BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP ICH.DARF.NICHT.SCHLAFEN Ein Film von Rowan Joffe Nah dem internationalen Bestseller von S.J Watson mit Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman und Mark Strong Kinostart : 13. November 2014 Dauer: 92 min. Download Fotos : http://www.frenetic.ch/fr/espace-pro/details//++/id/909 Pressebetreuung VERLEIH Jasmin Linder FRENETIC FILMS AG Prochaine ag Bachstrasse 9 • 8038 Zürich [email protected] Tél. 044 488 44 00 • Fax 044 488 44 11 www.frenetic.ch Synopsis Die 47-jährige Schriftstellerin Christine Lucas (Nicole Kidman) ist nach einem schrecklichen Unfall, den sie in ihren Zwanzigern hatte, unfähig, neue Erinnerungen zu behalten. Sie wacht jeden Tag auf und kann sich weder an den vorhergehenden Tag noch an irgendetwas aus den vergangenen Jahren erinnern. Ihr Ehemann Ben (Colin Firth) und ein Videotagebuch helfen ihr jeden Morgen auf's Neue, ihr Leben zu rekonstruieren. Doch an eine baldige Verbesserung ihres Zustandes ist nicht zu denken. Deswegen besucht sie den Psychologen Dr. Nash (Mark Strong), der ihr helfen soll, Erinnerungen länger zu behalten. Mit ihm begibt sie sich auf eine aufwühlende Reise in die eigene Vergangenheit, bei der sie sich irgendwann nicht nur fragen muss, wem sie noch trauen kann, sondern auch, wer sie selbst eigentlich ist. 2 Besetzung Christine Nicole Kidman Ben Colin Firth Dr. Nasch Mark Strong Claire Anne-Marie Duff Ben Réel Charlie Gardiner Adam (14 Jahre) Dean Charles Chapman Adam (8 Jahre) Flynn Macarthur Dr. Wilton Juliet Stevenson Gardien Entrepot Ben Crompton Infirmière Psychiatrique Llewella Gideon Stab Regisseur Rowan Joffé Nach dem internationalen Bestseller von S.J. Watson Produzentin Liza Marshall Produzent Mark Gill Produzent Matt O’Toole Ko-Produzent Peter Heslop Ausführender Produzent Ridley Scott Kamera Ben Davis Tonmischung Simon Hayes Schnitt Melanie Ann Oliver Produktionsdesign Kave Quinn Kostüm Michele Clapton Musik Edward Shearmur Casting Nina Gold 3 ABOUT THE PRODUCTION A tip-off from a friend in the publishing world first alerted producer Liza Marshall to an exciting new book, which had just been delivered. It was early 2010 and Marshall, the head of film and TV at Scott Free London, the UK production company owned by Ridley Scott, managed to get hold of a proof copy of the book called Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson. “It was completely brilliant,” recalls Marshall, who was previously head of drama at UK broadcaster Channel 4. “I read it in one sitting.” Marshall got hold of Watson’s email “through slight subterfuge” as the film rights to the book were already attracting much interest. She wrote to tell him Scott Free London wanted to option his book. While at Channel 4, Marshall had worked on two critically acclaimed projects with UK director Rowan Joffé. They were his directorial debut Secret Life, and The Shooting Of Thomas Hurndall, for which Joffé had won a BAFTA award for best fiction director. Joffé had since written and directed a bold take on Brighton Rock and written an original thriller called The American, which was directed by Anton Corbjn and starred George Clooney. Marshall had been looking for a new project on which they could collaborate and believed Joffé would be perfect to both write the adaptation and direct a feature version of Before I Go To Sleep. Joffé first read Watson’s novel while on holiday in Portugal. “I read Steve’s book by the pool, pretty much in one sitting,” Joffé recalls. “I was so enthused I started telling the story to my wife. I then became aware various other members of my family had stopped splashing about in the pool and were all listening to the story. From that moment on I got the bug and felt I absolutely had to make this.” The filmmaker also felt a personal connection to the story as his mother had suffered amnesia following a brain haemorrhage 10 years earlier. “I remember walking into her hospital room and her not recognising who I was,” says Joffé. Marshall and Joffé convinced Watson they were the best team to transform his book into film. It then took them a year to reach a draft script with which both Marshall and Joffé were happy. One of the biggest challenges of taking the written story to the screen was how to portray the diary in which Christine writes. Much of the dynamism of Watson’s novel takes place within Christine as she struggles to comprehend the emotional impact of her always-new reality. Marshall describes the breakthrough moment when they realised it should become a video diary. “Suddenly the script came alive. It became an even better part for an actress because you’ve got acting inside the camera and acting to the camera and it’s such an intense part to play. “We always thought it was Christine’s film,” Marshall continues. “We’re understanding what it must be like to wake up every morning and not remember who you are. You think you are 27 but actually you are 40. Half your life has gone by without you knowing it. How distressing and discombobulating that must be.” Watson was happy not to be involved in the film adaptation process. “This is Rowan’s vision,” he explains. “I’m excited by seeing what someone else can bring to it and seeing a different take on the material. It’s like revisiting an old friend who has moved on a little and changed.” 4 Nicole Kidman plays Christine The role of Christine is a demanding one as the character is in every scene and voyages through tremendous highs and lows. To keep the audience engaged by the character, it was imperative to attract a high-calibre actress to the role. Academy Award-winner Nicole Kidman had tracked the project from an early stage after reading Joffé’s script. “From the minute I read the script it got under my skin,” says Kidman. “That’s such a good thing, because with characters and particularly with something that’s sparse like this, it’s still very gripping. The book itself has been such a huge hit, so now when I say to people, “Oh I did the film of Before I Go To Sleep”, they say, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t wait to see that.’” “She absolutely loved it,” confirms Marshall of Kidman’s passion for the project. “She pursued us for the part and was committed to Christine from the beginning. She’s absolutely perfect and I have always admired her as an actress. She’s incredibly brave and chooses such interesting parts. Playing Christine, you are immediately sympathetic towards her and her dilemma. You want to find out why she has got like this.” Christine is compelling as she is a character in search of her character and Kidman captures Christine’s vulnerability perfectly. “What’s so fascinating about Nicole’s performance is how quiet it is and how much is going on around her eyes and in the expressions of her face,” says Joffé. “She will go through myriad expressions in a few seconds. The movie has a lot of close-ups to get the audience as close to Christine’s experience as possible.” This is the second time Kidman has worked with her co-star Colin Firth. She was delighted to have him join the project having just completed Railway Man together. “For me, I get to play opposite one of the greatest actors in the world, so I’m always like, offer Colin everything!” she laughs. “I just love working with him. He’s so easy, he’s extremely nuanced and yet he’s a listener. When you’re in a scene with him, he listens and he responds; that’s the greatest acting, because you never know what’s going to happen in a scene and you have to be willing to dance together and move and not have a plan. For some reason, Colin and I just click on that level. I enjoy him. He’s so funny, he’s got that very dry English wit. But on camera there’s some pretty brutal things and some pretty scary things and there’s some stuff that he has to do that was upsetting, but was 5 necessary for the movie and necessary for it to have that weight and that believability. ”Kidman’s co-stars, Colin Firth, who plays Christine’s husband Ben, and Mark Strong, who plays Dr Nasch, praise the actress’s phenomenal technique. “The way Nicole works is chasteningly authentic,” reveals Firth. “I feel like I have to be at the top of my game. I can’t lie. I can’t be lazy about it. If I try to sell her a bill of goods in a scene and it’s not true, I’ll see it in her face. I’ll lose her. I’ve got to convince her.” The two actors used a degree of improvisation in their scenes together. “The writing is a series of options, of possibilities,” is how Firth describes how the two actors approached the script. “It’s rather like a jazz theme. You have your melody and you realise that according to what your colleagues are doing you a might have to take that down a different route.” The two actors worked with Joffé on the script at Firth’s home and over Skype with Kidman. “As a writer-director it’s a fantastic experience when an actor engages with a screenplay to the extent they want to bring stuff to it,” says Joffé. “It’s a challenge too because you don’t want the script to become overly detailed or fussy.