15/10/2007

It is easy to lose count of the number of successful films that have made Cédric Klapisch one of the most popular writer-directors around, and in February of next year yet another of his gems, Paris [+see also:
trailer
film profile], hits our screens. We take advantage of its upcoming release to discover the man who put the ‘zing’ back into French comedy.

Decisive beginnings
An avid photographer from the age of 12, Klapisch first stood out while still at secondary school. When he finished, leaving certificate in hand, he entered the philosophy strand of the prestigious ‘hypokhâgne’ [preliminary arts studies prior to the competitive examination for entry to the École normale supérieure]. This is where he acquired his first experience in writing and developed his creative writing skills. However, it was not all smooth sailing for the French director. His first letdown comes when he is refused entry to the IDHEC (now the Fémis). He then applied to Paris III University (Censier), from which he graduated two years later with a Masters in Cinema. On the course he discovered all the great American, Japanese and French classics, and, most importantly, the history of cinema. His second letdown comes when he fails the Fémis exams for a second time. However, his deep disappointment only makes him more determined. Klapisch then applied to film schools in Belgium, London and the United States. In the end, the University of New York accepts him and his father helps finance his studies. It is in New York that Klapisch’s love for American cinema comes to the fore, making him realise that he has a problem with France. It is across the Atlantic where the director develops a real understanding of scriptwriting and of the basis of a classical structure. In his eyes, "a story is not just an idea, but is borne from a desire with a sequence of acts. You have to be passionate about creativity; otherwise what you create cannot materialise". With the help of lecturers who profoundly influenced the director and his friend Tod Solondz, Klapisch made his first short In Transit in 1986.

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From intuition to writing
Alone or in a group, Klapisch always has a solid structure for each of his screenplays and constructs his characters by adapting them to the actors. "The screenplay is not a definitive stage in cinema and in film scriptwriting. If there is something that doesn’t sound quite right on paper, it comes alive in practise and when the actors begin to speak; like some kind of incarnation. There’s no narrative camera because of the basic structure. It’s possible to improvise once we know what we’re doing". For his feature debut Little Nothings (1992), Klapisch wanted to make a film about people who, despite being surrounded by people, feel alone, a film about corporations and liberalism. There were obviously a lot of characters linked to each other in the story. This meant learning about a narrative point of view because the film has no central character. The aim of the film was to give life to each character because each "little nothing" becomes a whole that later materialises.
Good Old Daze (1994) originated from an order to invent a story set in a secondary school in 1975. Klapisch co-wrote the film with Santiago Amigorena, Alexis Galmot and Daniel Thieux while locked up in a house 12 hours a day for three weeks. In complete isolation, they began to ask what it’s like to be 17. The answer came when Klapisch met 18 year-old Romain Duris.
The director wrote When the Cat’s Away (1996) single-handedly at home. He wanted to make a film about Paris, the elderly, how an area changes, the juxtaposition between trendy people and old Paris. The lengthy treatment was 70 pages of the 120-page script. Chance put Romain Duris on his path.
Family Resemblances (1996) came about after a request by Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri to make a film adaptation of their play, a black comedy, which later went on to win the César for Best Screenplay.
Euro Pudding (2002) was written single-handedly by the director in a fortnight with no rewrites. His sister had done an Erasmus year a few years previously and he had a sociological sixth sense that touched him personally – he thought it was necessary to make a film about Europe, about living together and student days. Klapisch found the global narrative structure of the film while on a scooter. He stopped, took out his Palm, wrote the structure and the closing line "That’s where it all began… ". That was an emotionally charged moment for the director. He knew that this base would be solid and that it wouldn’t change. Directing in high definition was new to him, about which he says, "That’s also what a story is: an Aladdin’s lamp. How can you fit all your wishes into the lamp? How can you use the energy in the first wish?" .
In Paris, he wanted to study social and racial diversity. "As a city, Paris has been criticised a little too much, with people insisting on saying bad things about it. I wanted to take a snapshot of the Paris of today and show the city’s gentrification and immigration," he says. The story is a real patchwork, similar in tone to Robert Altman’s Short Cuts. There are about ten cast members, including Juliette Binoche, François Cluzet, Zinédine Soualem and Romain Duris – who plays the central character. All the characters were written for the actors.

And the future…
Klapisch is already thinking ahead to his next film, which is expected to be a children’s fairytale. The director has always been interested in poetry and surrealism so it looks like there’s yet another new genre to add to his already diverse filmography. We’re impatient to know more. But for now, note this date in your diaries: Paris, February 2008.