Public Servant Lifestyle

Julie Delpy discusses her directorial debut, Two Days in Paris.

Two Days in Paris follows two days in the relationship of a New York based couple; a French photographer, Marion - played by Julie Delpy, who also wrote, directed and provided the music for the film, her directorial debut - and an American interior designer, Jack - played by Adam Goldberg - as they attempt to re-infuse their relationship with romance by taking a vacation in Europe.

Their trip to Venice hasn’t really worked out-Jack came down with gastroenteritis - but they have higher hopes for Paris. However the combination of Marion’s overbearing non-English speaking parents, flirtatious ex-boyfriends’, Jack’s obsession with photographing every famous Parisian tombstone and his conviction that French condoms are too small, only add fuel to the fire.

Will they be able to salvage their relationship? Will they ever have sex again? Or will they merely manage to perfect the art of arguing?

Q: You wrote the script in a few weeks?

A: "Yes and no. That's my way of writing: I do a lot of planning and thinking, then it comes out very fast. I wrote the first draft of Before Sunset in about five days but Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and I had worked on the idea for years. And then of course we kept on working on it. Same here I wrote the first draft very fast and then worked on it for quite some time until the last weekend before the shoot."

Q: Were you nervous about writing something after your Academy Award nomination?

A: "Well, it was a real honour to be nominated for Before Sunset with Rick and Ethan and I enjoyed writing that film very much and I believe it’s a very classy and beautiful film, but I try not to think about the past and always look forward. Of course, this screenplay is so different in tone; I wanted it to be crude, politically incorrect and a bit mean at times.

"'Sunset is very romantic and sweet — which this film is not. There’s more edge in this one and much less romance, so the romantics might be a little surprised. It's another side of my writing, a side I didn’t express in 'Sunset because of the nature of the story and characters. But again, this is just one other side. My next film will be something totally different, I like to write different genres."

Q: There are lots of friends and family in the cast...

A: "Well, when you decide to make a movie with little money, you want to be surrounded with people you trust, just like a family. Since it's my first film, I have not built the relationships that a director builds with his crew and producers over the years, so I felt better getting people I already knew in the cast. Plus I wrote most of the parts with actors in mind...

"I wrote the part of Jack for Adam Goldberg, for Marion’s parents I had my parents in mind because they are wonderful actors. I found out quickly that, for example, some financiers were scared away by the dad’s crude dialogue. But I knew too that my dad would give it this adorable quality, because he looks like Santa Clause — like a perverted Santa Clause. And also on paper, the mother character seemed a bit like a strange woman but I knew my mom would give it this adorable quality. Same for my sister Alexia Landeau, etc...

"Really, when I wrote the parts of Marion’s parents, if I had not cast my real parents I would've been in so much trouble... They would have kidnapped my cat and blackmailed me!

Q: So, Two Days is a romantic comedy set in Paris?

A: "I'd say it isn’t a romantic comedy; it's more comedy than romantic. I really fought to keep the dark side of the film and the little political comments as well. The film is kind of harsh on everyone: men, women, the French, the Americans, etc...Believe it or not the only ones that are offended a bit are the French — there is a long tradition in France of not criticizing anything that they do wrong. French people are perfect, it’s true!"

Q: France v America?

"No, I don’t confront the two cultures, but by living in both countries I see the differences — even if overall it’s not so different: people are free and women are not mutilated by their own mothers...So it is the same world, but then there is something deeply different as well in the way we deal with basic things like love, family etc...

"To me there are two kinds of French people; the French like the character of Gael, that kind of horrible, disgusting bourgeoisie...and there’s the Gauls that are closer to Marion’s parents and therefore Marion but of course liberal Gauls. The parents are obviously liberals actually no, even better; they are anarchists. Anarchist Gauls!

"Jack is a liberal, cynic and open minded until his value of private property is shaken! In this case, Marion is his private property and the idea that he could have shared her with anyone in the past or actually in the present is unbearable to him.

"The film is a lot about jealousy. The film talks about small issues that everyone deals with in a lifetime. I'd love to make a movie about war and corruption, but it’s expensive so I make a movie about jealousy and human nature in a nutshell, and I make it funny because the kind of problems the characters have are not that serious."

Here's what critics have made of Two Days in Paris so far:

"Delpy wrote the dialogue that gives the film its forward thrust, and 2 Days is a wonderful first feature." - Jack Mathews (New York Daily News).

"Delpy's humor (runs) to the black and the tossed off - rather like her rather casual shooting style. She's more interested in hasty impressions than in formal elegance." - Richard Schickel (TIME Magazine).

"Despite issues with Julie Delpy's direction and editing, this is a pleasant delight and an exciting harbinger of better things to come from this perceptive young filmmaker." - Brian Webster (Apollo Guide).

"As (Woody) Allen made New York seem like a real, lived-in place, Delpy gives us that same easy proximity to Paris." - Mary F. Pols (Contra Costa Times).

Probably most well-known for her role in Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise and Before Sunset , Julie Delpy has also starred in Europa, Europa, Voyager, Broken Flowers and Three Colours: White.

Aside from directing and acting Julie is also a talented songwriter and singer. In 2000, Julie began writing her self-titled debut album Julie Delpy. The album gives a fragile balance between fluid softness and sheer vendetta, three of her songs were used in Before Sunset and two others in the French film Douche Froides.

Two Days in Paris is in cinemas now.

PSP Ltd is not responsible for the contents of external websites.

More information available in Interviews, Humour, Film