PAULO BRANCO PRESENTS Out of Compétition MATHIEU AMALRIC JULIA ROY NEVER EVER A FILM BY BENOIT JACQUOT FROM THE BODY ARTIST BY DON DELILLO WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF JEANNE BALIBAR WRITTEN BY JULIA ROY BASED ON THE BODY ARTIST BY DON DELILLO PHOTOGRAPHY JULIEN HIRSCH - AFC FIRST AD ANTOINE SANTANA SOUND PIERRE TUCAT FRANCIS WARGNIER OLIVIER GOINARD SET DESIGN PAULA SZABO COSTUME DESIGN VALÉRIE RANCHOUX EDITOR JULIA GREGORY MUSIC BRUNO COULAIS PASSERELLE/CRISTAL PUBLISHING PRODUCTION MANAGER ANA PINHÃO MOURA SUPERVISOR PRODUCTION AND POST-PRODUCTION RAOUL PERUZZI PRODUCED BY PAULO BRANCO AN ALFAMA FILMS - LEOPARDO FILMES COPRODUCTION WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF CINÉ +, CENTRE NATIONAL DU CINÉMA ET DE L IMAGE ANIMÉE, INSTITUTO DO CINEMA E DO AUDIOVISUEL, RÁDIO E TELEVISÃO DE PORTUGAL (RTP) SUPPORTED BY EUROPE CRÉATIVE MEDIA (EUROPEAN UNION) AND ANGOA Design Graphique : pour - Crédits non contractuels
PAULO BRANCO PRESENTS NEVER EVER A FILM BY BENOIT JACQUOT FROM THE BOOK THE BODY ARTIST BY DON DELILLO WITH MATHIEU AMALRIC, JULIA ROY AND THE PARTICIPATION OF JEANNE BALIBAR
SYNOPSIS Laura and Rey live in a big, secluded house by the sea. He is a filmmaker, she is a performance actress. Rey dies accident, suicide? She is left alone in the house. But soon, she is no longer by herself. Someone is there. It is Rey,by and for her. A dream longer than the night, to survive. INTERVIEW WITH BENOIT JACQUOT Where does «Never Ever» come from? From a novel by Don DeLillo? To be specific, the film comes from the proposition of the producer Paulo Branco, to adapt the book The Body Artist to the screen. I m not familiar with Don DeLillo s books (or contemporary litterature in general), but I was immediately struck by the force of the story, the emotions mobilized which were actually familiar to me. How did the idea of the film take shape? Two perspectives opened up together: First, the experience of separation, this permanent absence felt during mourning. Everyone knows or will know what this loss is. On the other hand, the presence and absence, what we see and what we don t, what we hear or not - these figures are the essence of the cinema, of any film, whether we want it or not. What this film exposes, necessarily evokes a clear idea of mise-en-scene as a way of showing or hiding, or both. at a strength in her, a rare truth. I suggested her, as a way of getting to know her better, to read the book and then write a screenplay based on the book, to see. I saw she was absolutely in sync with the project. What we call the «directing the actor» sometimes takes unexpected turns... So she wrote the script? Overall, yes, followed closely by me, but yes, she wrote the screenplay assuming she would interpret this Laura, whose character she was building. And Mathieu Amalric, who plays the «ghost»? It was decided naturally. I had filmed Mathieu in The False Servant from Marivaux, I know he is a true cinematic adventurer, before specifically being the actor he is. Anything out of the ordinary, of the current cinema, interests and attracts him. Actor or director, he discreetly builds an exceptional, demanding, diverse and personal filmography as well. I have great respect and affection for him. What the film tells at first is the experience of this young woman, Laura...Another «portrait of a woman»? Sort of, why not? Anyway, it is the attempt to represent physically, that is, in all realism, a mental state that is delirious, that of a young woman who loses the man she loves, and who is bent on reviving him for herself, in order to survive him. When I talk about «realism», I mean there aren t any special effects in the film. All that is seen is given as visible, what is heard is given as audible, even at the extremity of a delirium. This is a particular mode of «spiritism», something ghostly, with the idea that the living and the dead always share presence and absence. Who is Julia Roy, who you have chosen to interpret Laura? She rather chose me! She is a young actress, half French-half Austrian. She was living in Vienna, studying and acting, she decided to come to Paris by affinity with French cinema. She managed to meet me and I immediately felt Is it a haunted movie? I think so, in many ways. Incidentally, finding the location of the film was an imperative condition to start the production. We had to shoot the film in Portugal, and in the south of the country, we found a house in ruins on the edge of the ocean, that we recreated to make it as the visible mental link of what Laura is living. What were the conditions of the shooting? Prepared thoroughly, quickly shot, in Portugal, with an oustanding Portuguese team, and my closest collaborators, Antoine Santana my assistant, Julian Hirsch my operator, closely linked to make the movie we wanted to see.
CAST Rey......................................................................... Mathieu AMALRIC Laura.............................................................................. Julia ROY Isabelle....................................................................... Jeanne BALIBAR Marie......................................................................... Victória GUERRA The producer.................................................................... Elmano SANCHO The Landlord........................................................................ José NETO DIRECTOR...................... Benoit JACQUOT SCRIPT............................. Julia ROY from The Body Artist by Don DeLILLO IMAGE..................... Julien HIRSCH - AFC FIRST AD......................Antoine SANTANA SOUND...........................Pierre TUCAT........................... Francis WARGNIER............................. Olivier GOINARD EDITING........................ Julia GREGORY CREW ORIGINAL MUSIC................... Bruno COULAIS Passerelle / Cristal Publishing SET DESIGN........................ Paula SZABO COSTUMES.................... Valérie RANCHOUX Production Manager............ Ana PINHÃO MOURA PRODUCTION AND POSTPRODUCTION MANAGER............Raoul PERUZZI PRODUCED BY.....................Paulo BRANCO A coproduction Alfama Films - Leopardo Filmes TECHNICAL INFORMATIONS France / Portugal - 2016 Length : 86 minutes - Image: 1.85 - Sound: 5.1
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