Interview withJEAN DUJARDINGeorge Valent<strong>in</strong>- 26 -
Do you remember the very first time MichelHazanavicius talked to you about want<strong>in</strong>g to make asilent film?I th<strong>in</strong>k the first time was between two takesdur<strong>in</strong>g the film<strong>in</strong>g of “OSS 117”, but I didn’t believehim! You never know if Michel is serious! It becamesometh<strong>in</strong>g more concrete after the release of “OSS”,when we were wonder<strong>in</strong>g what we were go<strong>in</strong>gto do next. Michel isn’t a big talker, so when hementions this desire, when he says he’s th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>gabout a story, there isn’t much else to do but wait,for however long... Michel is a worker, a man whoth<strong>in</strong>ks, who nourishes himself with a ton of th<strong>in</strong>gs.I knew he was read<strong>in</strong>g a lot of books on c<strong>in</strong>ema, thathe went to the C<strong>in</strong>émathèque regularly to watchsilent movies, that he wanted to make not onlya silent film but also one <strong>in</strong> black and white,set <strong>in</strong> ’30s Hollywood. It was still somehowabstract. Then one day, he came with this storyof THE ARTIST, almost apologetically. Until nowwe’ve made comedies where we had a lot of funwith characters and situations and here, we had totake on a love story, a real melodrama. He handedthe screenplay to me, slightly feverish: “Read this,but don’t laugh, do you th<strong>in</strong>k it’s possible? Whatdo you th<strong>in</strong>k of it? Would you be ready to do it?”What was your reaction?I read it <strong>in</strong> one go and first thought it was reallygutsy to have pursued his fantasy all the way. ThenI told him, like everybody else he talked to abouthis project: “It’s a great idea but do you th<strong>in</strong>k we’llf<strong>in</strong>d the f<strong>in</strong>anc<strong>in</strong>g?” All the same, because it wassuch a great idea, it had to be done! Luckily, ourpaths crossed the madness and the ambition ofThomas Langmann… As was the case with eachof Michel’s scripts, I thought it was really wellwritten, with everyth<strong>in</strong>g perfectly <strong>in</strong> place. ButI was very surprised: Michel and I work happilywith irony, with pastiche, and here we had a storyloaded with new developments and tons of actionbut ma<strong>in</strong>ly full of emotion. That was someth<strong>in</strong>gnew for Michel.I was touched by the promise of the project,the crossed dest<strong>in</strong>ies, the meet<strong>in</strong>g between GeorgeValent<strong>in</strong> and Peppy Miller, and by all it said aboutc<strong>in</strong>ema, its history, the actors... I wanted him to tellme more, I wanted him to talk to me about his deepbeliefs, to tell me that it was not a showy piece, thatit was first of all a story he wanted to tell, and howhe was go<strong>in</strong>g to do that. Even if there was reallynoth<strong>in</strong>g to worry about, because if there’s oneth<strong>in</strong>g Michel can do, it’s to tell a story withpictures, and he always wants to make the actorlook good. Then came all the questions you canimag<strong>in</strong>e, especially with regards to a project likethis, and for me - a novice <strong>in</strong> the subject, the twogeniuses Chapl<strong>in</strong> and Keaton aside… What is asilent film? What was it like, for actors before thetalkies? I wanted him to tell me, I followed him tothe C<strong>in</strong>émathèque, and he showed me Murnau’sSUNRISE and CITY GIRL, THE CROWD by K<strong>in</strong>g Vidor,and lots of others. I discovered a silent c<strong>in</strong>ema otherthan slapstick or mime... It was also probably toreassure me, to show me that we could follow astory without words for an hour and a half, thatwe could be surprised and touched… I was verymoved by these films. Without words, one th<strong>in</strong>g isleft <strong>in</strong> the end, the most important th<strong>in</strong>g: act<strong>in</strong>g and- 27 -