Catherine Deneuve on "The Girl on the Train"

France being the “guest of honor” of the 2009 Taormina Film Fest, the festival was in turn honored by a visit of Catherine Deneuve, one the most prolific French actresses who in her long career has worked and with almost every important European filmmaker in the last thirty years (from Bunuel over Polanski and Truffaut to Lars van Trier). Deneuve was in Taormina presenting her newest film “The Girl on the Train” directed by Andre Techine.

At a press conference during the festival, she talks about her role as a French icon, why she has not made many US movies and explains her attitude towards TV work. She describes how Techine fictionalized the actual news story of a seemingly antisemitic event in Paris, but refuses to answer direct questions on anti-Semitism.

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"The US films that were proposed to me I would not have done even in my own language"

What do you think of your role as a symbol for French beauty? At one time, you were chosen to represent the “Marianne”, a national emblem in France.

Catherine Deneuve: I have the impression that I am more a French symbol than a beauty symbol. At the beginning, I was in movies because I was handsome – that is normal when you start your career when you are sixteen or seventeen. I was very happy to be chosen as a “Marianne” especially since I was not married and had a child – it showed that things had changed since the end of the war.

What is your relationship with the media?

Catherine Deneuve: Cinema critics and the media are different. You cannot have a relationship with film critics. I admire some of them, but I think it is inappropriate to have a personal relationship.

You have worked in other languages. But you never worked in English.

Catherine Deneuve: It is not my own choice – it was other peoples’ choices. For a French actress it is very difficult to make a film that is not in her native language. I think an actor looses a great deal when working in a foreign language. I made films which did not work very well since they were not aligned with US producers’ interests.

In America, they have excellent actresses; they don’t need European actresses. Although there were quite a few Italian actresses that went to the US, that had to do with the fact that they married Americans. So these were special circumstances. American movies have become much more realistic, so there are very few foreign actresses.

The US films that were proposed to me I would not have done even in my own language, so I refused.

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"The enthusiasm is still there"

In Italy, many actresses work for TV series – is that something that interests you?

Catherine Deneuve: I have made one TV series with Benoit Jacob. It was a film in two parts which lasted about three hours. To do a project for TV you must have a reason – it needs to be a story that you cannot do in two hours. The story is about the psychoanalyst that had a big encounter with Freud. This could only be done as a television film.

Some actresses find TV more interesting than cinema. I think I have a problem with that. You shoot too fast, the lighting is not good. You need to have a lot of time for the shoot. I am not against TV, though, but you need to have the right circumstances.

You made about eighty movies in your career – how have things changed? Are you still enthusiastic?

Catherine Deneuve: Yes, the enthusiasm is still there. What you need is to have the determination to interpret a role otherwise there is no way you can be an actor. You have to grow with cinema, and I have grown with cinema. I feel that I have grown a lot and evolved a lot. I always felt I had enough time for myself. I always acted to keep balance between cinema and life.

What are your plans in the future?

Catherine Deneuve: I made a film with a young director together with Marine Hands – “The Kitchen”. I am not sure the title will remain the same. The film will be released in October in France. I am also working on another film that should be terminated end of the year, but there are some production problems.

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"I am not a spokesperson for anything."

Can you tell us a little bit about the movie?

Catherine Deneuve: It’s about an event that took place in the RER. I am not sure if this type of train exists in Italy – it is a suburban train in Paris which connects the town center with the suburbs. The film is about an event which took place a few years ago and happened within one week. Both media and government replied too strongly without inquiring as they should have done. The girl had a complicated life. She had invented that she had been the victim of an attack because she was Jewish. This reflects what happens today, things happen too quickly and there is not enough time to do inquiries.

What did you think when Techine approached you for this role?

Catherine Deneuve: I was interested in shooting a film with him. I knew he wanted to do a movie on this event. The girl is an opaque girl. So there was no suspense. He wanted to take this event into consideration in order to show what may happen in a country where the media have an important role. The story denounces something in a wider sense in a country that runs too fast.

I believe this is the fifth film you did with Techine – do you have a special relationship with him?

Catherine Deneuve: Yes, we are friends. That makes shooting a movie with him special. I know him well enough so I am not upset when I make a film with him because he is a nervous man. It helps me with my relationship with other actors. The two of us have the impression that we are shooting a new film. Despite the fact that we know each other we try to go further in our adventure. I cannot say that every time it is a new experience, because he’s is trying to do what he has been doing for twenty years – he opens new doors and goes further.

Did Techine invent the story?

Catherine Deneuve: Have you heard about the event in Italy? The event is true. But we don’t know anything about the relationship between the mother and the girl – Techine never met either of them. He talked to policemen and read reports, and then invented the story. He also invented the story of the lawyer in love with the mother.

You said that Techine did not meet the protagonist – but did you meet the mother?

Catherine Deneuve: Of course not – if Techine did not meet the persons involved, why should I? I am shooting a film, this is not a documentary. We do not know a lot about that girl. I was much more interested in the social aspects. Through the anti-Semitic events Techine wanted to deal with a girl who is angry, who has no work – all this is very far away from the real characters.

The film treats Judaism and anti-Semitism.

Catherine Deneuve: I am not a spokesperson for anything.

What is your general attitude on anti-Semitism?

Catherine Deneuve: We cannot discuss such an important topic in the framework of a press conference – what is your question?

Is there a revival of anti-Semitism?

Catherine Deneuve: Your question is framed in a way that it will be the only thing that will be reported from this press conference – so I reject your question.

How was the film received in France?

Catherine Deneuve: It’s a film which does not have a lot of suspense. It has received good reviews but has not been that popular, but that’s because of the subject matter.

2008 Cannes "Golden Palm" Winner Laurent Cantet on "The Class"

In Taormina as member of the Festival Jury, French Director Laurent Cantet talks about his experience winning the “Golden Palm” at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival for “The Class”, the debate it sparked, his view on the role of schools (both of his parents were school teachers according to Wikipedia) and his approach to film making.

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Winning the “Golden Palm"

Many people were quite surprised when your film won the “Golden Palm” - were you surprised as well?

Laurent Cantet: Yes, it was a surprise too. The film was just finished, and after one year working with the children, we realized that this worked out but we didn’t know if it was a good film or not. We didn’t know whether foreigners would understand it because of the language and the energy of the dialogue. When we arrived in Cannes we were the third French film in competition, and the one that had not been on the initial program – so we were really outsiders. But since the film was shown at the very end of the festival, we did market screenings at the beginning of the festival, and we had a good feeling after those. We had the feeling distributors wanted to buy the film. You can trust the distributors; they know their public, so this was a good sign.

Your film was quite successful commercially. Did the Golden Palm open a new phase in your work, or is it just an award?

Laurent Cantet: I didn’t have time to work on it, but I hope that the next film will be easier to produce, and that I don’t have to justify the method that I am using. I think I will be freer than I was. I think that’s the only thing that changed – I didn’t change much myself.

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The Debate

In a way, your film transcended cinema – it captured joy and horror in the class, but it also posed a serious question about the French schooling system.

Laurent Cantet: Yes, it sparked a big debate. Between Cannes and September nobody saw the film, but everybody had to something to say about it. Especially the teachers were concerned. They are used to be criticized, so they protected themselves. They were afraid of the film; some of them didn’t like the book. It’s not the film that created the debate, which had started before. But the film made a lot of people talk about school, and about adolescence – and that’s what the movie is about. People talked about the space we give adolescents in society, especially if they are immigrants.

After the success of the film, which showed the teachers in a positive light, did their reaction change?

Laurent Cantet: No. The teachers that were negative don’t want to recognize themselves in the teacher in the film. They saw it as a documentary film about school, and that’s not what I did. The teachers thought it was a partial view. They were afraid that parents would think that school is just that.

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On Schools

The film shows the story of pedagogic failure in the end.

Laurent Cantet: The film is not just about the failure. It shows that these kids are able to think, to understand things, even if it is not very comfortable for them or for the teacher. They are quite clever when they argue with the teacher. I hope this energy can be considered something that school can develop. That’s one of the main missions of school – even more than teaching the rules of the language. School should teach you critical sense and how to be a citizen. Some teachers dare to do this; others think it is too dangerous. That’s what I like about the book. Maybe that’s why some of the teachers reject the movie.

You provoke a serious discussion about the “melting pot” of different backgrounds of adolescents in French school.

Laurent Cantet: It is one of the main questions we have to face now. The world is becoming more mixed. These kids really don’t feel desired by our society even if they were born here - they are as French as I am. If they feel that nobody listens to them, of course they will get angry. The revolts we had in the suburbs are result of this misunderstanding.

Some say your film also showed the importance of language.

Laurent Cantet: Language is so important to find your place in the society. You have different levels of language. If you don’t go from one level to another you won’t be able to become an adult. That’s what Francois is trying to teach them, that they have to use different language in different situations.

So school is a segregating machine.

Laurent Cantet: You can’t say that this is good or bad. It is a place that helps a lot of these kids to integrate. On the other hand you have lot of kids that are expelled from school just like Suleman.

But he learns something in the end.

Laurent Cantet: I don’t know … I went to a lot of these disciplinary councils. You can feel that teachers are not very proud of what they are doing there. For them, it’s a sign that they failed, that these kids will drop out of the system. You have Suleman; you have this girl at the end that says “I don’t know what I am doing here”. You have more and more children that don’t know what they are doing at school.

Your film shows professors that are deprived of their legacy. Marin looks like a hero, trying to do positive things.

Laurent Cantet: He is really trying to give sense to what these children are doing. I think that’s the only way to teach. If you just learn something you don’t understand why you actually learn it.

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Making Films

Your film is not only interesting on a political level, but also on a psychological level.

Laurent Cantet: Yes, when I am making a film I always focus on the characters. When working with actors, I am building characters with them. I am really happy that you can recognize characters in the film, even if it is very focused on the group. I started with a very anarchic group, not knowing who will develop into characters. Over time, I discovered who can become a character. We built the story this way.

You seem to have a documentary approach to a certain problem and creating a story around that.

Laurent Cantet: I found a method that really fits me with “The Class”, and I’d like to keep working like this. I really managed to work the way I wanted, with a very open script that could develop. We found also a new way of filming – we had three cameras so the actors could express themselves without cutting.

Most of the kids and their fathers and mothers are more or less playing themselves.

Laurent Cantet: Not at all! Although some of them are close to their characters, for example Esmeralda. But with all of them we created characters. We rehearsed a lot. They were able to improvise during the first take based on their understanding of the character, and I told them what I liked or not. We rehearsed for seven months each week. After a few months we had all the characters.

How did you work with Francois Begaudeau, who wrote the book and is also your main actor and script writer?

Laurent Cantet: He was there for all the rehearsals. We worked very closely together, he knew what I wanted.

Can you say something about your next movie?

Laurent Cantet: I don’t know what my next film will be because I did not have time to work on that. What I might be interested in is a period film, something very different, but using the same method I used for “The Class”.

Dates Cannes Film Festival 2010: 12 to 23 May

The 2010 Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 12 to May 23 - see you then!