Cinematical

Not long ago, I had a chance to sit down with Julie Delpy in Manhattan to talk about 2 Days in Paris, her upcoming directorial effort that's bowing on August 10th. (You can check out Erik's glowing Berlinale review here.) As she waited on some black tea to arrive, we quickly got into talking about the film, which is about a native Parisian played by Delpy who brings her American boyfriend home to Paris for a quick visit; the two of them try to survive what the resulting cultural shockwaves do to their relationship. We also got into the subject of her next directorial project -- a biopic of the infamous 16th century 'Blood Countess' Elizabeth Bathory -- and discussed the unconventional arc of her career in general. Delpy has been quite vocal about having grand ambitions as a director -- she dreams of helming major action/sci-fi blockbusters -- but told me with characteristic bluntness that her filmmaking goals wouldn't force her to put acting on the backburner. "I don't have to choose, so I'm not going to," she said, pointedly. Here's the interview.

RS: Have you seen Zoe Cassavetes' Broken English yet?

JD: I didn't see it yet. I want to, though.

RS: The reason I bring it up is because [spoiler warning] they came pretty close to ripping off the ending of Before Sunset.

JD: They did?

RS: Yeah. Girl meets French guy in New York, she chases him to Paris, can't find him, finds him at the very end, they're deciding if they will stay together, and he says something along the lines of 'you're gonna miss that plane,' and that's the end.

JD: No..

RS: Yes. Lots of critics noticed it at the time, not just me.

JD: Really?

RS: Yeah. It was like, why would she do that?

JD: Why would she do that? That's weird. Was it conscious?

RS: I don't know. I thought maybe you two were friends, and it was an homage. Who knows?

JD: Maybe it's an homage.

RS: Anyway ...

JD: Really? She says that line?

RS: It's something close to that. You have to rent it now, I guess.

JD: Yeah, yeah. It's odd. I was planning on seeing it. It doesn't matter. Before Sunset has been done, you know, a while ago.

RS: Let's switch gears, onto your new movie. Obviously the Paris of this one is more real than the Paris of Sunset/Sunrise, but you were heavily involved in the writing of all of them, so was that a conscious choice in the earlier films, to not really have them interact with Paris -- to create a dream world, instead?

JD: Well, in Before Sunset, they barely interact with anyone.

RS: Right.

JD: That was a common choice that we made, that we didn't want any interaction. It's about them, meeting again. For an hour and a half. And nothing is really interacting with their interaction, basically. So that was a conscious choice. I had written a scene where she interacted with people, Celine. And we realized, Richard and I, that it didn't work, you know? It needed to be about the two of them reuniting, and they had enough to say to each other that we didn't need anyone else. And this film is a totally different film. In a way, I lured the financiers into making 2 Days in Paris by making it, in a way ... the far-away picture seems like 'Oh, American and French girl in Paris.' But then there's nothing similar in the tone and what's happening. Basically, Before Sunset could have been set in China, and they met again in China, where she was working on a water plant and he was doing a book tour. It didn't matter where it was, as long as she was staying there for longer than him. That's all that mattered. It was about reuniting.

Here, I think the city is a character, basically, in 2 Days in Paris. Meaning that it's a character that's actually attacking them, constantly. It's the city -- Paris can be very aggravating and can be very hard. Sometimes when I haven't been there for a while and I go back there, it can be really, really difficult to handle. It's exhausting. Sometimes you go to Paris and it's very easy and sometimes it's a constant fight. You have to fight the city to survive. It's a bit like New York, but I think Paris, even more. It has a harshness to it.

RS: Difficult for a director too, maybe. I think it was Oliver Stone who said French film crews were lazy.

JD: You know, I know the French have had this reputation, but I have to say that, personally, they did an amazing job, and they worked really, really hard. But no one was in for the money, on my film. There was very little money, and they were paid much less than they usually would be paid. Which is pretty unusual for a French crew. They would work overtime, which is very unusual. But I have great respect for everyone working on set, and I would never suddenly go past their time without asking them politely to do it. I think the fact that I was very respectful of them and their schedule and stuff made them respect me in return and worked much harder than they would have on other films. You know, I was always very polite and to me it's very important ... I've worked on many movies as an actress and what I've learned is that when you start being rude to everyone and scream at everyone and treat people like shit, first of all, it's not in my nature. I think it's disgusting to do that on movies. But also, I think you destroy the film, because no one wants to work anymore. It's just not right. So, to me, it's really important to respect everyone. The French crew was actually amazing. I'm not saying that because I'm French, because if they had been shit I would say it, you know? But they were actually great.

RS: It's interesting, about asking them to work overtime -- you cast your parents in important roles in the movie. I can't imagine my parents listening to me or following any kind of direction.

JD: Well, my parents are actors. They're both professional actors. Yes, you can have that problem, if you ask non-actors to do it, you know, but my parents are actors and somehow the minute we started the film and I started giving them directions, they just became actors. There was no mother-daughter or father-daughter relationship anymore. My dad was a little bit more resistant because in his personality, it's harder for a man to ... his daughter is telling him 'do this again, do that, do this again, do it like this' and sometimes he'd be like 'It was good' and I was like, 'Yeah, but it could be better!' [laughs] So I was pushing him sometimes, really pretty far and stuff. But never in a harsh way. My parents are so sweet anyway. I could never be tough with them. So not tough, but firm, you know? They took it really well. But they're professional actors and I was the director.

RS: Do you think you came to this project well-prepared as a director?

JD: Yeah, I mean you have to be well-prepared. I was prepared, but you're never prepared enough. You know, you'll always have problems happening, things like that, that you need to prepare for. I was okay. It wasn't such a hard shoot, even though it was twenty days. It was easy. I had really good actors, everyone was really good, the crew was great. The tough part was finding out that we didn't get money from there, from there, from there, throughout preparation. That was very stressful. Stressful was being not sure that Adam would show up on set. Not like, 'on set in the morning,' not that. I mean because he was stuck on another film, and we didn't know if he was going to be free ever, or not. Things like that were very stressful. The creative process was not that stressful. I enjoyed it.

RS: I read somewhere that you had some troubles getting locations in Paris you wanted.

JD: Yeah, we didn't get some locations so I had to adapt the screenplay to other locations, and stuff.

RS: I guess I just imagine that because you're French, they'd be more accommodating.

JD: No, no, no, no, no. Actually, they were not so bad. You know, I always adapted. The thing is, in a movie you always have to have the capacity to adapt in a minute. 'Okay, this is closed? Okay, let's do it somewhere else.' You know, like, I wanted to film a whole scene at the catacombs, and we find out they don't let people film at the catacombs, like, not long before the shoot. I changed the scene to somewhere else. Down the street. It works the same. It would have been more interesting to see skulls and stuff during the conversation, that relationship, and things like that. That's what I wanted to do. I have this kind of weird scene where they are surrounded by dead bodies and they're talking about their past relationships and stuff, but I couldn't get that, so it's in the street. It would have been, maybe better in the catacombs, but we'll never know because it was closed.

RS: Are you a compulsive writer?

JD: I am a compulsive writer. I have tons and tons. [Pauses] I don't know what a compulsive writer is -- I have no comparison with anyone, so I don't know how much other people write.

RS: Well, what's your process?

JD: I have to be alone, I have to take time, I have to get away from my e-mail. I have to get away from my phone, because that takes half my day. And just write and not connect with anyone. For a while. That's how I do it, and it's usually very focused work, meaning I start in the morning at seven, or sometimes five. When I have an idea that I want to write and I'm starting to really know what I want to say, it usually doesn't stop in my head. I have to get it all out, so I wake up at five and I start working before anyone can call me, I make myself a tea, and I write, write, write, write, write, and then people start to call me, and I don't pick up, and I keep on writing until nine or ten. Then I do the same the day after. Usually, you can pretty much write a script in six days, writing twenty pages a day.

RS: So what's in your drawer? What else are you working on?

JD: I have another screenplay that I wrote called World Wars and Other Fun Stuff to Watch on the Evening News, which is a comedy on politics and war. And there's another screenplay that I didn't write, called Skeptical, that I want to direct as well. And I have like three or four other projects that I'm writing, one for France. There's another project that I wrote, kind of a comedy-thriller set in California. A bunch of projects.

RS: Some war movie set in Japan too, I've heard, right?

JD: War movie, yeah, I've been trying for six years to get the rights from a book, but I don't know if I'll ever get the rights. I might have to write it on spec, adapting the story without basing it on the book. Because it's a true story, so I can just use it as a true story. I don't need, you know, the book.

RS: From what I've read, you're very interesting in directing action and sci-fi.

JD: Sci-fi, I love. I wouldn't do bland, stupid action. Good action.

RS: I don't like stupid action either, but I find myself defending the artistry of great action directors a lot. John McTiernan, Kathryn Bigelow.

JD: Yes!

RS: They make beautiful films.

JD: You know, some of my favorite sci-fi films are like, Blade Runner and 2001 ... but I also like Starship Troopers.

RS: I love Starship Troopers.

JD: [laughs] I love that film! I love Verhoeven. I love his films. And some people are really like, 'What, but it's not art movies,' and I'm like 'I don't care.' I like Carl Dreyer and Godard and I like Verhoeven and Spielberg. Why do you have to like one kind? I think it's very limiting. I love Mario Bava and those were like 60s horror Italian films and I like Pasolini, nothing to do with one another other. Well, both Italians, but it's like 'Why not? Why does it have to be one style?' If you like movies ... I will enjoy a good comedy no matter what it is, you know? I'm very open. I think, in a way, it's because I was raised like this by my parents bringing me to see anything. It doesn't matter if it's Bergman or Star Wars, you know?

RS: What kind of sci-fi do you want to explore?

JD: I'd like to find a really good sci-fi story, but it's not easy. You don't want to do a bad sci-fi. I've been writing ideas and stuff. I wrote ideas a while ago, but one was too similar, it turned out. It was before The Matrix but it was too similar to The Matrix. Which is sad. [laughs] But I would never have gotten financing in time anyway, so who cares? But you know, things like that have happened to me sometimes. I've written something and it's like 'Oh shit -- it's being done right now.' Things like that. But you know, hopefully one day I'll stumble on or I'll think of something that really works for a sci-fi thing and I'll write it or I'll find a book. You know.

RS: Let's talk about The Countess. When do you start shooting?

JD: End of October, early November.

RS: Are you going for the legend or the real person?

JD: [Smiles] It's a little bit of both. Well ... the legend, the real legend, is vampires.

RS: Bathing in blood.

JD: Yeah, bathing in blood. There is a bit of bathing in blood.

RS: You have to have that, of course.

JD: I like that. It's a good story. It's basically the story how it was known like 30 years after she was convicted. People knew there was some kind of conspiracy against her to get rid of her, just like ... obviously she wasn't a witch. There was no witch. Witches don't exist. And she was not a vampire. Vampires don't exist. So basically, I try to tell both in parallel -- the myth and the real story. It's tricky. It's a tricky story to tell.

RS: I read that the witch charge came about because people couldn't accept that she was a murderess; the belief at the time was that women weren't capable of having murderous thoughts.

JD: She must be a witch, for having, like, a bad thought ...

RS: Right -- any woman who would do that must be a witch.

JD: Must be a witch. Because women are just good and sweet and fluffy?

RS: Right.

JD: Interesting.

RS: I heard Ethan Hawke is on board.

JD: He might do a cameo, but I don't think he will anymore. He was going to, and now he's busy with something else. But it was such a small cameo, and it would have jeopardized the dates for other actors, and I felt like it was not right, you know? He agreed to be in it at first, and now he has a play, maybe. But it's okay -- maybe it's not meant to be. I have wonderful people attached, so I'm very happy with that.

RS: Ethan Hawke was also in the press a few weeks ago talking about the possibility of a third Sunrise/Sunset. Do you know anything about that?

JD: Yeah, we wanted to do, maybe a third one. We might do it, but we don't know. We have to come up with the right idea.

RS: I think it would be better to wait until you're about 65 or 70.

JD: 65 or 70? Or maybe not. Maybe it could be good every ten years. You know, like we did it. Maybe it's good in our early 40s. It would be nice to see how they are together, maybe. How it's like. I don't know. Maybe it's a bad idea. You never know, because when we did Before Sunset, a lot of people were like 'Oh, it's a bad idea. Why are you doing it?' At first, before people see the film, they were like 'Oh, what a terrible idea -- they're going to ruin the first film.' And then, if you do something right, you can pull it off, no matter when you do it. If we find the right story, and it's interesting to tell, then it will work in their 40s or 50s or 60s ... whatever it is, you know?