Note: This page contains SPOILERS, details related to the last act of the film, including the final images. Read no further until you have seen the film - you'll want to be surprised..
I see Stéphane, in some ways, as similar to Puff, the wild man from Human Nature, your first feature. He's someone who is still somewhat adolescent in the way he wants to respond to emotions impulsively, and what he comes up against are the expectations of social behavior. The compromises they have to make are kind of sad, and I like the way you present them: everything is a trade-off. It is a little sad in some ways that Stéphane has to make this transition, but on the other hand, sometimes he's just a little scary when he becomes so unpredictable, like at the end when he starts saying those horrible things to Stéphanie. He's acting completely impulsively and it's not funny, it's not pretty.
It's confusion. At one time I received an award and I said something about Spike [
Jonze] and he said that I couldn't refrain myself from saying those things and I had Tourette's syndrome. So I think Stéphane has a little of that. And at some point, maybe, because he's shy, he would challenge himself to say something really out of context, like when he talks about the sight of her panties, that it's really to prove himself, to dare himself, but then when he gets really upset... Yeah, he kind of lashes out and it's kind of sad because I don't think he has any other way to go. He could just be quiet and then just leave and go to Mexico and not say anything. I think at least he provokes, he's trying his own way to... I mean, I put all the blame on him the way it's shot, but you have to think as well that she never said her emotions to him except when he's asleep, so he'd like to hear something from her. He's trying his own way to provoke her. It's true, I remember when I did
Human Nature I really identified with Rhys [
Ifans], with Puff. That was a character I could really feel very close to.
There's a marvelous complexity to Charlotte Gainsbourg's performance and she plays the character quite deftly. When she finds the horse that Stéphane turned into an almost magical galloping toy, Stéphanie is completely charmed and they talk with an intimacy that puts them on the same level. But there are other scenes where she seems uncomfortable around him.
Yeah, yeah, it's how it works. I don't have a pretension to an explanation, it's just the way I've been living this type of experience. What's difficult sometimes is that you feel this very, very strong intimacy and you feel you are with the same person, and then you feel the other person is changing, but I don't know where the truth is. It's precisely true what you say. The way she rejects him when he breaks into her place, it's very cold and she's really angry and I think she's right because it's really uncool, it's very intrusive what he does. He doesn't realize that he's breaking boundaries. Then when she's on the phone, the way she talks to him, she's very reassuring, very loving, and I think it's very difficult for him to deal with that.
Stéphane really sees Stéphanie as a soul mate. I love it when he says that he loves her because she makes things with her hands. And she really understands his art and his ideas. But at the same time, she's a lot more grown up than he is. His impulsiveness seems to scare her, to some extent.
Yeah, it's true. She's more grown up and she's more down to earth, but I think she has an issue about being loved and that's not necessarily more mature. The fact that she can't trust somebody who is attracted to her. I don't think that's healthier than he is. And I think she sees him as well as his soul mate. So she's his soul mate and he's her soul mate. But on a realistic world relationship level, the fact that he wants to have a real relationship with her, feels like a betrayal to her. The fact that he wants to kiss her or sleep with her, she feels betrayed by that.
On the other hand, the fact that she doesn't want to sleep with him feels like a betrayal to him. So starting with the same emotion, like sharing exactly the same idea, they end up to be exactly the opposite, and I think it's hard. It makes it painful for both of them.
But I wanted to know your opinion. At the end, is she part of the dream or does he go on his own on the boat. Is that a sad ending or a happy ending?
That's a good question. To me, it is a sad ending. He didn't end up with Stéphanie, but I don't think it's necessarily a completely sad ending because I think he learned something and grew a little bit through it.
I'm doing this survey in my interviews. The enormous majority of men think like you, think that he didn't get her and he's on his own; it's a sad and lonely ending. And the vast majority of women think that she's with him and it's a happy ending.
And it's really interesting. I kept asking Charlotte, when I met Charlotte, I told her, "I'm not going to tell you if you like or not Stéphane, if you are interested or not, you are going to tell me in some way." So you have to make your own truth and the dialogue could be one way or the other way and I don't give you direction because I have no idea what's going on in Stéphanie's head. It's really hermetic, it's really close to me.
Last week we did some interviews in France. We did an interview with her and me, and I asked, "Do you think Stéphanie is in love with Stéphane?" and she says, "Of course she is, what do you mean?" It's so obvious for her, because she felt when she's with him in the dream, because she acted in the shots, that's the same, she's the same person. What's ironic is, I was saying, "Masculine is down to earth," but in this movie the female character is more down to earth than the guy. But in general, guys think that that's not the same Stéphanie, and so, at the end, he goes actually on his own. Even if she's coming to him, she doesn't share his dream. Girls believe they end up together.
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