Interview with Anne Fontaine
By Robert Levin
Special to amNewYork
Its picturesque beaches, winding hillside roads and crystal clear waters make Monaco a perfect cinematic location. It’s a challenge, however, to blend a narrative into that scenery that does more than serve as the backdrop for a travelogue. Anne Fontaine’s “The Girl From Monaco” succeeds at that, however, with a twisty story that varies greatly in tone and form, seeming at times to be everything from a frothy sex comedy to a tightly wound thriller and a dark, introspective cautionary tale.
The film stars Fabrice Luchini, a major star in France and Fontaine’s fiancé, as Bertrand Beauvois, an attorney brought to Monaco to defend a millionaire widow on trial for murder. Despite the warnings of his bodyguard Christophe (Roschdy Zem) Bertrand finds himself increasingly distracted by the beautiful local weathergirl Audrey (Louise Bourgoin), who quickly smells blood and sets her sights on him. amNewYork spoke to Fontaine about the film.
Was there always a plan to blend light and dark elements into the film?
At the beginning I wanted to make a cruel comedy. I wanted to try to be light, but underneath to speak about this bizarre thing that is desire and the sexuality for this man who is so in control with words, in control with his life, and his social life…The idea was to make something light, but also to talk about the human condition.
What interested you in Monaco?
It is a place that is completely like a fiction. It’s unreal. You don’t believe it’s its own country. It’s like a little country that doesn’t exactly exist. Everything is completely ridiculous.
What made you want to take your relationship with Fabrice into the professional realm?
He says to me, “I don’t understand. You write for so many actors…Why not write for me? You know me very, very deeply.” And that was true. And I said to him, “What do you want to want to play,” and he said to me, “I would like to play an old man who seduces [older] women through words.” And I said, “Well I’m going to think about it” and after that I built the story quickly.
How did he react to the unique story and role you came up with?
When he read the script he said, “I don’t want to do it” because he never imagined that I would write a part where the character after 10 minutes or 15 minutes was completely underneath the woman who completely controlled him … Before he was an actor who was only under control. He’s so brilliant he [would] always control every sentence, and control others [around him]. For the first time, in front of me, I saw [in his] eyes [that] he accept[ed] that nothing could [be controlled].
What does the story say about middle age?
At middle age you think that your life is completely [set]. You think you are on the [downside] of everything. But maybe there is something more inside that you wish to cover [and] you don’t want to show [that] could be opened.
