European Films

 

French multi-hyphenate Julie Delpy got an Oscar nomination for co-writing Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset, in which she also starred and even sang, and then expanded her credits list even further for the neurotic relationship and culture-clash comedy 2 Days in Paris. Delpy again stars, but now also directed, edited and co-produced the film and wrote the screenplay and the film’s score. 2 Days in Paris, which looks at a French-American couple stuck in Paris after a disastrous trip to Venice, premiered at the Berlinale in February, where Boyd van Hoeij listened in on what Julie Delpy had to say. It is released this week in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Norway and will soon be on screens in Finland as well. The US and the UK will follow in August. 

In 2 Days in Paris, Delpy plays Marion, a French photographer who is in a relationship with the US interior designer Jack (Adam Goldberg). They live in the US and have just been on a trip to Venice that went horribly wrong (shown in the best accelerated video-montage piece this side of The Rules of Attraction) and decided to touch down in Paris for two days before heading back to the US. Only Jack feels completely lost in the City of Lights, where Marion’s parents do not speak a word of English and there seems to be an ex of Marion lurking on the corner of every street.

 

Marion’s parents are played by Delpy’s own parents, the actors Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet. On directing the veterans in the family, Delpy says with a grin: "I always wanted an opportunity to direct my parents! They have done a lot of theatre and I love their work but they have never had these funny roles in something made for the cinema, so I wrote it for them". She goes on to explain that "my mom was very disciplined and she always listened to what I had to say, but my dad, he was like a 2-year-old, being funny and jumping around the set all the time".

 

When the project started to take shape, the 37-year-old Delpy wanted to leave a lot of room for improvisation, but her parents did not agree: "They wanted a script," she says. "So it evolved to something a lot more scripted. Improvisation is something very difficult, something very hard to do. I did it years ago. 2 Days in Paris is something very different, I think we ended up with a 120-page screenplay".

 

The film was shot on very tight schedule, so it probably helped that Delpy could make decisions in various departments since she wore so many hats during production. Still, directing oneself can be tricky. Explains Delpy: "If you are a director who is also acting in one of the main roles in the film, then you really need a crew that is well-prepared and that you can trust. Plus, there’s playback [of the footage you have just acted in on the set for immediate feedback]. It takes a bit more time to do everything and we had a very short schedule, twenty days in all, so you really have to trust the people around you. As an actor-director, though, you can often ‘sense’ if the take was the right one. In the end, many people have directed themselves, also on tight schedules, so it is not something I thought I could not do".

 

Delpy’s character Marion might feel at home in Paris, where she grew up, but Jack, who is a well-educated, fidgety American all the way (with more than a hint of vintage Allen), has many problems adjusting not only to the place, but also to the many French habits that suddenly seem to have returned to Marion – including seeing her many exes. "The funny thing is that only men seem to find Jack’s character a pain in the butt," says Delpy. "But then again, all men are, aren’t they? They all need care and attention like Jack. Personally, I like neurotic people, I am attracted to them and find it endearing, especially in men".