A Film by Olivier Assayas
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DEMONLOVER A film by Olivier Assayas Distributor Contact: New Yorker Films 220 East 23rd St., Ste. 409 New York, NY 10010 Tel: (212) 645-4600 Fax: (212) 683-6805 [email protected] DEMONLOVER CREDITS Directed by OLIVIER ASSAYAS Written by OLIVIER ASSAYAS Producer EDOUARD WEIL XAVIER GIANNOLI Dir. Of Photography DENIS LENOIR Editor LUC BARNIER Sound PHILIPPE RICHARD Music SONIC YOUTH CAST Diane CONNIE NIELSEN Herve CHARLES BERLING Elise CHLOE SEVIGNY Elaine GINA GERSHON Volf JEAN-BAPTISTE MALARTRE Karen DOMINIQUE REYMOND Friend of Diane JULIE BROCHEN www.NewYorkerFilms.com France, 2002 117 min, Color In French and Japanese with English Subtitles 2.35, Dolby Digital 2 SYNOPSIS Demonlover is Olivier Assayas’ breathtaking vision of our spectacle-driven modern global society. On the surface, the film follows Diane (Connie Nielsen) who works for VolfGroup, a hugely powerful conglomerate that is negotiating the acquisition of TokyoAnime, whose revolutionary pornographic 3-D manga is set to annihilate the competition in an extraordinarily lucrative market. Two companies are battling for exclusive rights to Volf’s new images on the Web: magnatronics and Demonlover. MAgnatronics has recruited Diane to torpedo Demonlover from within and she finds a connection with the latter company and an interactive torture Web site known as “The Hellfire Club.” However, Diane is soon challenged every step of the way by her amoral colleague (Charles Berling), and antagonistic and mysterious assistant (Chloe Sevigny) and an outspoken, pot-smoking American executive (Gina Gershon). Brilliantly shot by Denis Lenoir (who previously collaborated with Assayas on films such as Late August, Early September and Cold Water), the film captures a culture spiraling out of control in which reality is posited as a video game and where every twist escalates the film to a new level. 3 INTERVIEW WITH OLIVIER ASSAYAS INTERVIEWER: “Demonlover”, coming as it does after the period film “Les Destinees Sentimentales”, indicates on your part a desire for renewal, a wish to extend your relationship with cinema. OLIVER ASSAYAS: Having made a historical drama, I wanted to move onto something entirely modern. I had just finished “Les Destinees Sentimentales”, which I had worked on for a very long time. I felt that I’d seen it through successfully and that it was perhaps on of the last of its type. I was free of it at last and I wanted to write again. But I had the feeling, since “Fin Aout Debut September”, of having reached the end of something of a largely autobiographical exploration. I had to start again at zero. It was both daunting and thrilling. I needed a project, which wouldn’t be overshadowed by “Les Destinees” and I thought about what most excited me in contemporary cinema. I questioned myself about what is crucial in modern cinema, about how it could best be used to give an account of today’s world. INTERVIEWER: One senses in “Demonlover” an inspiration nourished by the outside world, by less overtly personal considerations than your earlier films… OLIVER ASSAYAS: I sought to open myself as much as possible to the aspects of this modernity that touched me. Reading the novels of Don De Lilio was hugely important. His books showed me the possibility of making new connections between elements of the contemporary world, of giving an account of the reality, which surrounds us in a new form. INTERVIEWER: The writing is also very different: everything tends towards action, the dialogue is really stripped down and not at all literary. How did you develop the script? OLIVER ASSAYAS: From the beginning I imagined a film that would explore the relations of power as sex between women working for a big company. In the first version, it was an experimental film, pretty abstract and I wasn’t sure that It could be brought to the screen, that people would understand it at all. I even thought that in the current climate of French cinema, it was impossible. I gave the script to Edward Jacques Fieschi, who showed it to Xavier Giannoli. It was after conversations I had with Edouard Weil and Xavier Giannoli, after hearing what they had to say about the script, that I realized the story was worth a try. I rewrote it, changing the structure and enriching the characters and their relationships, treating it almost as research. I thought that it could become something like “Ima Vep”, which I had been able to make for very little money. The script grew progressively richer. I was free to include everything that I wanted to deal with, above all, our relationship with images, the emotions they convey, and the way in which they influence not only our imagination, but also our social behavior, professional, personal, erotic… INTERVIEWER: Before even the question of their power, the film concerns itself with the manufacture and dissemination of these images. Rather as “Les Destinees Sentimentales” was concerned with the industrial aspects of cognac and porcelain… OLIVER ASSAYAS: Certainly, the people who work for the Volf Group are not unlike those at Barnery at the beginning of the last century. There’s even a shot in the manga studio which is literally identical to one in the porcelain factor in “Les Destinees Sentimentales”: it amused me to film it in the same way. Certainly, since “Les Destinees” I have become somewhat obsessive 4 about the way in which things are made, sold, circulated. It was difficult to recreate the workings of a company like Volf, or of a Japanese animation studio, because I knew very little about them! It was a major research job, as my knowledge of the areas of graphics and animation was limited. All the extras were professional animators; in addition, they rehearse very seriously… INTERVIEWER: Diane (Connie Nielsen) penetrates this violent, sexual virtual universe believing she can control it. But, wanting to control the production and circulation of these images, she becomes their unknowing victim… OLIVER ASSAYAS: I liked the idea that Diane, but also the other characters as well, should be “influenced” by the rules, which they make, but which go beyond them. The world of images is, in a way, a collective unconscious. I wanted to make a film, which moves between the real world and the world of images, which allows us to pass freely from one to the other, if not without danger... INTERVIEWER: When Diane watches the warrior-figure annihilating his enemies, she seems to identify with him. This leads us into the mystery of the character who appears ‘programmed’, but who fails… OLIVER ASSAYAS: It’s also true of Elise (Chloe Sevigny) when we watch her playing video games. For me the characters are contaminated by these images which reflect the fantast they have of themselves back at them. Diane took shape gradually. I began with a vague idea, a feeling, which wasn’t clearly formulate. I discovered her as I wrote, but retained the mystery she poses for others and for herself. She’s an oneiric character. I didn’t know her to begin with. But- and particularly in the case of this film – the truth of the character is very much determined by the actor. When I met Connie Nielsen, I immediately had the unnerving sensation that I was meeting my character. INTERVIEWER: Why did you decide on an international cast? OLIVER ASSAYAS: Little by little as the characters came alive, shaped by their own unconscious logic, I had the feeling that I wouldn’t be able to film with French actors. I was worried that they would ask me questions about their characters, the reasons for their behaviors, their psychology, and wasn’t sure I had the answers. A lot of actresses would be frightened (of playing) Diane and Elise. Very quickly, I realized that the character of Diane could take an entirely new dimension if played by an actress from cinema’s nerve centre, that’s to say Hollywood. I gave the script to Scott MacCaulay and Robin O’Hara, Harmony Korine’s producers. They understood the story and - what I wanted to do with it- right away and helped me organize casting in the US. I wasn’t entirely convinced, but I went all the same, to see the idea through. All the actors I met with understood the film perfectly, some of them better than I did myself! It was very stimulating to feel both understood and encouraged. For many there remained the language problem. That’s where Connie Nielsen came in. Her identity is difficult to define, which made her even more interesting to me. She has a perfect Hollywood filmography, she speaks fluent French, but comes from Denmark. She possesses the natural authority of a film star, at the same time giving the impression of coming from nowhere- exactly the qualities I needed for Diane. As for Charles Berling, he didn’t cross my mind at the beginning: his character needed a strongly physical, primitive, disturbing presence. But he has an enormous capacity for transformation, he’s an actor capable of playing anything. 5 INTERVIEWER: Chloe Sevigny- an icon of American independent cinema- comes from yet another world. Her presence adds yet another dimension… OLIVER ASSAYAS: She asked to read the script and really wanted to be in the film. When we met, I asked myself which role she could play: for me, Elise was French, without question. And Chloe doesn’t speak a word of French! Despite everything, I told myself this was really the right time to make a film with her; that she possesses an incredible cinematic presence, which would soon make her inaccessible to me. I had to change everything about Elise.