Paris on DVD

Elise has three children; she lives alone and is a social worker. She has a brother. She is faced with the dailygrind of Paris and it isn’t easy. She’s fighting a permanent battle and she evolves during the story.

Yes I do, very well. I’ve got a pretty good memory. We spent an afternoon together during BAD BLOODbecause I had to throw a little bit of paper out of a window, and he had some kind of compressed air gunwith which he had to direct the paper’s fall so it went exactly where it should go! So we spent a few hourstogether and I remember him because he was sweet, a little embarrassed and a little shy.

I’ve met several directors who have demonstrated a desire to be surprised and a need for control. I’veoften sensed him thinking and I’ve also had the privilege to see him give way to great bursts of laughterand tears, too.

No, because I’ve met quite a few directors, some of whom are actors’ directors and others who leave you completely free. I’ve really lived the extremes. Cédric really does have that capacity to intellectually enter ascene. He explains what you just did, and mentally, you go through what he thought, and then afterwards,he indicates the direction in which he wants to go. Sometimes it doesn’t help me much: I don’t work with my mind. Although saying that, I remember the expression he wore to make me understand what he wasthinking and it was great. That was during the scene when I have to leave Mélanie’s apartment.

I didn’t really want to take much notice of it, because I began by shooting quite a few scenes with Romain I tried to find a spontaneous rapport with Cédric, a direction we could move in together. I’d say that there was a period of adaptation. I had the feeling that Cédric was a little apprehensive too, because working with new actors is always a little bit frightening. Romain and I really connected in the film, probably because our characters have a brother/sister relationship that is enduring and yet full of tension. It’s a very special kind of love. In his film, Cédric really wanted to talk about that in relation to his life and his story. He saw that two actors could have that relationship and was very happy about that, I think. Romain and I felt it. So it was more like being in a trio than in a couple with a third person.

I saw him mainly in Cédric’s films, and in THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED by Audiard. He has a complexity of joie de vivre, rapidity and a contemporary character who is loved and loves being loved, and who also has hidden weaknesses. That combination gives him his humanity and his complexity and that’s why I loved working with him and being close to him.

I saw BERNIE and LOCKED OUT. He has his universe, his madness, and an intense desire to be loved. We only shot for a few days together, but there was a mutual admiration and intensity I think. Being in very different worlds brings you closer in the end.

I wanted to be part of a group and shoot in my city. To me, it was an opportunity to both come back home, and step into other universes. What attracted me wasn’t so much acting, but knowing other people through performance. Those are the kinds of encounters that pass between four eyes: sometimes there are encounters that surprise us; with the director, the actors and with the team, too. These encounters touch the most hidden parts of oneself, the intimate parts. In the end, intimacy is what interests me most.

The banks of the Seine… that’s what I like best, I think. Walking along the Seine at night and during the day. The lights, the river… The water goes by, the bridges, and the idea of being outside of the current. And then there’s Pont Neuf, of course! There are other bridges linked to my life – the Pont des Arts reminds me of RENDEZ-VOUS and Pont Marie of my psychiatrist!

Q&A with ROMAIN DURIS

Pierre is a dancer who can’t dance any more because he’s sick. He’s waiting for a heart transplant and only has a 40% chance of survival. He’s on standby, and is experiencing all the anxiety, hope and mystery that come with such a wait. Cédric told me the more I work on the dancing, the more I’d feel like a dancer and the more frustrated I’d be that he didn’t ask me to dance and that would nourish the character. Cédric went even deeper into his characters’ emotions; he went into their hearts – and the irony of this story is that it is precisely there that my character is suffering.

Pierre is a long way from Xavier in L’AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE and RUSSIANDOLLS…

Cédric and I wanted to mark the contrast and move away from Xavier. One could be in danger of being in a similar acting register, of resembling the rhythm of L’AUBERGE, so we took a character who was diametrically opposed to Xavier. Which explains the idea of this “borderline” character with his health problems. He’s weak, and has nothing like the lively nature Xavier could have. Here we have a character who has his feet firmly on the ground, because he’s wondering how much longer he’s going to be there. The idea of making him a dancer came afterwards. There was also a desire that the differences should be physical, too.

You could have given a dancer longer hair because when you dance, it can be beautiful. But the idea was that the character couldn’t hide behind it. That he has something very upfront and very honest about him. That he could look at himself in the mirror and say: “I’m sick and that’s the way it is”.

In the beginning, Cédric didn’t know whether he wanted to do a filmed flashback or whether he was just going to have photos. I pushed him to film that scene by saying it would be great to see Pierre dancing. We didn’t know we were going to be able to film it, and whether or not we’d get permission. But once we had the green light, there was less than a week left to shoot. Suddenly, we were in a hurry. I had three days to learn the choreography. I had already been dancing for some months, preparing for the role, and the choreography for the party scene with Olivia Bonamy, but I was still amazed to see just how much you can do when you’re right into the character.

Cédric told me about Kurosawa’s LIVING, because he liked the lead character who has cancer. Cédric wanted me to see just how strong this character is, how his vision of things changes and how he sees others. He is sick. He knows his days are numbered, but he becomes much more active and more courageous in helping people. I watched lots of other films that helped me including Isabel Coixet’s MY LIFE WITHOUT ME with Sarah Polley and THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE with Daniel Day-Lewis. I also read lots of great stuff like Ryokan, a Japanese poet who I’d recommend. The danger with a character like Pierre is being too pathetic. I really like the fact that Cédric combined his pain with some very realthings.

Yes and no. I was very well prepared in advance and I’d thought a lot about the subject. And I wondered if I wasn’t going to maybe have to shut myself up in a bubble in order to stay concentrated. And finally I realized that the deeper it was, the more I needed to laugh. So the shoot was like the ones Cédric and I have done before, similar to and with the same energy as L’AUBERGE and DOLLS.

I was happy it was Juliette. Cédric introduced us a year before shooting began. Juliette has thatgenerosity that I’d admired in her films. She knows how to listen and receive emotions like nobody else, and what she gives back just knocks you out. Juliette really moved me.

It’s not frustration; it’s more that it makes me want to hook up with some of them again.

Yes, it’s good. It’s a Klapisch world. The idea of a group and of human experiences are pretty important to Cédric, that and everything everyone has to give and how they give it. I talked about it with lots of different people from the team and they love it because they feel respected. He makes them indispensable to the project but it’s not a big deal.

Cédric has taken on even more charisma and maturity. I have this image of him on set, from the top of his travelling car, steering his troop through winds and tides in the middle of the chaos of Paris, even controlling the stop lights, evaluating the sun’s precious remaining rays, and going from Luchini to Cluzet to Duris, directing with precision, hastily and yet smiling – a real conductor of an orchestra, an imperial figure, owing nothing to nobody except to his film.

I love Belleville for its Chinese supermarkets, its cafes that mean nothing and yet tell so much, its park and its amazing view over Paris. And there are people everywhere and I love that too.

The DVD is out on February 2nd, it runs for 123 mins and retails for £19.99 on DVD,but is currently on Amazon at the link above for £12.38.

Vote and comment on this DVD:View CommentsView the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>News page content input by Dominic Robinson, 2009.