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NEW YORK, NY, USA - There's a kind of humor to director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's filmmaking that emerges even in his latest, "A Very Long Engagement (Un long dimanche de fiancailles)" which is rooted in war and loss. Even in person, Jeunet makes his most serious moments possessed of a whimsy. Such an attitude makes his darkest cinematic moments less painful. His absurdist attitude makes a conversation with him always intriguing. In fact, the 51 year-old Jeunet has pulled off the toughest of success stories -- having an international hit, especially one in the USA -- without its being made in English. Nonetheless, his charming and quirky love story, "Amélie," made Audrey Tautou, an international star as well. Jeunet had toyed with English-language filmmaking by doing the final "Alien" film.
Though his follow-up to "Amélie" is a substantially different film, it still has that sense of the offbeat -- with it's color treated cinematography and unconventional characters -- that makes this film uniquely one by Jeunet.
G21: How has Audrey Tautou changed since you last worked together?
JEUNET: Oh, now she is a star. She had to learn to be a star because it wasn't easy for her, I don't think she was happy to be a star. She would have preferred to work on the street, to take the subway. But now it's okay.
This thing wasn't easier for her because she had to stay concentrated all the time. It wasn't cool and light like "Amélie". I remember the first two weeks, I thought maybe she wasn't happy, maybe she's sad. We had a conversation and after I understood ... I explained to everybody that she needs to be inside.
G21: What makes [Au drey] a star?
JEUNET: You must know because in the States you have a lot of stars. In France we don't. We lost all our stars since the '60s because it was tacky to be a star during the '70s in France. Now we regret it and would like to have big stars. There is a big phenomenon, very strange -- we have a lot of sons and daughters of stars. It's like the talent is in the genes, it's so weird, so insane. Of course, some sons and daughters have talent. But Audrey Tautou is rare. Her father is a dentist.
G21: When did you decide you wanted to do another movie together -- during the filming or after "Amélie"'s success?
JEUNET: After I read the book [Un long dimanche de fiancailles by the late Sébastien Japrisot], I knew right away I wanted to do the adaptation but I did not think about someone to play Mathilde. I remember it was 13 years ago, I thought maybe Juliette Binoche, and then, when I met Audrey for "Amélie", I thought "Ah, this is Mathilde." And if she had refused I would not have made the film.
G21: Was the process of shifting from envisioning this movie to developing it during production difficult?
JEUNET: You know it's work. But it's nothing compared to writing an original story; when you are in front of a white page, this is a nightmare. But in this case, it is a good story. Everybody knows it, everybody bought the work. It is not a big deal, just a question of work. I remember, I put the book down on the table and I said: I am going to get rid of this piece, I am going to change this part, I am going to keep this one. After, I brought my own ideas to it. I got rid of the wheelchair; in the book, she was in a wheelchair all the time. I changed the murder of Tina Lombardie. That has a lot of modifications.
G21: The music is so important to the mood of this film. What made you decide to bring in veteran composer Angelo Badalamenti [made famous by working with director David Lynch]?
JEUNET: I think the music has a quality, a softness and romantic quality I needed for this film. And I needed a big orchestra but not one that was too sugary. It's very rare and difficult to find musicians with style, and Angelo immediately recognizes style. Some people don't like it, but immediately, they say, "Oh yes, that's Badalamenti's music." And I love him.
G21: What were the challenges of shooting the battle scenes?
JEUNET: To avoid accidents, and we had none. I know the first world war by heart because I read everything about it when I was a teenager. I don't know why but I was fascinated by it. It was a kind of obsession for me. Every detail about the war here is true. For example, the first shot with the broken cross; that is a very famous picture from the war.
G21: Was it difficult recreating the trenches?
JEUNET: We built a big model to study and figure out the problem because we could have gotten 'stuck' in a real sense of the word. It was just a logistic problem. We got it and it was perfect. I love everything in the cinema. Money problems, technical problems -- I love everything! You make a decisions 300 times a day, immediately you have to think about money, technical, narrative, logistic and artistic problems.
G21: When you made the film, were you trying to put in historical references to anchor each scene?
JEUNET: Exactly. For example, when they see the guy and make some graves they say "This is for you tomorrow because we will attack tomorrow." This is a real story from a book. The guy with half of his head, this is another story from the book. In terms of technology of filming war, my reference was "Saving Private Ryan," because that was the best [war film] I had ever seen [in] terms of technology. For the first time I could feel the bullets; and you can feel the danger.
For my crew I said, "No it is not enough, tonight watch 'Private Ryan' again."
G21: Do you view the ending of this movie as a happy or sad? American audiences are used to seeing a happy one.
JEUNET: The ending of this movie is in-between. It is the same thing in the book. I completely respect the book. Is it sad, is it not? I don't know really. For me it is emotional, because when I read the book, I think "Wowä I don't know." It's strange, not sad, not happy, it's in between.
G21: Would you make another film in English after doing "Alien: Resurrection"?
JEUNET: Yes, why not? Because you have so many good actors. The casting catalogue is not huge in France -- maybe that's the reason I use the same people. In the States, you have so many. When I did the casting for "Alien: Resurrection," I saw so many good actors and they were completely unknown. In France, they would have been stars immediately.
G21: Is this movie particularly relevant,given the state of war in the world?
JEUNET: I wouldn't say I have a message against the war because it's such a cliche to say war is stupid. Everybody knows that war is stupid. It is pain, suffering, torture and destruction. But I wanted to show the first world war because it was so important. In France, we had 1.5 million people die. In your country you had 150,000 Americans who died. We have maybe 10 movies about the first world war, and I wanted to tell this story.
G21: Do you find French audiences have a different reaction than American audiences to your films?
JEUNET: Before it wasn't the case. It's pretty much the same. I remember for "Delicatessen," everybody laughed at the same time; they were bored at the same time. Exactly the same everywhere: Japan, the States, France. I hope, for this one, it will be the same thing.
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