectable raft of awards on the festival circuit and she’s also working on a bunch of other cool creative projects, including writing her first feature film - a dark comedy, we’re told.
Her recent music video for Minuit really turned up the heat, depicting a relentless heatwave in a style that drips with visual wit (and sweat).
We couldn’t resist asking Cloé for her Essential List.
Lifestyle
◦ Place of birth: Saint-Cloud, in the Parisian suburbs
◦ Hometown: Paris
◦ Staycation: Anywhere away from the city. If it includes some sun and some water, I’m staycationning as long as possible please!
◦ Vacation: Marseille
◦ Pet: My dog, Norbert, a nano Dachshund with the face of an old moustached man.
◦ Place of work: My living room table and/or my terrace table.
◦ Place of workout: In a gym right down the street or in any spinning club. Yep, apparently I became one of those people.
◦ Mode of transport: My Vespa. Or my bicycle if I’m feeling active (=never).
◦ Bonus Travel Essential: 300 extra iPhone chargers.
Culture
◦ Artist: Matisse.
◦ Musician: I’ll pick two tracks instead: Right Down the Line by Gerry Rafferty and Amarsi un po’ de Lucio Battisti.
◦ Commercials / music video director: Ian Pons Jewell, Andreas Nilsson, Daniel Wolfe, Aiofe McArdle, Tim Bullock, Didier Barcelo, Rudi Rosenberg.
◦ Film director: The Coen Brothers.
◦ Photographer: Juliette Abitbol.
◦ Film: Basically every movie by the Coen Brothers with a special mention for Fargo and Arizona Junior. Also: Boccaccio ’70 (an Italian anthology directed by Fellini, Visconti, Monicelli & De Sica), Mankiewicz’s Eve, Grimault’s Le Roi et L’Oiseau… And I can’t not mention Les Visiteurs (a classic French comedy, the story of two medieval dudes stuck in modern times. Every time I tried to show it to a foreigner it’s been a total disaster).
◦ Series: The Office (US). Ex-aequo: Sex and the City (shamelessly).
◦ Commercial: Southern Comfort by Andreas Nilsson
◦ Music Video: Ninian Doff for Miike Snow’s 'Gengis Khan'
◦ Video Game: GTA. Taught me everything back in the days.
◦ Board Game: Backgammon.
◦ Book: Aurélien by Louis Aragon.
◦ Graphic Novel: Esther, by Riad Sattouf. Pure GENIUS.
◦ Podcast: Everybody tells me I should start listening to podcasts…
◦ Newspaper (off or online): Le Monde.
◦ Magazine: M le Monde.
◦ Bonus Culture Essential: A good old Trivial Pursuit. Always makes you realise you’ve stopped feeding your IQ around 5th grade.
Food and Drink
◦ Breakfast: Bread, butter and jam. French cliché.
◦ Restaurant: Le Grand Bain in Belleville.
◦ Cheap bite: Urfa Dürüm. A Kurdish sandwich (basically a light and fresh kebab). 58 rue du Faubourg st Denis 75010
◦ Working lunch: Mulko. Simple and tasty Israeli food. @mulkoparis 29 rue d’Enghein 75010 Paris.
◦ Dish: Grilled octopus.
◦ Snack: Bread and butter.
◦ Guilty Pleasure: Ice cream. Any kind, any flavour, everyday if I could.
◦ Bar: Chez Martin. Also great to eat. @martinboireetmanger 24 boulevard du Temple 75011 Paris
◦ Booze: RED WINE (Capital letters indicating the level of love)
◦ Not Booze: COFFEE (Capital letters indicating the level of love)
◦ Bonus Food: Did I mention bread and butter?
◦ Bonus Beverage: More wine, please. My favourite for the summer: Rosé Posey. Coolest rosé brand - and I’m not just talking about its temperature.
Kit
◦ Phone: iPhone, when it’s not lost or stolen.
◦ Computer: Macbook Pro forever.
◦ TV: Haven’t had TV for 15 years.
◦ Headphones: Apple or Bose.
◦ Camera: MJU ii
◦ Soundsystem: Wish I had one. If anyone’s feeling generous, DM me on @cloebailly
◦ Pen / pencil: A good old four-colours pen.
◦ Where you document an idea: On my agenda, in one of my 150 sloppy notebooks or on the Notes app in my phone.
◦ Casual Clothing: Levi’s denim + white t-shirt + sneakers. Ideally the Bellevue white tee by Gil Rodriguez.
◦ Smart Clothing: Levi’s denim + white t-shirt + little heels.
◦ Footwear: Converse or Adidas. Small heels when I’m feeling fancy.
◦ Watch: NEVER.
◦ Collection: Dresses. Ironically, I own way too many cute dresses I don’t wear enough.
◦ App: Instagram…………….
◦ Website: film-grab.com
◦ Work program: Final Draft, baby
◦ Digital work tool: Google. You should try it.
◦ Analogue work tool: My couch.
◦ Morning grooming / makeup essential: Showering is a good start. And if I had to pick ONE makeup item I couldn’t live without, it’d definitely be concealer.
◦ Bonus Kit Essential: A few extra hours sleep.
