SEX IS COMEDY Download press kit - Flach Film

Jean-François Lepetit
presents
Anne Parillaud Grégoire Colin
REC
(INTIMATE SCENES)
the new film by Catherine Breillat
with Roxane Mesquida Ashley Wanninger

The relationship of a director, who happens to be Anne Parillaud,
with two actors she’s directing, trying to get the most out of them for
a very difficult scene, a sex scene.
Jean-François Lepetit
presents
A film by
Catherine Breillat
With
Anne Parillaud - Grégoire Colin
Roxane Mesquida - Ashley Wanninger
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(INTIMATE SCENES)
FRENCH RELEASE : JUNE 5, 2002
Length : 1 h 32 / Format : 1.85 / Sound : Dolby SR / Visa : 103.693
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Director’s statement
First of all, I wanted to make A FILM ABOUT THE CINEMA, ABOUT THIS
MYSTERIOUS UNDERTAKING THAT PEOPLE (WRONGLY) CALL
DIRECTING A FILM, OR DIRECTING ACTORS. YOU DON’T DIRECT
A FILM: YOU MAKE A FILM. I wanted to make this film because of the glut of
“Making Of” videos designed to convince people that they can reveal the mysteries of
a film-shoot. In fact, these backstage productions merely reveal the futility of films and
give a superficial view of the shoot. The heart of it remains a secret. Like the heart of
a volcano. It’s the Time of the Ordeal, when fear takes hold of everyone – the actors
and the director – and, at that point, the shoot becomes a clash behind closed doors.
This clash behind closed doors is the subject of Sex is Comedy.
But, beyond the hopeless infatuation between actors and directors, it’s A STORY
ABOUT HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS, MALE AND FEMALE, AND THE
SUBTLE TIES BETWEEN THOSE WHO GIVE ORDERS AND THOSE WHO
OBEY THEM. IN A WAY, IT’S THE POWER OF THE WEAKEST. And the
confusion of feelings that fly around like free electrons on movie sets. Because, as Jeanne
says: “You always pick actors because you love them…” Because though I say that I
hate them, deep down I love them… In fact, I hate them for not loving me. You think they’re
doing your film out of love, when in fact they’re doing it… I don’t know… out of vanity…
Anyway, I don’t really know. The thing is, their deep-seated cowardice never leaves them,
so when you start getting tough with them, you have no means of putting pressure on
them and, in fact they’re the ones who always start causing trouble (they always trigger
the hostilities) and then you see them cowering to you… It’s unbelievably violent!…
Because you scorn them and you hate them. But, at the same time, you wish you could
love them… And I’m talking about actors, not actresses: you always get on with actresses,
even when you don’t like each other. This violence, this power trip that lies beneath it all,
is a male thing… And it’s always after you’ve put them down that they come up with
something really dazzling, as if they needed to be dominated, because it’s a job for girls.
YOU HAVE TO BE A GIRL TO BE AN ACTOR. …Trying to share the emotion that
they give you with them, is a big mistake… As a director, you’re a predator, you have to
rip the emotion out of them, you take it and then your name’s on it. It’s yours, in fact.
That’s what the cinema is. That’s why there’s such hatred and violence. Because it’s a
solitary creative act, not a group effort. Actors are the raw material of films. That’s how
it is. On a human level, it’s appalling. And for the actors it’s worse, because I’m a woman…
it’s harder to surrender your soul, because surrendering the soul is a female act and
taking it is a male one.
Catherine Breillat
4 5

Interview with
harmony. You make films because you project yourself
on to others. All actors are in some respects part of oneself,
but in some films it shows more than in others. It’s
weird and magical. It’s like people who fall in love with
film that Anne is making. The vector that takes a spectator
from one to the other is a magical vector. There are no
mechanics. There isn’t a scene to tell you we’re going from
one to the other. All of a sudden, it just happens and
Catherine Breillat
people who look like them. Films are a form of love-making.
Making a film is desire. For instance, the Actress
(Roxane Mesquida) in the film Jeanne (Anne Parillaud)
is making, is totally insignificant in the film when she’s
not being filmed. But when she’s being filmed, she’s
that’s what’s voluptuous.
I make films, but I don’t know how I make them. I only
know that I make them as best I can, that means with a
lot of anxiety, a lot of joy, a lot of pain. Of course, actors
magical, because the looks of others are upon her. can give you a lot of trouble. But it’s like love affairs. It’s
An actor is someone who is made of other people’s looks. desire. But it’s a physical desire that only materializes
It’s something that the media don’t understand when in the film. It’s very strange and disturbing for everyone,
they say that I’m such a tyrant with actors. It’s a form of but at the same time, it’s magnificent. You know once
possession, but you’re possessed by the film you’re you’ve got the scene, that everything that you had to
How did you get the idea for this film?
After Perfect Love, I wanted to write something about the
shooting of that film. A film-shoot is a story in itself, a
strobe-light view of life. A film is fiction, you tell a story,
the filming itself is a microcosm where all the passions
of life are played out very intensely over a short period
of time that is shorter and denser than normal life.
I wanted to do that project as a book. But I dropped it
because at the time I went to see a publisher who
But as one has to search within oneself for inspiration,
and as it’s about oneself making a film, it winds up by
simply being about oneself! The filming became so completely
schizophrenic that it wasn’t very pleasant.
My relationship to the actors was
pleasant, but not my relationship
to myself.
making. A film is a kind of alien that lives in us and
possesses us. A film-shoot is a trance. From the outside
it looks very violent, but from the inside it’s a violence
that is like a passion, it’s a magnificent violence. At the
end-of-shoot party, Anne was beaming. Yet, she should
have been exhausted. We worked fourteen hours a day,
she had tons of dialogue, she had just had a baby and
yet she was radiant. All that doesn’t show because
being an actor is definitely a
put up with and impose on others is over, and you move
on to the next scene. There’s a kind of immediate
rebirth. Of course, it’s like wild mood swings. But our
lives are full of wild mood swings. Films are story-telling
too. A story you tell is obviously a portrait of yourself.
The story you direct is always
your own story.
You have to project yourself into the story. When you
advised me against it, and told me I should write a “real
book”. Later, when I was commissioned by Arte to do a
Sometimes, the people on the set were lost: they didn’t
know anymore if they were film technicians, or if they fakir’s job. You have to walk on hot
make a film, you’re at the heart of a fictional story and
everybody identifies with what you’re shooting.
segment of Masculin-Feminin, I first thought I’d use a
small camera to film a big camera, and that what I couldn’t
do in feature films, I’d do for TV, that is to say a
“making of”. A shoot is a magical and very strange thing.
I wanted to show that, and I started writing it without
knowing what I’d end up with. As always, one has a few
ideas and no ideas, and what one really has is something
that gets you going. So that’s how I wrote it. In fact,
I wrote that script and Pornocratie in the same month.
When I reread both, I realized that the project on a filmshoot
couldn’t be done for TV because it had to be shot
in a studio, that I wanted to cast an actress who was a
bit more famous than those I usually had, and that
I wanted two cameras. It was much too big a budget for
TV. So I made Brief Crossing for TV and I decided to make
were playing a part. It was very strange.
Did the desire to make this film take place at a time when
you wanted to focus both on a method and on yourself?
A self-portrait isn’t an autobiography. I wondered what
the difference was and I went to look at Rembrandt’s selfportraits
in Vienna. Why do these self-portraits interest
other people? Because a self-portrait isn’t showing
others a view of oneself. On the contrary it’s questioning
yourself with a world interface. Because the world only
exists through your perception of it. A self-portrait isn’t
a portrait. It is done from the inside, not the outside.
This film became a self-portrait
coals, without getting burned.
It’s a magical moment in life. You could also say that
you’d kill your father and mother to make a film.
That’s the negative side. Yes, you’d kill your father
and mother to make a film because you’d also kill
yourself to make it. It’s the most important thing.
A film is utopia. That’s also why it’s magnificent. Maybe
there are people who’d rather make films from shooting
schedules, who know exactly what they’re going to
do, who are never astounded by their own films.
I never know what film I’m going
to make, but it astounds me.
Besides, when I’ve just finished it, I can hardly say what it’s
Especially when it’s a sex scene! What is called a sex
scene, is a scene that everyone treats like a secret,
that they’re both excited about and ashamed of.
There is this object that is the forbidden representation
of the male sex-organ. In the film, it is so forbidden
that it’s a fake. But moving from the fake to the
illusion of reality is what brings back all the taboos,
but also all the emotion, the human aspect. When
there are no taboos, there’s no humanity, there are
only dirty jokes, barrack-room humor. That’s when
the sex-organ becomes a costume.
What you say makes one feel that you didn’t make
this film as a theatrical feature. It’s a script that I never
reread and when I really got going on it, I wasn’t at all without my realizing it.
about. I realize that the film is the result of a kind of incomprehensible
and completely delicious movement back and
this film to explain anything, but rather to comment
on a mystery.
aware of what was at stake, of how much of a self-portrait Anne Parillaud isn’t my clone. She’s herself. I didn’t try
forth between the film that I’m making, and the film that Yes. It’s a mystery and it remains one when you see
it was. For me, it was just filming the shooting of a movie. to turn her into me. It’s more like symbiosis, a kind of
the director played by Anne Parillaud is making, and the the film. But I wanted it to have a light tone, so one
6 7

understands that a film-shoot, even though it’s so
serious, so moving, so involving, is also full of humor.
You’re constantly making fun of
yourself.
That’s why I called the film Sex is Comedy. I wanted the
word “comedy”. I wanted people to know that people
laugh a lot on a set. You get the giggles, yet at the
same time everyone is in a real state. These are rare
moments. But most of the time, you have a lot of fun.
The very principle of comedy, is the opposite of what’s
comical. What’s comical is of no interest. Comedy is
having a sense of humor about our most tragic inhibitions
in life. It’s the specter of a society that puts us in
a straightjacket, that turns anything related to sexuality
into a tragedy, that gets you so tangled up, that you’re
no longer yourself and everyday life becomes very
painful. But on a set, it’s also very painful to shoot a
sex scene, it affects everyone. Why? It’s no big deal!
It’s also very odd that everybody has long faces. All
preparations for the scene get under way and at the
same time, no one talks about it, it’s taboo, it’s as if
you weren’t actually going to shoot it. It’s very strange.
I wanted to show that a film-shoot
is a form of pleasurable torture.
It’s an immense pleasure. When I’m criticized for
being too hard on a shoot, I often use the example of
mountaineering. Physically speaking, it’s sheer torture,
yet it’s the most extreme pleasure. I wanted to show
that when you push a sex scene to the limit, the
actors take a lot of pleasure in it, as does everybody
on the set, even though, later, no one wants to admit
it anymore. We live in a society where people won’t
admit what gives them pleasure. You have to feel
ashamed of yourself, to say that wasn’t my doing,
they made me do it. Of course the actors have to be
made to do it, and that’s what I’m there for. If it wasn’t
for the film, I wouldn’t do it either, I’d be like them,
I’d be ashamed, I wouldn’t yield to my pleasure,
I wouldn’t want people to watch me doing certain
things. We’re all like that! We’re in a society that
makes us ashamed of ourselves.
8
In Sex is Comedy, the director is the person who is the
most prone to doubts. Jeanne is on a permanent quest
where nothing is taken for granted. Everything seems
to be invented as things go on.
It’s the opposite of brainstorming sessions or the storyboard!
I loathe that. I never plan a film shot by shot. The
only time I did it was for the scene on the beach, to
shorten it, to drop some of it! The rational aspect is
appalling, it’s as if the film were already made and
shooting it was a simple formality. That’s a bedridden
approach! A film is like the heart of a volcano.
Being involved in a total mystery is what makes it utterly
shattering. The film comes out of nowhere. It’s about
grabbing three and a half minutes a day from a void.
And a void is terrifying.
You have to drag the images out of
a void!
That’s what so magnificent about films. Other directors
have commented on this too. I remember Oshima spoke
of one of his films in which there was a shot of soldiers in
the snow that everybody found incredibly symbolic.
Oshima said that on the morning when the crew arrived to
shoot this scene with the soldiers, it had been snowing
and they just shot the scene. A director has to use his
imagination to understand that chance can help him.
A director who was following a story-board would have
decided that he had to wait for the following day, and clear
the snow to get the shot that he had imagined. People like
that are minor craftsmen. I’m not a craftsman. I think that
what chance gives me is always
better than what I had imagined.
But you have to grab it. Invention is like running with
the wind, that means seeing things and shaping them,
not inventing things in an office like a scribbler, except
in some types of films that call for special constructions.
But if you don’t have a lot of money, or a lot of
time, you have to know how to rethink things fast with
what you’ve been given. Even bad weather can be
a gift! For Perfect Love, I had found a landscape of
mountains and valleys as far as the eye could see,
a kind of moonscape. When we wanted to shoot,
we noticed that our mountain was shrouded in fog that
made it disappear. Going down a bit lower, the time it
took to set up the camera and to say “Roll it!”,
the mountain had disappeared again. My cameraman
suggested we remain till Sunday to get the shots
I wanted. I told him it wasn’t chance, that this was the
shot I was meant to get. This landscape was the opposite
of a catastrophe. It was a lot better. It was what we
needed: the end of the world. It was both like being in
love and the morbid aspects of passion. And that’s
what the film’s about. It was given to me. I didn’t have
the means to recreate a layer of artificial fog around
the mountain. Anne Parillaud is in the film for the same
reasons. She stepped out of a wall. I was in a corridor,
I was waiting to congratulate someone about a play.
And all of a sudden, I saw her look and she saw my
look. She was beckoning to me. Clearly, it was a look
of desire. And I hadn’t thought of her. I waited at least
three weeks before calling her. I was waiting for
answers from big stars but I didn’t call them again.
I decided that the non-answers were answers in themselves,
but that it didn’t matter because I was sure,
even without calling her, that Anne would do the film.
I was being urged to call her, because she had other
projects and might not be able to do my film. I wasn’t
worried. I was sure that she would do it because it wasn’t
a chance encounter. It was like love at first sight. And
on a film-shoot, love at first sight happens all the time.
Changes in the weather, material changes, contigencies
that at first look like disasters, you always have to turn
them to your advantage. Destiny is telling you that
it’s better that way because it’s
more of a surprise.
If it rubs you the worng way, it’s because it’s better,
because the image has more depth. What one can
predict, is always very flat. One can only predict what is
conventional. Whereas life is full of surprises.
In Sex is Comedy, the biggest revelation for the
director is, in a certain way, to take the place of the
actor or the actress. It may be the heart of the film...
We always reveal ourselves in our works. That’s all they
are, a revelation of yourself. Making a film is an act of
total immodesty.
You don’t hide, you reveal yourself.
A film set is a very immodest place, but you’re not aware of
it because there’s an absolute necessity to look for the
truth. What you want to achieve by means of a film, you can
only find in yourself and through yourself. At the end of the
film, Anne is in front of the TV monitor in a desperate state.
In the first versions of the scene, she was in a much less
desperate state. My assistant and my editor came to see
me while I was in the same situation, I looked as
if I was possessed by the image,
I breathed as if I was in a bed.
If I’d realized it, I wouldn’t have done it, but I was only
aware of the film that I wanted. It’s a bit like giving birth,
it’s not pretty to watch. It’s very immodest. But as there’s
no other way to do the film, it’s not immodest. It’s the
organic necessity for the film. But it astounds people.
I filmed the shoot the way I saw it. And I couldn’t have
gone further! Sometimes what happened was worse.
For instance, I filmed the cameraman looking away from
the camera the way I’ve seen a cameraman do when he’s
riveted by a scene. When we shot the scene, I made him
keep his eye applied to the camera longer and we had
removed the padding from the viewfinder so it would
leave a mark around his eye. I told him not to breathe.
So that when he’d stopped breathing for a while and
removed his eye from the camera, he looked like a
cameraman who’s shooting a scene like that. But all that
isn’t spectacle, it’s a communion.
Is Sex is Comedy an amalgam of several film-shoots
that you experienced?
Basically it’s For My Sister (Fat girl) but it could also be based
on Perfect Love, 36 Fillette (Virgin) or Romance. Especially
in the seduction scene, because of Roxane Mesquida’s
wonderful performance. Roxane is someone with whom
I get along with fabulously well. I trust her entirely.
In this film, for instance, she was on the set the whole time
and but she wasn’t often in front of the camera. That’s
enough to make anyone freak! When we shot the scene
9

where she screams, and she’s the way we see her in the
Therefore, it was better if I hated him. But at the same
What language did you use with Anne Parillaud?
Did you feel you had to remove the varnish from Anne
film, she crossed the set in her little white bathrobe in
that pathetic state. I ran after her to comfort her, want-
time we liked each other a lot. We had to find a language.
The language isn’t the same for every actor and I sometimes spoke atrociously to
Parillaud’s former image?
She wanted to break with the Nikita image. It’s a woning
to avoid the customary selfishness of a film-director according to what you’ll ask him to do. A film-actor is her as I did to everyone else, but derful image but she didn’t want it to become a stereo-
which is to move on to the next shot. In her highly emotional
state, breathless, her eyes shiny with tears, she
dependent on the way the director sees him, and he can
be made to look ridiculous or fabulous. He can’t do a she thought it was all right
type. She wanted to break it. It’s true, on the first day
of shooting, I didn’t have a director on the set, I had
said to me: “Today, I know that I did something for the thing about it. He has to give himself to you. And he has
because it was for the film. So she got a lot of pleasure an actress. From that point of view, the first two days’
film...” When she was sitting around on the radiator, her to trust you. I can’t see any other French actor accept-
out of it. Grégoire, thought I spoke very badly to him. rushes were unbearable. It was my fault, too, because
arms crossed, she was a bit fed up, but now she knew ing this role beside Grégoire. In the end, he came across
Whereas I said the same kind of things to him as I could see things weren’t working but I hoped I’d get
she’d made a contribution to the film, and she was wonderfully. This hostility was probably necessary. It’s
I did to Anne. There probably are moments when away with it. I went back to the hotel, I called Anne and
happy. At the start of the filming of For My Sister (Fat girl), a hostile role. Therefore, we couldn’t be accomplices.
I talk atrociously. Because I talk about all the things told her that we were headed for disaster. I didn’t
she only thought of herself, now she only thinks of the film.
That’s what’s wonderful about her. You can see it. When
you see the how radiant she is at the end of the film, you
It’s the role of the bull in the
arena. It’s a female role since he’s
that aren’t right and say very little about the things
that are fine. The things that are fine, I hardly mention
because they’re a pleasure, that speaks for
know what to do, but I told her there was only one
solution, that she had to be the way I saw her in the
morning at breakfast. She agreed to have a working
can’t believe it was so difficult, the change was instant. If I
ask her to do something, she does it. It’s incredible! I adore an object of desire.
itself. What I say is always very precise. For instance,
I can’t stand actors raising their eyebrows half way
face, a face without make-up, a naked face. And yet
usually, I want actresses to wear make-up! She had
her and, as a general rule, I really love my actors.
In the film, I think he looks like Silvana Mangano. I like
up their foreheads, because that movement deprives lots of outfits for the film, but we decided to keep only
him enormously. Besides, I decided that to film men as
the eye of all thought, of conscience, of concentra- one. I told her that she had to look like Joan of Arc at
objects of desire, you had to film them as you film
tion. But at the same time, this concentration must the stake: she’s being burned, but she’s triumphant!
Sex is Comedy doesn’t convey the image of a
women. But it’s very uncomfortable for them. They pre-
be a form of surrender. You have to be very concen- She had to be beautiful, but with something harsh.
particularly hysterical film-shoot. There’s the search
for love, relationships based on seduction. If there’s
any violence, it’s inner violence.
fer to be shot by a male director within the framework of
male language. For a man, to filmed like a woman by a
woman is very hard to take.
trated, but innocently so! Anne loves apnea deep-sea
diving and it’s what she did in the film. She had a role
where she didn’t have any reference points.
It’s the beauty of someone who is
confident, who isn’t destroyed by
There’s maybe the kind of hysteria where the least flick of
an eyelash takes on importance. An actor who goes out of
his way not to come and say hello, who does it intention- This situation is magnified by the fact that he wears a
For Grégoire it was different because he knows what
it’s like to be an actor, even though it’s sometimes
difficult to know what one is. But Anne had a role
other people’s looks, who imposes
herself as she is.
ally. On a set, they always do it intentionally because it has
a meaning. On a set, everything becomes symbolic. The
slightest movement, where you sit at meals, who you call
fake penis during a good part of the film, which tends
to cast doubts on his virility...
That’s it precisely. Grégoire never stopped telling me that
that no actor knows. That means a role in which what
exists is less her self image and more the image of
the other. In fact, she mustn’t have an image of
That’s the character. She has very beautiful eyes that
don’t necessarily need make-up.
to have lunch with you. On a shoot, people form clans, there he’d chosen a very small fake penis. That worried me a
herself or be conscious of her image. It’s very
are problems and split-ups that cause pain on the film, but lot! I only discovered it when he took off his bathrobe.
difficult for an actress not to be conscious of her
How would you define the assistant’s position in the film?
sometimes they can also be good for it. For instance, my I hadn’t seen it before. I’m rather respectful of individual
image and to say to herself that her mental repre-
He’s a kind of alter ego and not just a wall against which
relationship with Grégoire Colin was quite tempestuous. approaches to modesty. Anyway, you have to put up with
sentation is standing in front of her. Anne took
you practice throwing a ball. He’s someone who can
First, because he felt he was playing the role of an actor that. What matters is how it will look on the screen.
delight in not knowing. It’s a must for an actress:
become a wall and, when you need one, be a confidant.
who had been liked, that therefore he wasn’t liked. At the
same time, because he liked me as a director, he immediately
agreed to do the film. Very few actors would have
Grégoire didn’t wear a shirt because they don’t suit him.
T-shirts suit him much better. But that huge penis with a
T-shirt did look very ugly. So I was debating what to do.
to surrender, to know how to take
direction. And this surrender is,
You’re very alone on a shoot and, from time to time, you
need someone you can talk to. I made the film to
contradict that horrible expression: to direct a crew, a film...
accepted without hesitation. But somewhere along the line
he wanted to make me pay for it.
And the whole speech about whether or not he should
wear his pants is absolutely authentic. It’s because
I didn’t know what he should wear. I only saw it the next
like in love, absolute delight.
This surrender gave Anne strength. The experience didn’t
I hate foremen.
My first-assistant isn’t a foreman. He’s the director’s wild
He suspected I didn’t like him. He had to find a place for day in front of the camera. But it’s also very beautiful.
tire her, yet the shoot was exhausting. What was really card! You really need one. On a shoot, there are endless
himself, and sometimes one ends up being liked by get- He looks like Amon, the Egyptian god of fertility who you
hard, was becoming an orphan after the filming, coming questions, very little certainty. Just the certainty that you
ting oneself hated. Otherwise, he would have come can see on the temple at Luxor. And his face looks like
back to ordinary life. Resting doesn’t rest you up. And have to get a number of shots in the can every day.
across as lukewarm. I’d have only liked him a little. he stepped out of a painting by Modigliani or Picasso.
work enhances you.
But there’s no certainty about the film you’re making.
10 11

It’s total anxiety. And the first-assistant is the only person
with whom you can share this anxiety, and your
desire to make a film that will astound people.
Sometimes you can with your producer, but at a
different stage.
Was this film a way of exorcising your obsession with
bedroom scenes?
No, because Pornocratie, my next film, takes place
entirely in a bed.
In life, when there are no bedroom
scenes, what else is there?
Getting your salary at the end of the month is no satisfaction.
What matters most is coping with desire. It’s
what’s most important, and it’s quite difficult to even
get things to the bedroom stage. The bedroom scene is
what no one wants to see, and
that everybody craves.
a sudden a donkey with a big tail becomes an object
of desire. But because you’re in love with this donkey with
a big tail, you don’t see that it’s a donkey. The film is also
a parable about that. A false and excessive sexual representation
is tolerated provided that the real penis is
shriveled up inside the fake one. The fake penis reassures
everyone. Whereas it should be alarming! It’s very strange.
This fake penis challenges the conscience of censorship.
What is indecent?
The indecent moment, is when you hardly see the penis in
the film’s sex scene. All the rest is like the carnival of Nice
or Venice. It’s a mask. It’s the whole story of our civilization.
Interview by Thierry Jousse
Novels
L'HOMME FACILE / Christian Bourgois éditeur and 10/18 - New edition J’ai Lu 2001
LE SILENCE, APRÈS... / François Wimille éditeur
LES VÊTEMENTS DE MER (THEATER) / François Wimille éditeur
LE SOUPIRAIL / Guy Authier éditeur
TAPAGE NOCTURNE / Mercure de France
POLICE / Albin Michel and Le Livre de Poche
36 FILLETTE / Carrère
LE LIVRE DU PLAISIR / Éditions Numéro 1
UNE VRAIE JEUNE FILLE / Éditions Denoël
PORNOCRATIE / Éditions Denoël
Films
A REAL YOUNG GIRL
NOCTURNAL UPROAR
VIRGIN
DIRTY LIKE AN ANGEL
À PROPOS DE NICE, LA SUITE (AUX NIÇOIS QUI MAL Y PENSENT)
PERFECT LOVE
ROMANCE
FOR MY SISTER (FAT GIRL)
Best Film (Gold Hugo) Chicago Festival 2001 - Tribute Telluride Festival 2001
Movie Zone Award Rotterdam 2002
BRIEF CROSSING
First Prize Festival of Luchon 2002
SEX IS COMEDY
Directors’ Fortnight Opening film Cannes 2002
When I shoot a bedroom scene, I don’t use a reduced
crew. I hate that. These scenes are going to be seen
by everyone. I also don’t want to be surrounded by
lechers. The scene with the huge fake penis, was
supposed to be shot in the bathroom. But the set’s
bathroom was too exposed, it couldn’t work. I looked
all over the set and ended up finding a spot that’s
like a corridor. We shot it there, and very fast. When
Script
I turned around, there were tons of people behind
CATHERINE & CO directed by Michel BOISROND
me, some that I’d never seen, trainees of trainees.
BILITIS directed by David HAMILTON
I wanted that to be in the film, but no one wanted to
THE SKIN (co-writer) directed by Liliana CAVANNI
do the scene the way it took place on the set. I finally
THE SATIN SPIDER (co-writer) directed by Jacques BARATIER
managed to do it, but it took time. This cock was
AND THE SHIP SAILS ON (co- writer) directed by Federico FELLINI
making everyone go wild, it was a smutty object.
POLICE directed by Maurice PIALAT
The smutty aspect of sexuality
isn’t taboo. The intimacy is what
ZANZIBAR (co-writer) directed by Christine PASCAL
BLACK MILAN NOIR (co-writer) directed by Ronald CHAMMAH
LA NUIT DE L’OCÉAN (co-writer) directed by Antoine PERSET
is taboo.
AVENTURE DE CATHERINE C. (co-writer) directed by Pierre BEUCHOT
MONEY directed by Philippe GALLAND
Revealing one’s intimacy is much more difficult than being
DEVIL IN THE FLESH directed by Gérard VERGEZ
an exhibitionist. This plastic cock was like in
VIENS JOUER DANS LA COUR DES GRANDS directed by Caroline HUPPERT
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream when all of
TO MATHIEU (co-writer) directed by Xavier BEAUVOIS
12 13

Interview with
Anne Parillaud
How did you meet Catherine Breillat ?
By accident, by a miracle... I was at the theater.
Catherine was there, too, and we were waiting
patiently to go backstage and say hello to the play’s
leading lady. It was love at first sight for us both. Then
things ran their usual course, except that she made
me do a test so she’d be sure, and to check that this
love at first sight wasn’t just a flash in the pan, but
could be the basis for serious work. Catherine always
tests actors when she hires them. I had to do a fourpage
monologue, an excerpt from The Mother and the
Whore. It was very hard because I hadn’t done any
tests for a long time. But it was also very good for me.
Like a check-up, a challenge.
It seems the tests turned out fine...
After reading read the script, what appealed to you
about this character ?
What appealed to me first was the whole concept of
the film. Very often, I read a script and on first reading
I turn it down. Then, I read the script again,
I meet the director and sometimes things change. In
any case, it’s often how much the character appeals
to me that determines my choice. Sometimes, that
has made me make rather restricted choices
character. Often, I wasn’t objective about a film
because I only cared about the character. But for
Catherine’s film, I had no hesitation. I didn’t have to
ask anyone’s opinion or ponder over it to be sure
I wanted to do the film. In this case, the character
and the film matched perfectly. The subjects the film
dealt with seemed totally valid to me.
I was happy that someone had
dared to write it, to speak of
things that everybody knows, to
flaunt the laws of silence that
abide in this business.
Before working with her, I knew Catherine mainly
through her interviews. I had only seen her last three
films and I greatly admired her as a person. That she had
written this and that I was going to be part of it, pleased
me enormously. So I didn’t hesitate, I was more afraid
she might change her mind and offer the part to
someone else.
Did you feel a bit schizophrenic during the filming of
Sex is Comedy?
Usually, schizophrenia is a condition I feel close to. So
Cinema
1978 HOLIDAY HOTEL directed by Michel LANG
1979 LOOK SEE directed by Hugo SANTIAGO
1980 GIRLS directed by Just JAECKIN
1981 FOR A COP’S HIDE directed by Alain DELON
1982 THE FIGHTER directed by Alain DELON
1987 JULY IN SEPTEMBER directed by Sébastien JAPRISOT
1989 WHAT TIME IS IT ? directed by Ettore SCOLA
1989 NIKITA directed by Luc BESSON
César 1991 for Best Actress
1991 MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART directed by Vincent WARD
1992 INNOCENT BLOOD directed by John LANDIS
1993 SIX DAYS, SIX NIGHTS directed by Diane KURYS
1994 DEAD GIRL directed by Adam COLEMAN HOWARD
1994 FRANKIE STARLIGHT directed by Michael LINDSEY HOGG
1996 DEATH IN THERAPY directed by Francis GIROD
1997 THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK directed by Randall WALLACE
1997 SHATTERED IMAGE directed by Raoul RUIZ
1999 ONE 4 ALL directed by Claude LELOUCH
2001 GANGSTER directed by Olivier MARCHAL
SEX IS COMEDY directed by Catherine BREILLAT
Television
1979 LE TEMPS D’UNE MISS directed by Jean-Daniel SIMON
1983 VINCENTE directed by Bernard TOUBLANC MICHEL
1985 LES BEAUX DIMANCHES directed by Robert MAZOYER
1986 NESSUNO TORNA INDIETRO directed by Franco GIRALDI
Theater
1977 HELOISE AND ABELARD - Correspondance
Directed by Daniel BENOIN (Festival d’Avignon)
1980 L’INTOXE by Françoise DORIN
Directed by Jean-Laurent COCHET
because I’d only dealt with the whole aura of the it’s not a problem for me. On a shoot, I don’t act, I am.
14 15

If I know I can’t be a particular character, I don’t do the film...
I know I’ll never get beyond that essential dimension and
feel, create, vibrate and enjoy
what I’ve done.
As it turned out, on the filming of Sex is Comedy, I was
playing the role of the director. I wasn’t an actress
playing at being a director. We had no choice, because
an actress playing at being a director, would be unwatchable,
unbearable... On the other hand, at the start of
the film, we hadn’t foreseen that asking an actress to
play a director, was asking her to strip herself of everything
she is, of her image, of her appearance, of some
of her problems that aren’t those of a director. We
couldn’t have foreseen that. We definitely had to forget
about the actress. But at the same time, it wasn’t that
difficult. It must happen fast, or it never does...
Sometimes it happens before the shooting, and failing
that, it happens in the first two or three days. From that
moment on, my only problems are the pains and joys
of the character.
Did the huge amount of dialogue that your character
has in Sex is Comedy scare you a bit ?
At first, it did, because I’m not used to having so much
dialogue. Especially as on a film, I usually cut out a lot of
dialogue myself. Often, I suggest there are things I don’t
need to say, because I’ll act them out. So I cut that dialogue,
and I usually don’t have much anyway because I play
characters who express themselves with their body or with
their eyes. So I’m rarely offered roles with long tirades to
reel off. But this film was something entirely new. That’s
why the tests using the four-page monologue from The
Mother and the Whore were needed. Because some very
good actors can’t do monologues. It’s not dialogue, it’s
a monologue... It needs a different technique, it’s a different
exercise. Some people bore you and others don’t.
It’s not a question of excellence. Either you have it, or you
don’t. Catherine needed to check that out. I didn’t know the
answer myself. I realized as I was doing it, that I enjoyed it.
I like her dialogue, I like the way
it’s written. The same way I like
the classics.
I’d love to act in the classics because they enable you
to get down to basics, to your emotions. Catherine’s
text really has meaning. Maybe I was able to act it
because it’s so bound up with emotion and character.
Jeanne’s character talks a lot, but with a purpose. Once
I’d become the character, everything flowed.
Did the film remind you of situations you’d
experienced as an actress ?
Even during the filming there were scenes like the ones
in the film. That’s why it was confused and schizophrenic.
What was incredible was that some of the scenes we
were going to shoot were actually happening on our
own set. It was quite disturbing. But even so, the film’s
dialogue is something I’d have liked to have written
myself. It’s exactly like my own thinking. Catherine
wants so badly to get at the truth, at authenticity, at
basics, at purity! The ideas in the film state where she
stands. She wants more, she wants things to get
better, she’s always striving to make things become
as good as they can get. It’s a quest for the absolute.
I share that with her.
What kind of direction did she give you during the filming?
Catherine says there’s no need to do more than you
have to. If you do anything she doesn’t like, she tells
you at once, and very precisely.
I won’t talk about the freedom
I was given, because I don’t like
being given a free rein.
Either she understood it, or it’s her usual attitude. Often
I say this:
I like being free in a jail.
I need the jail to break out of it. And my escape
creative: I have no drive, no world of my own, no
conflicts. I really need both things. And that’s something
Catherine gave me immediately. Not only was the
film-shoot a technical jail, but so was the character,
especially if you try not to betray it, and if you try to play
the melody the director wrote. In Sex is Comedy this
was even truer, since the character existed and was
there in front of me, even though Catherine denied it
during the whole shooting. A character is a blend of the
actor’s imagination and the director’s. But when that
character’s in front of you, things take on a different
dimension. I adored that! On the other hand, what
interested me, was not to play Catherine, but to extract
from her the essence that I needed.
Still, weren’t you tempted to imitate her ?
No. Because that would’ve been uninteresting. And
I don’t think she’d have let me do it. That’s why from the
start, Catherine said this story wasn’t autobiographical
and that the character wasn’t her. She knew that it was
her, but she wanted to avoid it so I didn’t try to reduce
the character to an imitation of her. That wasn’t the aim.
The aim was to become her essence, her talent. Mine is
the only character that has a first
name in the film.
She’s called Jeanne, whereas the others are called the
Actor, the Actress... This first name never appears elsewhere
in her world. And the character certainly isn’t
called Catherine. So without even discussing it, we
avoided any temptation to copy her. A director wants
her actors not only to act out what’s written, but to add
a lot more. But if I start imitating the person who is supposed
to be the model for the character, you lose the
part that the director loves, the dimension, the color,
the vibration for which you were chosen, the part that
comes from the actor interacting with the character.
Catherine was in front of me all the time, yet at the same
time, the character couldn’t be her. This distance, this
gap is what’s on the screen.
It’s both her and not her.
What was the most difficult scene to do ?
I don’t think in terms of difficulty, because, since I’m
not acting, the character coexists within me. I’m an
envelope with the character inside it, I’m the inspiration
I get from this character. There’s no notion of
playing someone. It’s more someone who is inside me,
who steers me, inspires me, drags me along, sends
me on a journey and takes me where I need to go. And
it’s someone I love. On the other hand, what seemed
to me to be most “different”, was the short moment
where I’m in front of the TV monitor, toward the end of
the film, and I finally watch the love scene take place.
There was a scene with dialogue that was cut from the
film. This dialogue said, among others things, that it’s
very difficult to be a girl. So, naturally, as a girl
watching the hardship of this love scene, I reacted as
a girl would react, that is instantly becoming emotional,
crying, because I was so riveted by the intimate
conflict of this teenager as she yields to the boy. I had
seen how Catherine reacted just before, when the love
scene was being shot and, surprisingly enough, it was
something very strong, very intense, incredibly
intimate. And I told myself that her reaction didn’t
necessarily mean that I had to do the same thing. I did
the first take my own way. Which was to be incredibly
emotional. Catherine immediately stopped me, saying
she didn’t want tears from me, the young actress does
the crying, that’s not at all what she wanted!
What she wanted from me for the
scene was an emotion I had never
experienced, a voyeur’s emotion,
someone who watches the scene like a big cat, like
a bird of prey... Oddly enough, that’s what was most
distant from anything I’d ever done, or would have done
without a director.
Catherine Breillat is known as a “tough” director.
Can you confirm this ?
She’s not at all tough. I know why people say it or
becomes my creativity. But if I’m not in a jail, I can’t be
why they used to. That was confirmed to me during
16 17

my work with her. It’s because her search for the
absolute, her desire for perfection, her total refusal
of mediocrity, her desire for magic, for mystery, for
real cinema is unbearable to some people. In films
and other fields, today people are soon satisfied with
very little. It’s very painful for Catherine, to live the
way she does. She’s an artist, precisely because she
knows how to create a private world, a universe the
way she wants it be, that is in fact very demanding,
beautiful, pure, and corresponds to a certain kind of
truth. For people who don’t share the need for that
quest, she seems oppressive, dense, difficult, incomprehensible,
impossible to live with. But she’s an
incredibly loving person. There’s a real paradox
between her reputation, everything her name stands
for, and the real person. To know her, is to understand
her, and love her. It’s a matter of different
worlds, different standards, different levels...
But she’s right, she’s doing the right thing. Anyway,
people with a reputation for being difficult appeal to
me instantly, because I know they won’t tolerate
things as they are. They won’t settle for what’s offered
them, they refuse to be part of that, and can’t
relate to it. Sadly, there aren’t many people like that.
I don’t have any problems with her because I’m a
disciple of Catherine’s “philosophy”. She’s become an
indispensable person in my future landscape. She’s
not unique, but people like her are rare. In that
respect, the film is an event that goes beyond the film.
What relationships did you have with the other actors ?
First, I was always beside Catherine. She didn’t ask me
to, and I didn’t impose myself. It just happened instinctively.
So I was as much with the other actors as
Catherine was. Grégoire once said he felt there were
two directors on this film. There definitely weren’t!
I never interfered with the direction. But I was in the
privileged position of being permanently at Catherine’s
side, of being informed of everything, of always being
there. Anyway, I always relate more to the director than
to my fellow actors. I respect the actors, but they’re not
who I relate to.
I’m a tool as they are, but the
master-builder is the director,
and I relate to the master-builder
and not to my partners.
Of course, having a good partner always helps, but I function
in relation to the director. I have a commitment to
the director, that’s who I don’t
want to disappoint, that’s who
chose me, who liked me and to
whom I owe everything.
Did you use personal experiences from other films to
flesh out your character ?
Catherine is one of a kind. She writes the script
and I haven’t heard any other directors talk the
way she does. That also made me very happy:
to be playing that particular director. If I ever get
to direct, I’ll be a lot more like Catherine than any
other director I’ve known. I mean I’ll have
that same rage, outspokenness,
drive, selfishness that are so
necessary to artists.
They’re not as accessible in everyday life, but they give,
they share in a different manner. It’s still a way of loving.
It’s just transmitted differently. I think reality doesn’t
mean much to creators, since they create a reality for
themselves that they can access. Catherine never hides
behind a mask. She’s real, she’s animal. She’s not really
an intellectual, even though she has an extremely
brilliant mind.
But she’s also an animal who has
to hunt and who finds her prey.
She’s a huntress.
Of course Jeanne’s character is a reflection of
Catherine’s, of her essence, of her depth.
Do you think this film will change things in your
career, in your image ?
It changed something for me, I can’t answer for the
others. But at the same time, I don’t have a clearcut
image of myself. That’s why I need a director. But
I’m not conscious of what I look like from the outside,
of the way people see me. So I don’t know how
this image may change, evolve, be transformed.
That suits me because it saves me from hamming
it up, from being facile, from getting a bit paranoid.
And I still have a kind of innocence about not wanting
to know. Of course, compliments are always
pleasant to get. But I haven’t let them solidify into
anything concrete. I haven’t built anything, or let’s
say I’m building all the time. Which means that
I never want to lose the need to
be constructive.
But I know I’ve never played a character like this
before, and that there’s something terribly alive about
her. The actor’s paradox is often a lack of self-love that
you try and remedy by wanting to be loved by the
whole world, by becoming someone else, by changing
your name. You think that if you’re a doll in the hands
of a creator, you’ll love yourself more. That’s not true,
but it doesn’t matter. Often, you decide to play a
character in a way that you think will make you more
attractive in your own eyes, as if you wanted to fulfill
a part of yourself that is buried, maimed or non-existent
for Catherine and this character, that was impossible.
I knew it when I read the script. That’s also why I knew
instinctively that I had to do this film. I knew it was a
necessary step that I had to take to get further, to go
elsewhere, to give something I had never given before.
There was a side of myself that I didn’t like. It was
restricting me. It means I was controlling myself,
I wasn’t free with myself. Catherine asked me to bare
myself, to be real, not to wear make-up, not to do my
hair, to only have one outfit. This method freed things
that were inside me. Things I’ll never experience with
anyone else but her, or someone of her stature.
Because to do it, you need to have total faith and want
to let yourself go. It has a lot to do with the director.
I’d never done it before, because I wasn’t able to, and
no one asked me to, no one saw that in me... The reason
I’m so grateful to Catherine, is that even before we did
the tests, she picked me, she wanted me. It wasn’t an
obvious role for me. I still wonder how she knew, how
she saw I had the means to become her character. She
must have a scanner! She’s someone who goes
straight to what’s essential. She appeals directly to
what’s inside you. She saw it right away. At the same
time, when I was doing the film, I was very scared.
Or let’s say, I was either very sure of myself or totally
anguished, I went from one to the other with equal
intensity. Which is also how the character is.
She made me experience what a
director experiences.
What do you think about sex scenes in films, and do
you think the one in the film is convincing ?
For an actor, they’re the most difficult scenes to do.
That’s when you really feel you’re flesh. And they’re
standard fare: few films don’t have sex scenes. At the
same time, before I did Sex is Comedy, I often wondered
why these scenes were usually so boring.
I think it’s the result of a real misunderstanding. Just
as one asks an actor, a character, to speak in a certain
way, to eat in a certain way, to dress in a certain way,
one should ask an actor to make love in a certain way.
A character’s sexuality goes with what he or she is.
Yet all love scenes are the same, whatever the roles,
the stories, the characters. So something’s wrong.
People don’t dare get down to basics in those scenes
and it’s a pity. Which doesn’t mean that all of a sudden,
we should show and do everything. There could be
more originality in the way they’re shot, acted or written,
so they’re more realistic. That always shocked me.
It would be better to do without them. Or to invent
18 19

another means of expression for a person’s sexuality.
I think there’s a real problem at that level. Regarding
Catherine, a lot of actors feel that because it’s Breillat,
they should be wary of those scenes. But many other
films are more explicit. I think Catherine has real
grace, that her actresses are never damaged, never
ungainly, never vulgar. Before agreeing to do Sex is
Comedy, I saw or saw again all of Catherine’s films.
Her actors are always magnificent, particularly her
actresses in the sex scenes. As she says herself,
if the emotion is there, it’s not
dirty. When it’s real, it’s beautiful!
There’s a lightness, even a comic side to this film.
Did you approach it with that in mind ?
I didn’t realize it during the shooting. All that mattered
to me was the character. I don’t have a general view of
the character. When I go home at night, I don’t worry
how the character came across. It’s inseparable. During
the shoot, the character never left me. I’m not aware of
a gap between the actress and the character. But when
I saw the film and noticed that people laughed, I discovered
that side of the film. But it wasn’t planned,
maybe by Catherine, but not by me. When I read the
script, I laughed. But when we shot it, I wasn’t sure we
had managed to convey that. I warned Catherine that
I tended to be a bit serious and tragic. In the end the
character became what she had to become.
But I like the lightness. It’s
something new for me.
Now, I’ll be less afraid of playing a role in a comedy,
though not necessarily a comic role. I’m starting to get
a glimpse of it, to want to do that.
Interview by Thierry Jousse
Interview with
Grégoire Colin
How did your meeting with Catherine Breillat happen?
This project goes back two or three years. It got postponed
once. I met Catherine at the time of US Go Home
and Nenette et Boni with Claire Denis. I had only seen
36 Fillette (Virgin) that I liked a lot. I was also a fan of
Police for which she had written the script. I had
already told her that I’d like to do a film with her, but
nothing became of it. I saw her again at the Arcachon
festival two years ago. Claire was going to present her
with a lifetime achievement award. Catherine came
over to me to say that she had a part for me. I read the
script, that at the time was called Intimate Scenes.
I thought it was wonderful and I liked the idea of
playing an actor. It was the right timing because her
next film was going to be a porn film which appealed
less to me! She told me this one wasn’t a hardcore film
and that I could agree to it without having to worry.
Do you think that Sex is Comedy is an accurate
perception of the life of actors?
It’s a perception of some actors. Catherine has often
worked with the same kind of actors. But she has also
had problems with actors who work differently. She
must have realized that you can’t work with all actors
the same way.
It would be too easy if there was a
method that worked with all actors.
With each person, you have to find a way to reach your
goal. With some, you don’t even have to, because they
do it all. Some of what Catherine says or writes is very
thoughtful, some of it is sheer fantasy. She can also go
out of her skull. But Anne thinks that everything
Catherine says about actors is true.
How do you see your character?
I didn’t feel that I had a character, but rather that I was
plunged into situations. In spite of all the roles I’ve
played, the everyday life of an actor is closer to me
than that of a policeman. On Sex is Comedy, all the
situations amused me. I could recognize things that
were like me or like other people. I didn’t build a character.
I sometimes aped myself, especially as I’ve shot
with a lot of women directors. As the film went on,
a lot of things were happening offcamera.
We horsed around a lot.
I felt as if I was at the theater. I got the feeling that the
film was being created as the days went by. It was a very
powerful feeling. At the same time, I never felt in a position
of uncertainty or danger. When I read the script, I knew
exactly what I wanted to do. The first three days were
hard because I was really uptight, I couldn’t act. After
that, I loosened up, I did what I had in mind, and what
I thought Catherine secretly had in mind. As the film was
also a comedy, I wanted to work in a lighter vein, because
20 21

I’d never done it before. For once, I didn’t have to prepare
for the role, especially as Catherine doesn’t like to work
that way. Anyway, one shouldn’t get too set in one’s ways
before a shoot. It’s better to focus your energy, so you’re
more in tune when you’re shooting.
What kind of directions did Catherine Breillat give you?
There are days where she’s in shape and she’s great. She
watches, perfects things, she’s very attentive. But there
are days when her head doesn’t function and she starts
talking a lot, becoming delirious. I made her shut up immediately
or I couldn’t work. For the others, maybe it was useful,
but not for me. On the contrary! The less she said to
me, the better it went. On the whole, I didn’t have too
much to complain about, except in the beginning when we
fought a lot. I was acting very badly and things started out
between us in the worst way. I thought the whole film
would be like that. And then, one morning, she came and
told me that we couldn’t go on that way. After that, things
went very well. We had a very healthy relationship.
We fought but, at the same time,
we also had a lot of fun.
We teased each other a lot but it was very pleasant.
You have to understand that Catherine has a great sense
of humor. You don’t realize it right away.
How did you deal with wearing the fake penis?
I was very proud. It was hard to wear, uncomfortable.
It had to be installed... But it was quite funny. As soon as
I got it, I went out and made all the girls blush. Things
happened on the set that Catherine used later. I was
bursting with energy. The film excited me . I never stopped.
I wanted to give as much material to Catherine as I could.
I improvised all the time.
I wasn’t at all bothered by the fake
penis because I didn’t feel naked.
I felt disguised, though the realistic aspect of it all is
rather disturbing. For an actor it’s fabulous, because it
I like to fluctuate between outright
grossness and subtlety.
I was sometimes ultra-heavy, I intentionally overdid
things to annoy Catherine. It was funny. As I knew no one
dared talk to her that way, I laid it on still more. Wearing
that fake penis, I felt
I had total power.
Interview by Thierry Jousse
Cinema
LE SILENCE D’AILLEURS directed by Guy MOUYAL
THE YEAR OF AWAKENING directed by Gérard CORBIAU
OLIVIER OLIVIER directed by Agnieszka HOLLAND
ROULEZ JEUNESSE directed by Jacques FANSTEN
L’OEIL ECARLATE directed by Dominique ROULET
SOMETHING FISHY directed by Tonie MARSHALL
QUEEN MARGOT directed by Patrice CHEREAU
BEFORE THE RAIN directed by Milcho MANCHEVSKI
Golden Lion, Venice Film Festivale 1994
FIESTA directed by Pierre BOUTRON
NENETTE AND BONI directed by Claire DENIS
Bronze Leopard for Best Actor, Locarno Film Festival
HOMER directed by Fabio CARPI
THE DREAMLIFE OF ANGELS directed by Erick ZONCA
SECRET DEFENSE directed by Jacques RIVETTE
DISPARUS directed by Gilles BOURDOS
SUPERLOVE directed by Jean-Claude JANER
REFLEXIONS directed by Aimi O
SADE directed by Benoit JACQUOT
LA GUERRE A PARIS directed by Yolande ZAUBERMAN
SNOWBOARDER directed by Olias BARCO
SEX IS COMEDY directed by Catherine BREILLAT
Short-film
MARDI directed by Marion CARRANCE
Television
LE JEU DU ROI directed by M. EVANS
HECUBE directed by Bernard SOBEL
JALNA directed by Philippe MONNIER
US GO HOME directed by Claire DENIS
LE FILS DE GASCOGNE directed by Pascal AUBIER
BEAU TRAVAIL directed by Claire DENIS
COUP DE LUNE directed by Edouardo MIGNOGNA
Theater
HECUBE directed by Bernard SOBEL
BRÛLE, RIVIÈRE, BRÛLE directed by A. GIRONES
allows you to do rather daring things.
22 23

Interview with
Roxane Mesquida
After I did For My Sister (Fat girl) with her, Catherine told
me she wanted very much to work with me again. I, too,
waited impatiently for it. When she offered me Sex is
Comedy, I was delighted.
Playing yourself can be quite
destabilizing.
Working with Catherine is a very
physical undertaking.
For the final scenes, before we shot, she prepared me,
which means she held me tight in her arms to work me up
into an emotional state. As a rule, she doesn’t talk a lot.
It was even better working with her for the second time.
The first time was a discovery and you don’t really know
how to behave. The second time, I knew her, and as I really
wanted to work with her again, it was sheer pleasure.
She made me scream and I cried real tears. It was very
intense. When it was over, I was exhausted, but it was fabulous.
Working with Catherine is very relationship-oriented.
At times, she adores us, at times,
she hates us. When we don’t feel
like giving anything to the film,
she can detest us.
I wanted to give her a lot. In For My Sister (Fat girl) , I still
tried to protect myself a bit. Whereas in Sex is Comedy,
I didn’t protect myself at all. I gave myself completely
to the film and at the end of the experience, coming back
to reality after the filming was very difficult. I was lost.
I had the feeling I only came alive when I was filming.
I want to do another film with Catherine, because each
time I learn a lot, and I come out of it feeling happy.
Thanks to her, I feel good about being in films.
I don’t give a damn about looking
good in a film, I don’t care about
appearances. What interests me
is how I feel.
With Catherine, I discovered another side of the cinema
that I never knew as a spectator.
Interview by Thierry Jousse
At the same time, it’s not really me because I don’t really
recognize myself in everything that the character says.
Catherine reassured me, telling me that the character was
based on other actresses. Although the character doesn’t I loved the filming and at the end
Cinema
say much, I wanted her to be likeable because people would
be bound to identify me with her. That was quite destabili- of it I felt I had really blossomed.
1997 ANGEL SHARKS directed by Manuel PRADAL
1998 THE SCHOOL OF FLESH directed by Benoit JACQUOT
zing. I didn’t really know where I stood. I didn’t understand I felt a bit destabilized, but at the same time really well.
2000 SEXES TRES OPPOSES directed by Eric ASSOUS
anything during the filming. The filming of For My Sister (Fat It was very difficult, and I love it when things are difficult.
FOR MY SISTER (FAT GIRL) directed by Catherine BREILLAT
girl) was quite a bit like the bits of it one sees in Sex is Sometimes I’m asked if I’m not a bit masochistic. But
Best Actress Award, Chicago Festival 2001
Comedy. At the same time, I didn’t know anything about I think the painful aspect is what makes you feel alive
2001 SEX IS COMEDY directed by Catherine BREILLAT
the problems that Catherine had with the leading man of and that you’re doing something for the film. That’s why
For My Sister (Fat girl) . And unlike the character that I play
in this film, I knew that I’d have to shoot completely naked
I love working with Catherine, because it’s always very
hard work. In Sex is Comedy, she once again helped me
Television
and it wasn’t at all a problem for me, I didn’t fret about it. to push myself further. Each time, she helps me to go
2001 LES PARADIS DE LAURA directed by Olivier PANCHOT
It was a first for me, but I trusted Catherine. I’m not beyond my limits in my acting, to express emotions.
someone who questions everything. I don’t worry myself
to death before doing something. I just do it. That makes
At first, I didn’t do much or ask myself a lot of questions.
But quite soon, there were some very difficult scenes. For
Featurette
things a lot easier. For instance, the business about the example, the swim in the ocean was extremely hard.
1999 GAIA directed by Olivier de PLAS
fake penis didn’t bother me. I found it very funny. Every time I did something difficult, I felt I had made
We laughed a lot during the filming. No one was shocked. a contribution to the film. When you see the film, my
What is funny, it’s that when you see Grégoire in the film character has depth especially at the end, but this adds
wearing it, you say to yourself that he’s naked and balance to the whole film. To me, not working is harder
at the same time he’s not. It’s very strange. than working. I adored the scene with Anne Parillaud.
24 25

Interview with
Ashley Wanninger
Catherine Breillat and I go back a ways. We met on
Romance. At the time, I went to a casting interview
for the role that was eventually played by Rocco
Siffredi, and that I turned down for reasons you can
well imagine. Ten days later, she called me back and
offered me the role of Sagamore Stévenin’s friend.
We’ve stayed in contact ever since then. We go for
coffee from time to time. After September 11, we met
again, we talked about the attacks and that’s when
she offered me the role of Leo. I refused at first. I’m
not very sure of myself. I don’t have a big ego and
I didn’t feel up to it. Finally, despite my refusal,
Catherine left me no choice. Michaël, her first-assistant,
called me back. I went by the production office
to get the dialogue for the test. It was an excerpt from
The Mother and the Whore. As I walked down the
Champs-Elysées, I wanted to call them back and
cancel it. In the end, I faced up to it, I learned the
lines and I did the test that Catherine thought was
wonderful.
One of my best friends is a first-assistant. At one point,
I wanted to be one myself. Anyway, on the filming
of Sex is Comedy, I had one right in front of me and
I swiped a lot of things from him. Mechanically, like
a chameleon, I learned the vocabulary of first-assistants.
Catherine and Michaël, her first-assistant, get along
very well. They’re very close, very interdependent.
Besides, when I read the script, I could see immediately
that Anne and I were close, that Jeanne, her
character, adored Leo, that they had great esteem for
one another.
He may even be in love with her.
It could be the story of a hopeless
love.
Some scenes were cut. But, reading the script, you could
tell they had quite an ambiguous relationship, even
though it was played down. In Sex is Comedy, Leo is
Jeanne’s right hand and the person she relies on when
things aren’t going well. It’s her film, and Leo is there to
relieve her of the problems she can’t deal with.
Working with Catherine is very passionate, very deep,
very intense. She has incredible integrity and a passion
for films that I share entirely. I felt at ease. To prepare the
film, I mostly learned my lines by heart. I like to free
myself completely from the dialogue, to be able to spout
it whenever and wherever I want. When I know my lines
by heart, I don’t really need to think anymore and
everything becomes more spontaneous, almost
subconscious. During the filming, Catherine lets you do
it your way first, then she corrects you. She encourages
you to go further, not to think about things, but to feel
the emotions deeply. She’s so passionate that if you are
at all sensitive, it’s something that comes to you automatically.
You gradually understand what she’s trying to
get at. I had a bit of trouble with my diction. Because
I tend to speak raising and lowering my voice. And she
doesn’t like that. She wanted something very flat, very
bland, very straightforward. That was a bit difficult.
Interview by Thierry Jousse
Cinema
1990 EUROPA EUROPA directed by Agnieszka HOLLAND
1991 A NEW LIFE directed by Olivier ASSAYAS
1997 ALREADY DEAD directed by Olivier DAHAN
1998 ROMANCE directed by Catherine BREILLAT
1999 THE DANCER directed by Fred GARSON
2001 SEX IS COMEDY directed by Catherine BREILLAT
Television
1993 CAT AND DOG directed by Marc SIMENON
Clips
1997 LES TEMPS CHANGENT – MC Solaar
2000 SEUL DANS LE TRAFIC – Francis Cabrel
26 27

Cast and crew
Jeanne ANNE PARILLAUD
The Actor GRÉGOIRE COLIN
The Actress ROXANE MESQUIDA
Léo ASHLEY WANNINGER
Willy DOMINIQUE COLLADANT
The Cameraman BART BINNEMA
The Sound Engineer YVES OSMU
The Production Manager FRANCIS SELECK
The Scriptgirl ELISABETE PIECHO
The Art Director DIANE SCAPA
The Make-Up Women ANA LORENA
CLAIRE MONNATTE
The Gaffer ARNALDO JUNIOR
The Boom Operator ELISABETE SILVA
The Dresser JÚLIA FRAGATA
A FILM BY
Catherine BREILLAT
Produced by
Jean-François LEPETIT
Associate Producer
ANIMATOGRAFO II
Antonio da CUNHA TELLES
Production managers
Philippe DELEST
Cristina SOARES
PRODUCTION
Flach Film – CB Films
Coproduction
Arte France Cinéma
In association with
France Télévision Images 2
With the participation of
Canal+
and Le Centre National de la Cinématographie
Assistant directors
Michäel WEILL - David SANTINI
Editors
Pascale CHAVANCE
Sylvain DUPUY
Pedro MARQUES
Sound
Yves OSMU
Yves LEVEQUE
Felipe GONÇALVES
Sound editors
Fred ATTAL
Sylvain LASSEUR
Mixers
Emmanuel CROSET - Laure ARTO
Casting
Michaël WEILL - João CAYATTE
Script supervisor
Fátima RIBEIRO
Special effects make up
Dominique COLLADANT
Make up
Ana LORENA
Claire MONNATTE
The Camera Operator BRUNO RAMOS
Camera crew
Hairdressers
The Grips ALFREDO RAMALHO
Laurent MACHUEL
Benoît RIZZOTTI
Iracema MACHADO
RUDOLFO SANTOS
Tiago Nuno SILVA
Costumes
Nuno RELVAS
Valérie GUEGAN - Rute CORREIA
The Propman JOSÉ CASCAIS
Bruno RAMOS
Betty MARTINS - Sanine SCHLUMBERGER
28 29

Sets
Frédérique BELVAUX
João MARTINS
Feliz GONÇALVES
José CASCAIS
Brigitte LEFRANC
Jean-Marie MILON
Paulo FERNANDES
Daniel GUIMARÃES
Jean-Yves DELIGNIERE
Martial GLORIEUX
Rosa Maria VAGOS
Luis LACERDA
Carine DEMONSTIER
Dimitri MONDITSCH
Madalena GUERREIRO
Electricity
Arnaldo JUNIOR
Artur ANDRADE
Jorge MARTINS
Francisco PISCINA
Markus HAGEMANN
Grips
Joaquim AMARAL - Alfredo RAMALHO (Alchê)
Rudolfo SANTOS
Unit managers
Sandra ALVES
Fátima VEIGA
Claudia REIS
Eduardo ARAÙJO
Ricardo SIMÕES
Rolando BARROS
Sound effects
Christophe BOURREAU
Postrecording
Jean-Max MORISE
Graphic designer
Eric MONTORO
30
Grading
Christophe BOUSQUET
Post-production supervisor
Pascale CHAVANCE
Financial management
Marie-Agnès BROSSAUD
Production assistant
Héléna MENDES
Production accountant
Jean-Pierre BILLARD
Sara DANTAS
Clara CARDOSO
MUSIC
“A Sombra” (Pedro Ayres Magalhaes),
by MADREDEUS
From the album “Os dias de Madredeus”
P 1988 EMI
Valentin de Carvalho Musica, Lda
By kind permission of EMI Music France
c Delabel Editions
By kind permission of Delabel Editions
“Pasion” (Ana Carolina, Rodrigo Leao)
Performed by RODRIGO LEAO
p 2000 Sony Music Entertainment (Portugal) Lda
By kind permission of Sony Music France
c O Circo Voador
By kind permission of O Circo Voador
Musical selections
Pascale CHAVANCE
Pedro MARQUES
Music supervisor
Mathias BERNARD
Promotion & Advertising
FKGB ARGUMENTS – Patricia BALES
Foreign sales
FLACH PYRAMIDE INTERNATIONAL – FPI
Sites internet
www.sexiscomedy.com
www.flachfilm.com
SPECIAL THANKS TO
FREDERIC MITTERRAND
JEROME CLEMENT
RENE BONNELL
NATHALIE BLOCH-LAINE
GILLES DUFOUR
LOLITA LEMPICKA
ACANTHE VOYAGES
AGNES B
AIR FRANCE
FIFI CHACHNIL
COLLANTS CHESTERFIELD
FILM MEDIA CONSULTANT
EMILE LAFAURIE
M.A.C Cosmetics
ESTALAGEM MUCHAXO - CASCAIS - PORTUGAL
PAULE KA
DOMINIQUE PORRETA
FLACH FILM
12, rue Lincoln - 75008 Paris
Tel. : 33 1 56 69 38 38
Fax : 33 1 56 69 38 41
e-mail : flachfilm@flachfilm.com
CHAMPAGNE TAITTINGER
ZADIG & VOLTAIRE
Miss Anne PARILLAUD and Mr Grégoire COLIN’s
hairstyles created by Jean-Marc MANIATIS
Laboratory GTC
Filmstock KODAK
Sound equipment DCA
Post production AUDITEL - DIEZE
Auditorium JACKSON
Postrecording STUDIO LINCOLN
Titles MICROFILMS
Insurance LES ASSURANCES CONTINENTALES
Copyright 2002
"In Praise of the Fado"
The soundtrack album of the film SEX IS COMEDY
will be available from as of June 4, 2002.
It will contain music by
Madredeus, Lula Pena, Rodrigo Leao, Ala Dos
Namorados, Amalia Rodrigues...
DISTRIBUTION IN FRANCE
REZO FILMS
Paris : 29, rue du Faubourg Poissonnière - 75009 Paris
Tel. : 01 42 46 96 10 - Fax : 01 42 46 96 11
e-mail : infosrezo@rezofilms.com
Cannes : 13, avenue Notre Dame des Pins - 06400 Cannes
Tel. / Fax : 04 93 43 32 43
31