FRANÇOISCLUZET EMMANUELLEDEVOS

a film byXAVIERGIANNOLI

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EUROPACORP and RECTANGLE PRODUCTIONSPRESENT

A FILM BY

XAVIERGIANNOLI

EUROPACORP AND RECTANGLE PRODUCTIONS PRESENT

FRENCH RELEASE

OCTOBER 14TH, 2009

DISTRIBUTIONEuropaCorp Distribution137, rue du Fbg Saint-Honoré75008 Paris - FrancePhone: +33 (0) 1 53 83 03 03Fax: +33 (0) 1 53 83 02 04www.europacorp.com

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FRANÇOISCLUZET EMMANUELLEDEVOS

The true story of a smalltime conman who builta highway

SYNOPSIS

How did you get the idea for thisfilm?

A few years ago, I read a strange newsitem in the paper. It was the story of acrook who had posed as a works mana-ger and was reported to have built ahighway in the middle of a field… He hadhired dozens of workers for his projectand got a whole region to take part intohis adventure. This story intrigued andamused me in equal parts. I wanted tofind out more. In just a few lines, the arti-cle held a powerful story.

So you started your own investigation?

First, I contacted Judge LaurentLéguevaque, the examining magistratein charge of the case. An unusual, incre-dibly learned judge who wondered a lotabout the mystery of this man and hismotives. Today, he isn't a judge anymore

and he agreed to advise me and even toplay himself at the end of the film. Withhim, I learned that this imaginarycontractor had not made any moneyfrom his fraud and that money was pro-bably not his real or his only motive. Itwas not a mere case of swindling, stea-ling money from decent though gulliblepeople. That would not have interestedme, for I have no special attraction forconmen as such. There was more to itthan that...

Did you meet the man concerned?

The judge issued a permit for me to visithim. So I went to see him several timesin prison. He came across as shy andmodest. At least, that's the impressionhe wanted to give me. It struck me howhe listened with great attention... It wasas if the course of events decided whohe should be, who he should become, inorder to obtain what he wanted. You

could say he was an opportunist. Hehad nothing in common with the sort ofverbose conman who blows hot air.

When he built this road, he just did whathe had to do, that's all. You could say hehad done "his job" while fulfilling an obs-cure inner necessity. So I tried to makehim speak, as much as he was willingto, about his road, his own life and therest of the world. It enabled me tounderstand in detail how this whole storyhad practically been made possible,rather as if I was piecing together thesequence of events of some incrediblehold-up. However, I soon realized theseconversations had reached their limit.

Why is that?

First because he would relate the factsfrom his sole viewpoint, presenting themhowever he wanted to. Then because,obviously, the mere telling of the factsdoes not lead to getting closer to thehuman dimension of reality in this kindof story. In this context more than ever,reality needs the help of storytelling tobecome decipherable, understandable.News bulletins, most documentaries onTV, in short, a certain media prattlemakes reality even more confused andopaque.

How far did you take your investigation?

A collaborator of mine, who is also fasci-nated by the case, helped me in thisinquiry by meeting almost every personwho had something to do with theconstruction site. Some said our manwas a bastard who just wanted to "playat being the boss". Others said he was agenerous guy and he wanted to helpthem. All these often contradictory ele-ments provided me with a fantastic basefor fiction. Above all, they enabled me tofind the right distance with the factsthemselves, for what I was interested in

was taking this story over and offeringmy own viewpoint, my interpretation of it.I didn't want to limit myself to trying torecreate factual reality. I wanted to showthe truth – or rather, a truth. Who couldhope for anything else when making afilm "based on a true story"? Naturally,the names have been changed, etc.Anyway, my approach is in no way cyni-cal or punitive. It is much to the victims'credit to have wanted to believe in allthis.

Did you write the script alone?

I looked at this man from a personalpoint of view. I wrote his story with whatI felt about it. For me, working on thisstory was a peculiar experience. I felt aform of dizziness. In fact, I think I madethe film in order to understand why I wasmaking it. Obviously, this is the excitingpart of it, going beyond the investigation,looking for a part of your own self in ahuman adventure in which you feelmore or less clearly that something veryintimate to you is at stake. Writing a filmis a bit like inventing a plausible autobio-graphy, especially if you are trying to findan approach to someone else's mys-tery. First by being very practical, by sta-ging the mechanisms of his massive lie.Then by trying to take it all in a differentdimension.

Meaning?

Behind this news item, one quicklyunderstands there is a specific econo-mic and social context. It is the story ofa "savior" arriving in a region with unem-ployment problems. However, my inten-tion was not at all to make a topical film,especially as I wrote the script longbefore the economic crisis started andas the facts had taken place over tenyears before. I wanted to go beyond theanecdotal side of it. Working on the destiny of an impostor also means youwonder about the identity crisis which a

INTERVIEW XAVIER GIANNOLIDIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER

person can go through in this day andage when they have no moral resour-ces, political ideal or religious faith andthey feel they're being asked to achievesocial success by their own means,through their own work. To sum up, wecould say that before, people used tofear death and now, on top of it, they fearnot to exist.

And for me, this construction site was asign of life, a weird and therefore poeticsign of the need to feel we exist, byconfronting the world, nature, the cold,women, children... So we can feel alive atlast, so something happens at last andour life stops being programmed, cho-sen by others. To me, by turning over thelandscape with his machines, this manwas trying to change the world to makeit bearable, turn it into an adventureagain. Actually, I like the idea that thecinema speaks to the wild part of us, thepart which can be unreasonable and fullof anger. What this man did by building

his road was an act of freedom for bet-ter or for worse. But freedom isn't justautonomy. It can lead to discoveringother values. It is not merely a stretch ofroad, it is a link.

The themes of imposture and theeconomic crisis have already beenexplored by literature as well as bythe cinema or by sociological,anthropological essays, etc.

Well, for me, this road in the middle ofnowhere opened up a new perspective.What touched me in this story was, firstand foremost, the need this man had togo towards others, even if, in the begin-ning, he only wanted to con them.

But as he meets these men and womenwho place their trust in him, he startswondering about responsibility, selfish-ness and greed, in other words about lifein a community, nowadays or in thepast, with or without a crisis. It's sugges-

ted in the title. Whereas many such sto-ries about impostors finish on a murder,the culprit's flight or, simply, his arrest,this story exuded new energy.

Your main interest seems to bewith this character...

What gave this story its impetus washow he was gradually outdone by hisown fraud, outdone by himself, by hisown feelings. His lie escapes him. Inspite of himself, what started out as vir-tual becomes real, concrete, part of life.Where is he going to take it from there?

What he is going to dig out of the earthwith his machines is a part of himself.That's why I was so keen to include thescene with the dancer and the earth-mover, the coming-together of man,machine, and earth.

His encounter with the character,Emmanuelle makes him incarnate,reveals him. She returns him to life andto others. He discovers that being lovedis a way of being useful. Without thisencounter, nothing would have beenpossible. Nothing whatsoever.

One might say a question your filmasks is simply: Where is the limitwith other people?

Yes, in a way. Will we ever manage tofree ourselves from the destructive andguilt-free individualism which latterly hasled the whole world to the brink of theabyss? I do not believe we can invent aradiant and happy society if we carry onbeing greedy, materialistic and cynical.I'm fed up with moral vandalism, whe-ther from financiers, politicians or com-mentators. In fact, I had great fun filmingmy lead character redistributing themoney he'd stolen from everybody,which didn't stop people calling him abastard at the end of the film. For I find it

difficult to believe in mere redemptionstories. It always seems insufficient. Ithink what I feel is more confused. I don'tknow if this is a good thing or a badthing.

It's the story of a man who opensup to life...

Yes, and as he can't find the words, hegoes into action... by building a highwayin the middle of a field. For me, this iswhere cinema begins. On the shoot, Ioften said to my crew: "They're nottrucks, they're feelings."

In fact, I try to make action films, buthuman action. Deep down, I'd like to livethe same sort of adventure as my cha-racter, I mean feeling that somethinghas been untangled inside me. Notnecessarily resolved, but untangled.

Work is at the heart of the film.

I'm telling the story of a crook, thereforean insubordinate man, a rebel. Still hisstrange destiny leads him to building thewalls which "regular" rebels want to des-troy: work, to start with, but also respon-sibility towards one's family, thentowards the community, guilt, morality. Ifound that contradictory and thereforehuman. He builds a road because hewants to feel free, but the first to drive onthis road are the cops who come toarrest him.

What has become of this mantoday?

Nobody really knows. What it says in thetitles at the end of the film is the truth.After his last spell in prison, he disap-peared... Some say he went abroad,others say he changed his name anddied, so we'll never know. Escapingdeath thanks to his imposture puts allthis in an interesting perspective.

How was the film produced?

Since my first short film, I've worked withEdouard Weil, at Rectangle. As with myprevious film, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, atEuropa Corp, has proved to be athoughtful and supportive co-producer,whatever hardships we went through.

Tell us about the shoot itself.

I was supposed to shoot it on a real high-way construction site by a major buildingcompany. And at the last moment, thevice-president (who had been part of thetrue story and remembered the beetlesincident) canceled everything just beforethe shoot was due to start, completelyoblivious to the consequences. It waspanic all round for, obviously, we didn'thave the budget to build over a mile ofhighway. At that point, we'd lost every-thing. Absolutely everything. Now,Rectangle is an independent productioncompany which, just like EuropaCorp, isinvolved in all the financial aspects of thefilm. In short, we were faced with ruin. At

that point, I carefully observed whoremained supportive and who suddenlystopped returning calls.

In the meantime, Depardieu, with incre-dible generosity, spared no effort to getus out of that deadlock. He was prepa-red to drive a truck himself... He knew fullwell we were taking a wild chance and itis the sort of stuff which causes hisbeautiful eyes to light up.

What happened?

We carried on telling everyone, "We'llmanage somehow..." but the start of theshoot was fast approaching and wedidn't know how we were going to buildour highway which was to be the mainset. And then, one day, in NorthernFrance, I happened to meet an incredi-ble man in a cowboy hat, RaymondLegrand. He used to be a farmer, but henow runs his own plant hire company. Itold him about the story and the charac-ter. I was supposed to shoot inDecember and, because of the rain,

nobody builds highways in the winter.So, his yellow trucks were lying dormantin the garage. All this amused and tou-ched him and one day, he said to me,"Right, I'll build your highway for you!" Agenuine, passionate man. There are stillsome around. So, I shot with his machi-nery and also his workers. He was mytechnical advisor, both for the construc-tion work and for capturing this world asaccurately as possible. To build my high-way, he mobilized means I could neverhave afforded.

It has been said that the shoot wasan epic adventure...

The project was rather crazy, to startwith: a lot of outside shooting, a greatnumber of characters, unexpectedevents, tensions... And on top of that, thewinter was dreadful that year. The thingis, as I always do my best to keep somesecrecy about the film while it's beingmade, some people tell tales. It doesn'tmatter though.

So, the conditions of the shootwere difficult?

All the difficulties with the weather, finan-cing, the human and technical problemswe had made us feel a little closer everyday to our main character. Basically, Iwas lucky with my film to have to facethe same ordeals as he had, building hishighway. In fact, at night, a highwayconstruction site looks strangely like afilm shoot.

Had you worked with FrançoisCluzet before?

I had, on a short film, about ten yearsago. We'd never met since. I thought ofhim for this part because he had neverplayed a character like this. So there wassome unknown territory to be conque-red. And this imposture story was about

the risk one takes by playing at beingsomeone else. So, there was clearlycommon ground between an actor'swork and this character's lies: socialcomedy and human truth. That's howwe worked, precariously balanced onthis high-risk border, faced with a distur-bing identity flaw. It is a difficult, tumul-tuous part, full of contradictory emotions.

What about Emmanuelle Devos?

I wrote the part for her. In a film, she isalways a sign of life, a surprise everytime. For my impostor, I felt she was"untouchable" and this is what bringsenergy into their encounter. You neverknow what risk she'll take next. Her scin-tillating quality breathes life into her cha-racter, far removed from clichés andstandardized emotions. She is a great,elegant and generous artist, accurateand free at the same time. She keepsbringing new ideas all the time, makingher character more lively and unexpec-ted than what was in the script.

And Depardieu?

I am lucky to have a relationship withhim which is both very friendly anddemanding. When we shoot a film toge-ther, we're there to work, find new ideasand never compromise. I've already tal-ked a lot about it when we did QuandJ'étais Chanteur, even if here, he plays atotally different and rather dark part, areal bastard. He's always been suppor-tive of the film, in his own way, concen-trating on his character, oblivious to eve-rything around whereas, in such a situa-tion, others use or invent any pretext tojustify their own outbursts, fears or limi-tations. He is famous for knowing nolimits, for better or... for better! I verymuch enjoyed seeing him act alongsidea young actor like Rottiers. It's this kindof encounter which will refresh his rela-tionship with the cinema.

There are many supporting actors...

The beautiful Soko, to start with. A friendwho is a music producer told me abouta young artist, a musician and poet whocould be right for the part. I listened toher music and watched her videos onthe Internet.

I could see she was exceptional. I thinkshe is a really interesting actress who,so far, has only shown a small part ofher talent. With Vincent Rottiers, they for-med a modern movie couple. Vincentreminds me of actors like EdwardNorton or Joaquin Phoenix. He posses-ses an introspective power which bringstension to the merest gaze or the sim-plest situation.

Other supporting actors are a mix ofprofessional actors and real workerswho were helping each other. I'm thin-king of Gaby, the bulldozer driver whohelped the excellent Brice Fournier (theforeman) take charge of his constructionsite. The main thing was that everybody,famous or unknown, had a genuinehope that the film would finally exist.I want to thank them for that.

FILMOGRAPHY

2009 IN THE BEGINNING2006 THE SINGER2005 ONLY THE NIGHT2003 EAGER BODIES1998 THE INTERVIEW

(Short Film - Palme d’Or)

When did you first hear about thiscase?

In the beginning, a beetle was a way forecologists to halt the construction of high-ways all over France. This beetle (the her-mit beetle) is a protected species inEurope. This protects its predator (thebirds which feed on it), and so on. And in1995, I heard that a conman was takingadvantage of this stalemate. He turned upin a small town which was suffering fromthe halt in construction, passed himself offas the site manager from X, claiming thatwork was starting up again, and was ableto live on credit in the best hotel andpocket bribes (as everyone wanted towork on such a major civil engineeringproject)... Then, probably disappear.

How did you get involved?

I was an examining magistrate in thetown of Mâcon. The DA referred to methe case of a convict who, after serving a

number of sentences for fraud, hadorganized a fake training course for thejobless (in the public works sector)before making off with the takings. Ithought it was particularly nasty to stealmoney off the unemployed. So, I sent let-ters rogatory to a policeman I knew whowas particularly persistent and told himto find this conman. And that's when thebeetle entered the picture, because aftera few weeks, this policeman informedme he'd found our man... building a high-way somewhere in France. Building ahighway without permission – he wasjust an ex-con on the run...

How did you meet the man?

Instead of fleeing with the bribes, theconman had stayed there, as if rooted tothe spot. A bit like a rabbit caught in acar's headlights... This failure to act(which is unusual in crooks who aregenerally quick to take off) enabled us tolocalize him. Then, to arrest him. And do

you know what he'd invariably answerme over the course of questioning whenI asked him why he'd stayed there ins-tead of taking the money and running?This compulsive crook and ex-con, witha record as long as his arm, would sayto me: "Because, Your Honor, for the firsttime in my life, I was somebody..."I heard that loud and clear... For the firsttime in his life, he wasn't just an ex-convict – a whole town had put theirhopes in him.

What did it change for you to meetthe man in person?

I realized that a conman doesn't justwant money. Above all, he wants a pre-cise role, a social function in a group ofpeople. A function which allows him to"be", or rather, to "become somebody"."Being" and "appearing", that old refrain...A usurper's intentions are not just villai-nous – they are also existential. Just likeours.

What happened to you personallyand with the case after that?

The conman was indicted and put incustody... He admitted the crime he wasaccused of, as they say. In the end, hewas sentenced to several years in prison.I continued my career in other cities, stillas an examining magistrate. Then, yearslater, I resigned. I'd had enough of the job,the "social role" of executioner, so tospeak...

Did you empathize with the man?What creates empathy for thecharacter?

I think you can and you must empathizewith an unpleasant person when,through his behavior, or even throughhis faults, he teaches us about anessential part of how we function as asociety.

How did you come to meet Xavier Giannoli and his project? What did he tell you?

He was fascinated by this trivial event.He wanted to meet the conman, andthe people involved... So, he contactedme, the examining magistrate. Xavierwas still a young director at the time.He'd just won an award at Cannes for ashort film I'd happened to see. So, I trus-ted him as an artist – in his artisticundertaking which I rightly assumed tobe an honest one. And I officially allo-wed him to contact the conman whowas in custody at the time.

Did it initially seem obvious to youto make it into a film?

It didn't even seem obvious to Xavierwho approached me, saying: "I don'tknow yet what I'll do with this story – afilm or a book"... But he already had avision of the case which was perfectlyin tune with mine: to put it plainly, whatimmediately fascinated the filmmakerwas the question of usurpation of iden-tity, of assuming someone's position...Encountering an intense desire bysociety, in these times of economic cri-sis: working and, beyond that, building,achieving a common goal... As well asthe idea of a road going nowhere, astrong metaphor of everyone's destinyand path in life... It seemed to me thatthe filmmaker could already "visualize"what I could only "conceptualize"... One day, for instance, during one ofour discussions, I said to Xavier: "Doyou realize that in South America or onother continents, thanks to his exploits,this conman would perhaps have beenmade minister of major projects?" This question niggled him, just asmuch as me... What is one's destiny?And what is the relationship of destinyto our laws, customs, and conven-tions?

INTERVIEW LAURENT LEGUEVAQUEFORMER EXAMINING MAGISTRATE IN CHARGE OF THE CASE

How did the real story end?

The conman continued his life,wandering around and going to prison.No-one knows where he is now. One amusing detail: the HighwaysDepartment declared that the work hadbeen carried out "professionally". But alegal hurdle remained: it is against thelaw to "profit in any way from the fruit ofan offence" (or one runs the risk of beingcharged with being "an accessory to afraud"). A middle way was then found bythe company whose identity had beenusurped by the conman: they kept thepeople who'd been hired, but not thesection of highway which had to bedemolished, then rebuilt, despite it beingin conformity...

Did the film, with its narrativechoices and the introduction of fictional elements, throw freshlight on the story as far as you'reconcerned?

Yes, of course. The word "light" is theright word. When I saw this film, Ithought: "I'm in contact with the poetry ofwork". Xavier captured something of thepoetry of work, the beauty of teamwork,and managed to bring an extraordinarycharacter to life.

SELECTIVE FILMOGRAPHIES

FRANÇOIS CLUZET

2009 IN THE BEGINNING by Xavier Giannoli2008 PARIS by Cédric Klapisch

RIVALS by Jacques Maillot2007 DÉTROMPEZ-VOUS by Bruno Dega2006 TELL NO ONE by Guillaume Canet2005 QUATRE ÉTOILES by Christian Vincent

LA CLOCHE A SONNÉ by Bruno Herbulot2004 THE HOOK by Thomas Vincent

EMMANUELLE DEVOS

2009 IN THE BEGINNING by Xavier GiannoliCOCO BEFORE CHANEL by Anne Fontaine

2008 A CHRISTMAS TALE by Arnaud Desplechin2007 TWO LIVES PLUS ONE by Idit Cebula

CEUX QUI RESTENT by Anne Le Ny2005 THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED by Jacques Audiard2004 ROI & REINE by Arnaud Desplechin

GÉRARD DEPARDIEU

2009 IN THE BEGINNING by Xavier GiannoliBELLAMY by Claude Chabrol

2008 DEATH INSTINCT by Jean-François RichetASTERIX AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES by Thomas Langmann

2007 MICHOU D’AUBER by Thomas GilouLA VIE EN ROSE by Olivier Dahan

2006 THE SINGER by Xavier Giannoli2005 LAST HOLIDAY by Wayne Wang

HOW MUCH DO YOU LOVE ME? by Bertrand Blier2004 CHANGING TIMES by André Téchiné

SOKO

2009 IN THE BEGINNING by Xavier Giannoli 2007 MA VIE N'EST PAS UNE COMÉDIE ROMANTIQUE by Marc Gibaja 2007 MA PLACE AU SOLEIL by Eric De Montalier 2006 DANS LES CORDES by Magaly Richard-Serrano

VINCENT ROTTIERS

2009 IN THE BEGINNING by Xavier Giannoli2008 FEMALE AGENTS by Jean-Paul Salomé2007 INTIMATE ENEMIES by Florent Emilio Siri

TREASURED ISLAND by Alain Berbérian664 KM by Arnaud Bigeard

2006 THE PASSENGER by Eric Caravaca2005 LA MAISON DE NINA by Richard Dembo

MON ANGE by Serge Frydman

CAST

PHILIPPE MILLER.........................................................................FRANÇOIS CLUZETSTÉPHANE......................................................................................EMMANUELLE DEVOSABEL.................................................................................................................GÉRARD DEPARDIEUMONIKA.......................................................................................................................................................................SOKONICOLAS.......................................................................................................VINCENT ROTTIERSLOUIS.............................................................................................................................BRICE FOURNIER

CREW

SCREENPLAY AND DIALOGUES...................XAVIER GIANNOLIDIRECTOR.........................................................................................................XAVIER GIANNOLI

PRODUCERS........................................................................................................EDOUARD WEIL....................................................................................................................PIERRE-ANGE LE POGAM

IMAGE.............................................................................................................GLYNN SPEECKAERTSOUND.........................................................................................................................FRANÇOIS MUSY....................................................................................................................................................GABRIEL HAFNER................................................................................................................................................................RENAUD MUSYORIGINAL SCORE................................................................................CLIFF MARTINEZEDITING.................................................................................................CELIA LAFITEDUPONT

DECORATION....................................FRANÇOIS-RENAUD LABARTHECOSTUMES................................................................................................NATHALIE BENROS

FIRST ASSISTANTDIRECTOR......................................................................................................ARNAUD ESTEREZPRODUCTION MANAGER......................................MEDERIC BOURLATPOSTPRODUCTION MANAGER.............................................................................................................MELANIE KARLINUNIT MANAGER....................................................................................GREGORY VALAIS

© 2007 EUROPACORP - RECTANGLE PRODUCTIONS - STUDIOS 37 - FRANCE 3 CINEMA Phot

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