yeap, hope there will be english subs with that

As promised...

Excerpt from interview with Milan:

How did you get the role of Clément in Le p’tit curieux?

I answered an ad for a different movie that was posted at my Kung Fu club. I was among the two finalists, but I didn’t get picked. It was a role for a young Belgian and I didn’t have the accent (laughs) – No, I’m just kidding! [Translatior’s note: Must be some French humour I don’t get.] But after that, with everything that happened, the casting agent recommended me to Jean Marboeuf for his movie. I went to two auditions Saturday and Sunday, then Monday they had picked me for the role. I was very proud to have won the part.

So it was your first experience as a movie actor. When you first got on the set, what were your first impressions? Were you nervous?

At first, I was surprised to see only one camera. I was sure that there would be at least three or four cameras rolling at the same time. I was feeling a bit lost, it’s true. I wasn’t very comfortable on the first two days. But then the whole team gave me some confidence. It was nice. When I arrived in the morning, I would kiss one person, then two, then three, and it never stopped. And it was the same thing when it came time to say goodbye!

[Translator’s note: I wish I had been working on that set.]

Isn’t it intimidating to meet big stars like Alain Bashung, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Andrée Ferréol…

Actually, aside from Alain Bashung, whom I had heard of, I didn’t really know any of them. Mom sort of explained to me who Andréa Ferréol was, for example. But at first I wasn’t that impressed, and they were all very nice.

What scenes, for one reason or another, made the biggest impression on you?

One scene that I remember quite well was the one in the car with Alain Bashung. We were shooting in the spring, but the film is supposed to take place near Christmas. I was dying from the heat, because I had a big sweater, a scarf and a winter jacket. I felt like a lobster in a giant cooking pot, but without any water! There was also the slap with Benjamin (Boyer). We did the scene many times, and every time I thought it would be the good take. And the pies, I was sick of them in the end.

How was it working with Bashung?

First I want to say that he fits very well into the role he played. I think he brought to it everything that it needed. The perfect look with the raincoat and everything. We often talked together between takes. It was great! One day I asked to smoke his cigar. He let me take one puff only. I turned all gree and we had a good laugh.

Your relationship to your character, Clément, what was it like?

I think it’s good to be curious. In fact, I immediately felt right at ease in the role of Clément. It was almost easy for me because I think we are alike in some ways. He wants to know what is happening. And I think it’s very moving that he wants to protect his mother. He knows things, he understand certain things, although he doesn’t quite want to believe it.

And what was it like having another “mother”, a film mother?

We had fun with Julie (Marboeuf), especially in the scene of the bath. The water was always too hot or too cold. In the final scene, Julie made all the anger come out in a wonderful way. I was very impresed and moved.

At the end, how did the separation from your character go?

When shooting ended, I wanted him to go away, but he didn’t. It was very hard to get rid of him. Even after the film, he just wouldn’t leave. Even two weeks after the film, I felt kind of weird that people were calling me Milan and not Clément. I was three-quarters Milan and one-quarter Clément for a long time.

[Translator’s note: some boring parts I didn’t bother translating. As is always the case with interviews with child actors, the interviewer seems more interested in all the other actors in the film, so he or she asks a bunch of questions about pretty much everyone who worked on the film with Milan.]

What was your reaction when you first saw the completed film?

I liked it. The end is very moving. When your shooting all these scenes out of order, it’s hard to get an idea of what’s going to be like in. But I thought Jean did a reallyl good job of putting everything in its right place.

Speaking of Jean Marboeuf [the director], how did it go with him?

Very well, except for one or two speaches he gave me because he thought I wasn’t taking things seriously enough. I was very surprised that he didn’ t say “Action!” at the beginning of scenes, but “Milan!”. Actually, he always says the name of the character. I thought that was nice and it made everyone comfortable.

And after Le p’tit curieux, would you like to continue playing in films?

A real actor doesn’t do just one film. I don’t know if I’ll make a career out of it, but I really liked the experience.

**

Now a short excerpt from the interview with the director. The interviewer asked if the theme of the movie was trying to figure out what eats away at people’s hearts (apparently the working title of the film had something to do with that) and whether the answer to that was “le mal”… something I hesitate to to translate as “evil”, because of the way the question was worded and some subtleties in the meaning of the French term. I’ll translate as “the bad”. The director’s answer:

Clément doesn’t ask about the bad, but about the good: How do we become happy? He sees that the happiness of those around him is only an appearance and hides deep wounds. So he wants to know who or what is responsible for these wounds, and whether he, Clément, will also have to be subjected to that suffering, whether he too will only be happy on the exterior. Clément is naturally curious. He is born to life, his eyes are wide open, and with his camera he seizes the moment, fixates it, and studies it. Through the lives of others he acts as an ethnologist of his own life, because he assumes that the grown-ups, having lived, know the secret of their existence. He thinks that life has a meaning – how could he not think so, when all he sees around him are people getting excited and full of certainties? – he wants to know the secret and doesn’t understand why they hide it from him, why they lie to him, why they keep him apart. He’s simply curious about life.

You're welcome Cal. I'm glad someone read it, at least.

Yeah, it's a bit time consuming, but I thought it was worth it, since we don't have much information in English on the film or the actor. I think it sounds like a good movie.

I have got it in dvd in France, but it has only a french soundtrack and no subtitle.

I haven't yet watched it.

You're welcome, Rembrant. I thought it was a good interview too, which is why I didn't mind translating it.

By the way, I think I'm going to move this thread to the reviews forum.