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yuki yuki & & A film by A film - 2009 / 92 min / color / 35 mm / Dolby SRD 2009 / 92 min / color / 35 mm / Dolby France-Japan Suwa Nobuhiro

graphic design : & Nobuhiro Suwa A film by Hippolyte Girardot yuki &

nina

Yuki, nine years old, learns are that her parents nine years old, Yuki, is and her mother is French, Her father separating. Japanese. her mother to to follow She is going to have starting leaving everything behind in Paris, Japan, and Yuki Together, with her best friend Nina. her parents to get schemes in order Nina devise the only seems like Running away together. back will be their new solution in the end - the forest destination. synopsis

director’s notes by hippolyte girardot & nobuhiro suwa at achild’s height time,first I wanted somethingelse. after allissaidanddone, Iwas theonlyoneincontrol. Here, for the collaboration with the actors in my films, striving to go further. But NS : I have always looked for a deeper involvement and for me, andIliked that. proposition, that I accepted immediately. It was a new experience together andco-direct it. Itwas suchanunlikely andsurprising to work together. astory hisdesire towrite Hespoke tomeabout And thenhetelephonedmetosaywould much very like for us great deal. teenagers, Ihadmade somesuper8films.a Thatinterested him becoming anactor:from improvisational work donewithyoung One day I told him about a particular experience I had before even times, speakingagreat deal, andwe enjoyed theseconversations. Couple, andwanted themale toseemeabout role. We metseveral HG :ImetSuwa inMay2004. Hewas afilm, preparing A Perfect an encounter desire toapproachthemasafull-fledgedoutsider. one thatisentirely detachedfrom adultinfluence. Forme, it was the by adults. We cannot approachchildren’s existenceinapure way, them:it’s avisionofchildren adultsinterpret internalized in which children are shown according toanadults’ pointofview, theway wesee what coulddowithchildren infilm. Ibelieve thatgenerally, to show children inamovie, anditwas alsoachallengefor meto a couple’s separation. But above all, what interested me was how previous film, A Perfect Couple,which already tackled the theme of NS :Yuki’s from couldbethereverse my angleofthestory story is theway Yuki cametobe. Shewas ourMadameBovary. perceptions couldcometogether was through-this anotherperson or private self;butasthere were two ofus, theonlyway ourpersonal When someonemakes afilm, heorshespeaksfrom hisorherinner see bitsofourselvesinthischaracter, yetdistance. withacertain we hadnever been, thatistosayalittlegirl, allowed bothofusto HG : The fact thatwe were projecting ourselvesontosomething ofalittlegirl the story father-child relationship, we justneededtorelate thechild’s vision. to write the screenplay, but in the end, rather than speak about the as I, we are fathers. On that basis, we had many discussions in order NS : One of the first discussions that Hippolyte and I had, was that he been achildwas we what hadmostincommon. area, more thantheparents, was commonground for us. Having where we had something in common was this little girl. This subject Perfect Couple;theotherreason, Inow believe, isthattheonearea reasons was becauseitwas somethingthatSuwa hadjustdonein A to draw thefilmtowards ofaseparating couple. thestory Oneofthe in reference to his or her understanding of the world. We didn’t want HG :Ourideawas, from theoutset, tobe “at theheightofchild” incredible. It is something we lose because of reality, because of our HG : When you are achild, thepower oftheimagination is children incinema to happens Exactly what Yuki. change thefilmbecause of the weather, toadapt, andto “survive”. the screenplay. When we arrivedinJapan, we were also obligedto moment, into ofreasons that hadbeenwritten aheap ignoring to goaheadinorder togrow up, was improvised, found inthe when Yuki isalone onherrock, andsuddenly makes thedecision of reference, lost and searching for our film. And so, the moment a “magic” place. We too, Suwa andI, were alone, withoutpoints to theother, alsobecame for us, intheprocess ofmaking thefilm, HG : The forest, which became a point of passage from one world without theirfamily’s influence. family’s socialcommunity, children aworld would where goalone, This forest also represents a place that would be outside of the expressed ourcommonapproachwithHippolyte. be a point of passage, which by way of cinema, became real and hadasenseofdualbelonging.story Ithoughtthattheforest could exchanges between France andJapan, andIrealized thatthis in aforest. theprocess, during Ithappened for there were many NS : At thebeginning, we neitherintendedtoshootinJapan, nor and japan the forest, amagic placebetween france our optionsopen. That proved complicated, tobe very becauseyou We never wanted a shooting toestablish “method”, inorder tokeep was auniqueway ofworking. would come, we could thenconfront ourpoints ofview onthefilm. It in amuch more significant way thanIhad imagined. WhenSuwa here in France, my responsibility required me to delve into the film difficulty was thepreparationwhile we together.weren’t As I was As the film predominantly takes place in France, the greatest film becameanew ofwriting,form thusanew adventure. thin screenplay, itmust havepages. beenthirty Then, directing the shooting. Miraculously, we gotthemoney tomake thefilmwitha very conditions so that the characters could really improvise during the worked on his other films: have a canvas, and successfully create the screenplay, with dialogues. We wanted to work the way Suwa had HG : From the beginning we didn’t want an overly written two making afilm it was ofthefilmthat theirunderstanding was essential. it,about andthenbrought alottoit. More thandirecting, I would say level than that of language. They well assimilated the film, thought understood the film, and communication was established on another common language. was Butwhat positive, really isthatthelittlegirls Noé/Yuki, moreover who was actingfor time, thefirst there a wasn’t we understand one another. While with children, for example with With actors who are grown-ups, we exchange a few sentences and that,NS :Itistrue generally speaking, itisdifficulttofilmchildren. enigma. it creates adesire, we’re attracted toit, we are really sucked intothe impenetrability, we thatplacewhere cannotgo. And asaspectator, secretive. And Ifindthatthefilm well recountsthis mystery, this tobreak through.able Shetoldusthatinreality, achildisextremely andinnerdepththatwecharacter ofmystery are never asort her shot, toheractivities. thenamomentlaterreturn This gives the strength. She didn’t get worked up, she would concentrate on discreet andmodest,is very butalsofrank, sheisfullofconfident Yuki was ourlucky break. make Pretending didn’t sensetoher. She when heorsheisinfrontfind inachild ofacamera. Studio. difficultto Freshness andinnocenceare thingsthatare very much modelthemselves assomeactors afteranactoron Actors watchwho alotoftelevision modelthemselves they afterwhat see, the charactersofchildren,American dubbedinFrench. Children imitate already made images they would seeontelevision, through before, and several times I saw some who despite their efforts, would Yuki’s character. Iwas becauseIhadactedwithchildren nervous Suwa was much thejustnessof more confidentthanIconcerning isgoodatchangingreality.someone who lives asadults. from childisanartist thestart, Every for heorsheis can’t work with children eight hours a day. We never had enough Nobuhiro Suwa was born in (Japan) in 1960. time, and we had to constantly improvise, shot after shot. Our choices His second feature M/Other was presented in Cannes at Directors’ were made in a rush and that ended up being plain luck. Like a Fortnight in 1999 (FIPRESCI award). sailboat when the wind picks up. The one who is nearest the sails Currently, he’s the superintendent of the University of Tokyo Zokei. takes charge. There wasn’t an area reserved for one or the other. For editing, once again we couldn’t be together. We worked out a kind of parallel editing. He edited in Japan, and I edited in France. Hippolyte Girardot was born in Boulogne- Billancourt in 1955. Then we would exchange files. It was probably the most difficult He started as an actor with Le destin de Juliette by Aline Issermann. part, because Suwa and I had very different visions of the film. Our Then, he played with Jean-Luc Godard, , Eric Rochant. personal vision of film was coming through. Finally what guided us, In the last few years, he played in the films by , once again, was Yuki’s character: What is this little girl’s story? What and Amos Gitaï. Yuki & Nina is his first feature as a happened to her? What is important to her? director.

NS : When we were shooting, we talked about how to divide up the biographies work. We didn’t want to unnecessarily duplicate things, and yet we didn’t necessarily react the same way. During the shooting phase, the simplest idea finally, was that Hippolyte direct the actors more closely in French, and that I supervise more the scenes as a whole. But he was closest to the actors. For the editing, at the beginning the idea was that I would do a rough cut with my team in Japan, and then I would send the result to the French team. There was a lot of going back and forth, it was a very long and arduous process. Co-directing was a great experience for me. When I see the film now, there are moments that I still can’t understand, things that I would never have imagined in this way. But that is possibly also what I was looking for when I launched into this project. Thanks to this collaboration, I better understand my ego, my desire to make films. I better understand my own cinema, what I know how to do, and what I want to do. Nobuhiro Suwa, as a director: 2/Duo /1997 - Rotterdam International Film Festival, NETPAC Prize HG : Through this first experience behind the camera, I learned M/Other / 1999 - Cannes Film Festival, Directors’ Fortnight FIPRESCI Prize that there is a whole creative fabrication process in film that I never H Story / 2001- Cannes Film Festival, Un Certain Regard imagined when I was an actor, where everything is played out in A Letter From Hiroshima / 2002 - Locarno Film Festival, Golden Leopard (video) the moment. It is more like painting where, little by little, something Un couple parfait / 2004 - Locarno Film Festival, Jury Special Prize and CICIAE Prize appears. It is not just a stroke, but the same thing started over again, Paris je t’aime ! / 2005 - Cannes Film Festival, Un Certain Regard rubbed out, shortened, drawn out, moved. It’s quite a long and quite a complex working process, both physical and intellectual. Doing this work four-handed (not to say many more) has given Hippolyte Girardot, as an actor: the film, to my eyes still today, a mysterious, occult, impenetrable Le destin de Juliette by Aline Issermann / 1983 dimension that I find in Noë/Yuki’s eyes. Prénom Carmen by Jean-Luc Godard / 1983 The film is a place of encounter, a place where something is made Fort Saganne by / 1984 by several people. You make a film, and the film makes you - it shapes Manon des sources by Claude Berri / 1986 you as well. You are not the same afterwards, because you have told Un monde sans pitié by Eric Rochant / 1989 Hors la vie by Maroun Bagdagi / 1991 a story, and this story told with others, has changed you. You have filmographies created a world, and this world has created you. Le parfum d’Yvonne by / 1994 Dans la compagnie des hommes by Arnaud Desplechin / 2003 Lady Chatterley by Pascale Ferran / 2006 Le voyage du ballon rouge by Hou Hsio Hsien / 2007 Un conte de Noël by Arnaud Desplechin / 2008 Plus tard tu comprendras by Amos Gitaï / 2008

Directed & written by Nobuhiro Suwa & Hippolyte Girardot Camera Josée Deshaies Sound Dominique Lacour, Raphaël Girardot, Olivier Dô Huu, Takeshi Ogawa Set designers Emmanuel de Chauvigny, Véronique Barnéoud, China Suzuki

credits Editing Hisako Suwa & Laurence Briaud Music Foreign Office, composed par Lily Margot et Doc Mateo Production Comme des Cinémas (France) Co-production Les Films du Lendemain (France), ARTE France Bitters End (Japan) World Sales Films Distribution

Yuki Noë Sampy Nina Arielle Moutel Yuki’s Mother TSUYU Yuki’s Father Hippolyte Girardot cast Nina’s Mother Marilyne Canto