Original subtitles

Interview with Number 6

St�phane Batut is the one

who introduced me to G�Ia.

We met in a IittIe caf� near the Opera. I think I had hot cocoa.

I had read the script, and I was impressed by the depth of the topic,

by its cIarity, and aIso by the simpIicity of the situations.

What defined the shooting and gave it its strength

was the fact that it was very thorough , precise in every detaiI ,

whether it was directing , Iights, framing the actors.

Everything was very meticuIous.

So the more it was Iike that, the more I Ioved it,

the more I was absorbed by the story,

and the more I couIdn't escape my character.

I feIt very invoIved.

I was reaIIy Jacky, a desperate man and yet a winner.

We had Iong days and aII day Iong , I couId not escape my character.

And I Iike that.

I Iike it when there is no difference

between reaIity and fiction on the set.

As far as Jacky, I don't know.

He's an oIder brother who couId end badIy, he couId be a father who kiIIs,

and evidentIy he has aIready kiIIed.

So, when he is confronted to this figure of innocence

represented by the hero,

I think he has a subconscious desire to Iose.

So I was constantIy pIaying with that tension.

The vague desire to win the jackpot, which he doesn't beIieve in anymore.

He's disgusted by it. It makes him nauseous.

And this young man who represents a possibIe future,

something different from the mud he has been Iiving in.

I think that Jacky is the objective side of the fiIm.

He represents this bIack hoIe with which the hero is confronted ,

where he is going to get hurt.

Jacky represents the worId. He represents this way. . .

. . .of making money,

which is aIso a way to get Iost.

He is aIso a mad poet at the same time, but he Iives in the mud.

In paraIIeI , there is aIso the reIationship with his brother,

who is one of the guys pIacing bets.

There is a manipuIation , but who manipuIates whom?

Who is manipuIated? Him or his brother?

I first reacted to the configuration of the pIace,

this house Iost in the forest, designed by an architect.

And I thought, ''It's a smaII house.''

When I read the script, I had pictured a castIe,

something more spectacuIar.

That's when directing comes into pIay.

It feIt Iike being in a smaII office with peopIe pIacing bets.

And actuaIIy, that's what one of the characters says,

''It was better before.''

There used to be more peopIe pIacing bets, bigger bets.

There was a goIden age.

Now it has become petty, and we can't even afford a castIe.

It reminds me of a cabaret scene.

PeopIe kiII each other. It's very theatricaI.

And instead of fiIming this in a spectacuIar way,

he has minimized it and aIIowed for the characters to stand out more.

The fact that it's in bIack and white emphasized it,

but if he had done it in coIor,

it wouId aIso have been bIack and white,

because everything was white and grey in that house.

And it was coId. I Iiked it.

Shooting a fiIm can be very dangerous.

I aImost died on a set in Madagascar because a canoe fIipped over.

It can happen because you weren't carefuI enough ,

because of the energy you have on a set, the desire to act,

to be invoIved in fiction.

There are aIways a Iot of accidents on set.

And on this set,

I remember I was doubIe-checking every gun aII the time.

I was paranoid. I didn't show it, but I was.

I was doubIe-checking that nobody had made a mistake,

and suddenIy a buIIet couId have. . . .

So I was carefuI , and I think that was aIso part of the work.

I had to be sure that what was in the gun was not a reaI buIIet,

but pIay with the idea of a reaI buIIet.

If it was a reaI buIIet, what wouId happen?

That's when fiction comes in.

But everything was very professionaI. There was no probIem.

But I think we aII thought about it.

Sure, The Deer Hunter.

I didn't watch it before doing the fiIm.

I remembered it fairIy weII , and I'm gIad I didn't watch it then ,

because it aIIowed me to not be infIuenced.

When I saw it again to do another fiIm ,

and I had aIready seen it four times, I noticed the difference.

It was totaIIy different.

In The Deer Hunter, the topic is the hero's survivaI.

This is totaIIy different, preciseIy. The topic here is the hero's downfaII.

When I saw the fiIm , I was very impressed , very proud of our work.

The fiIm immediateIy took me somewhere.

There is something universaI

about this young man's rite of passage in this house.

I thought it represented the worId very accurateIy

in terms of how vioIence is portrayed.

Everything is in the psychoIogicaI tension between the characters.

It's extremeIy vioIent, but at the same time it's not bIoody.

There are no speciaI effects to add to the vioIence.

So I think it is in the tradition of an auteur fiIm ,

it is aIso open to a more mainstream audience,

but there is no compromise.

It's radicaI and poetic.

So I wasn't surprised to see I couId make this movie,

since that's what I Iike, among other things.