Natalie Portman Emmanuel Salinger Lily-Rose Depp
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LES FILMS VELVET PRESENTS WORLD PREMIERE AT VENICE FILM FESTIVAL NATALIE& TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILMLILY-ROSE FESTIVAL - GALA EMMANUEL PORTMANFRANCE, BELGIUM 2016DEPP SALINGER French, English 105 minutes | Colour | DCP 4K Produced by: Frédéric Jouve (Les Films Velvet) Coproduced by: Les Films du Fleuve, Kinology, France 3 Cinéma, Proximus, RTBF (Télévision belge) Screenplay: Robin Campillo and Rebecca Zlotowski Cinematographer: George Lechaptois Editor: Julien Lacheray OFFICIAL SELECTION GALA Production Designer: Katia Wyszkop Costume Designer: Anaïs Romand Original music composed by Rob Aspect ratio: 2.35 Sound format: 5.1 Press in Toronto (US) Ryan Werner [email protected] + 1 917 254 7653 Martin Marquet [email protected] + 1 310 927 5789 Press in Venice (France & International) Monica Donati [email protected] + 33 6 23 85 06 18 Production Les Films Velvet Frédéric Jouve [email protected] +33 6 75 74 04 22 Marine Alaric alaric@lesfilmsvelvet +33 6 71 49 09 04 Sales (International + US) Kinology Grégoire Melin [email protected] +33 6 87 51 03 96 Gaëlle Mareschi [email protected] +33 6 63 03 28 97 A FILM BY REBECCA ZLOTOWSKI AMIRA CASAR PIERRE SALVADORI WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF LOUIS GARREL DAVID BENNENT DAMIEN CHAPELLE INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR REBECCA ZLOTOWSKI How did the idea for this film come about? Is this what led you to the spiritualism practiced by the Barlow sisters? It’s always difficult to answer that question without going into eve- Yes. Very rapidly, I became interested in the destiny of the Fox ry underlying stimulus that makes a given subject the right one, sisters, three American sisters and mediums in the late 19th cen- the one you’ll live with for three or four years, as is the case with tury who played an important role in spiritualism, the forerunner a film project. I could cite the critical political climate that sur- of Spiritism, and a great Americana myth. Their success was rounds us – submerges us – the desire to film a foreign actress considerable and they gave birth to a doctrine that would thrive who settles in France, to assert characters with powerful desti- with hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide, all the way nies, a strong longing to believe in fiction... to intellectual European circles... A less well-known episode fas- SYNOPSIS I felt a need to comment on the slippery twilight world we have cinated me: One year, a rich banker hired one of the sisters to Paris, late 1930s. Kate and Laura Barlow, two young entered into using storybook tools. I thought of something Duras incarnate the spirit of his late wife. I loved the story. It was the said that is so unsettling when you think about it: “We never know starting point of a totally Hitchcockian thriller... American spiritualists, finish their world tour. Fascinated what’s on the verge of changing.” by their gift, a powerful French film producer, André And on another level, I wanted to go further in my work with ac- But you left the world of finance for the world of cinema: Why? Korben, hires them to shoot a highly ambitious film. In tors. My first two films were shot over short periods and left me I wanted to make a French film, in my tongue. I began fantasizing the vortex of cinema, experiments and feelings, this new hungry for more. I felt an urge to explore this aspect. I wanted to about a European tour with the sisters, who were now only a two- family doesn’t see what Europe will soon go through. get my actors into trance-like states, explore possession rituals, some. I made the banker into a movie producer because to me the their physical manifestations – without going as far as Rouch in world of cinema resonates a hundred times more intensely with Les maîtres fous – even if, as the project evolved, this avenue spiritualism than the world of finance. Ghosts, specters, séances... would not play such a large role. Even the vocabulary is evocative... But I was put off by the 19th century Victorian setting, so I transposed the story to the 1930s, unaffectedness, a power to act, ambition that is not materialized through seduction, rather through the mind, intelligence and ca- pacity to adapt. The film also emphasizes the heroine’s need to renounce a certain harshness, her anesthetized sentiments and emotions, and totally let go, through and for the cinema. I think I often work on this in my films. In addition, we were bringing a huge American star to France to specifically talk about MittelEuropa – that cosmopolitan Paris where intellectuals from all over Europe mingled – and the pre- war period, which is a terrifying notion when you think about it. Our first conversations about the film coincided with the first wave of terrorist attacks in 2015 and I became aware of the country I lived in through the eyes of a foreigner. I saw France and Europe through her eyes. In saying this, are you trying to establish a likeness between the period we are going through and the end of the 30s? No, not directly. I’m neither an economist nor a historian, and drawing similarities would be naïve, precocious and imprecise. Yes, there is a strong rise of populism and we are in the midst of tremendous decline at all levels – moral, religious and political – but the eras cannot be superimposed. If the collective conception of the thirties seems contemporary on the surface, that’s okay with me as long as this echo incites people to think. In terms of fiction, the 30s carries a threat that is a true characteristic of the thriller genre. Simply said, we know something awful is going to happen; disaster is near, hanging over our heads. It’s a powerful narrative tool with meaning and atmosphere, and I needed it to evoke present times. Was it at this moment that screenwriter and filmmaker Robin Campillo intervened in the writing? You are also a screenwriter for other filmmakers, how did you apprehend this writing duo? I went to Robin with this basic outline: “In the Paris of the 30s, how can two American women meet a film producer strongly ins- pired by Bernard Natan?” Curiously enough, it was Eastern Boys, using a Jewish producer, the victim of a smear campaign that tional. Real elements (the porno slander, extracts from sharehol- What changes for a film when you know early on that a star of an impressive and deeply moving film that convinced me to go see would precipitate his fall... This was right after the sad affair of der meetings, etc.) are interwoven with purely imaginary ones. Natalie Portman’s status is part of the project? Robin rather than The Returned, which was written and directed Dieudonné and his anti-Semitism which affected me deeply, like I imagined the Fox sisters meeting with Bernard Natan, renamed I’ve always liked working with professional actors and I’d chosen by him, even though the series contained the know-how of a fa- all forms of racism. Barlow and Korben (which in Yiddish means “he who is sacri- stars in the past: Tahar Rahim, Léa Seydoux, Olivier Gourmet... bulous, powerful fantastic film that was original and realistic and ficed”), and the creation and fall of this strange family. The story So it was not totally new to my habits. had no special effects, like I wanted my film to be. Is that how another historical inspiration arose? Producer Bernard was there. But the presence of an American star in a French project creates When I met Robin Campillo to discuss this bit of a story, he said: Natan who was handed over by the French government to the a very particular sort of responsibility. What exactly does bringing “What interests me in your project, is that it’s the story of Moses Nazi occupants in 1942? At what moment did Natalie Portman come onboard? an American actress to France entail: It poses real cinemato- and Aron. It’s the story of two sisters, one of whom has a gift the Exactly. I didn’t need to search far to find this producer whose fall Very rapidly. She was almost unconsciously connected to the film graphic questions. Which language will be spoken? What does it other doesn’t have, but the other one can sell it.” This allusion to had been programmed. He had existed. Bernard Natan was a rich from the start. mean for the French public? For French backers? For the other the legend of Moses and Aron, where Moses understands divine movie producer of Rumanian origin, a naturalized French citizen I met Natalie Portman ten years ago through two mutual friends actors? You must always consider the emotions aroused when ac- thought but doesn’t know how to transmit it, and Aron, a master and Croix de guerre who had started from nothing. He acquired who are my link between the United States and France. We met tors find themselves together on a set. orator who falsifies ideas the second he formulates them, seemed Pathé Cinéma in 1929 and was the victim of an anti-Semitic cam- practically on the day I found out I’d received CNC (French Na- When Natalie Portman joined the project, it made an impact on incredibly rich to me. The guiding line for the girls was there. A paign. He was dismissed from his post, stripped of his French na- tional Center for Cinematography) funding for Dear Prudence... the casting, on people’s commitment to the film. Her acting has powerful, secret sorority. An unshakeable bond based on a total tionality, and sent by French authorities to Auschwitz via Drancy.