perfect sense

PERFECT SENSE
BY
DAVID MACKENZIE
WILD BUNCH BENELUX
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PERFECT SENSE – DAVID MACKENZIE
PROJECT SUMMARY
PRODUCED BY
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
LAND OF ORIGIN
LANGUAGE
SUBTITLES
RUNNING TIME
GENRE
DIRECTOR
CAST
DVD RELEASEDATE
FESTIVAL
AWARDS
SIGMA FILMS, ZENTROPA
ARROW FILMS, BCC FILMS
UK
ENGLISH
FRENCH, DUTCH
88 MINUTES
DRAMA
DAVID MACKENZIE
EWAN MCGREGOR
EVA GREEN
CONNIE NIELSEN
EWEN BREMNER
MAY 31st 2012
SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL – WORLD PREMIERE
EDINBURGH FILM FESTIVAL – BEST NEW BRITISH FEATURE
RATING
FRENCH SYNOPSIS
Au milieu d’un monde frappé par une étrange épidémie qui détruit progressivement les cinq sens, un
cuisinier et une brillante chercheuse tombent amoureux.
Susan et Michael ont peu de chance dans l'amour. Susan semble incapable à trouver un homme qui
lui plait. Michael a l'une affaire fugace après l’autre. Quand ils se rencontrent ils se rendent à leur
amour passionné. Au même moment, le monde est frappé par une étrange épidémie qui détruit
progressivement les cinq sens. Pendant que le monde sent et perçoit de moins en moins, l'amour
entre Michael et Susan ne devient que plus intense.
CAST
MICHAEL
SUSAN
SAMUEL
JAMES
JENNY
CREW
DIRECTOR
SCREENWRITER
PRODUCERS
CO-PRODUCERS
EDITOR
CINEMATOGRAPHER
SOUND EDITOR
MUSIC
CASTING
PRODUCTION DESIGN
ART DIRECTOR
EWAN MCGREGOR
EVA GREEN
STEPHEN DILLANE
EWEN BREMNER
CONNIE NIELSEN
DAVID MACKENZIE
KIM FUPZ AAKESON
GILLIAN BERRIE
MALTE GRUNERT
TRISTAN LYNCH
SISSE GRAUM JØRGENSEN
JAKE ROBERTS
GILES NUTTGENS
DOUGLAS MCDOUGALL
MAX RICHTER
SHAHEEN BAIG
TOM SAYER
ANDY THOMSON
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PERFECT SENSE – DAVID MACKENZIE
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
THE ORIGIN OF THE STORY
Perfect Sense is the latest product of the rich and enduring co-production partnership between
Sigma films, UK, and Zentropa (Lars Von Trier) in Denmark. Their previous film collaborations have
involved the Cannes Jury Prize winning Red Road, and Von Trier’s Dogville and Manderlay.
‘We’ve become great allies over the years,’ says director David Mackenzie. ‘I trust their judgement
and sensed it would be something special when theybrought me the script.’
The script landed of David’s desk in 2009.
‘I was hooked after ten pages, I thought it was absolutely fantastic, it had this vast global scale.
But at the same time it was quite minimal, intimate and simple, like a fable.’… ‘I found it very life
affirming – A film with an emotional well, that makes people want to reach out to their fellow
men’.
For Scriptwriter Kim Fupz Aakeson - a long time admirer of Mackenzie’s films – the story had also
come as a surprise: ‘This is more of a fantasy than my previousfilms. I have done a lot of work in
realism with research, trafficking, prostitutes,etc you know, and then in my children’s books I have
worked with fairy talesand magic. So this film was like a reaction to both, like working in a new
melody, a new tone.’
Aakeson’s script has the simplicity of an allegorical tale but is still utterly modern – a love story
framed against a declining world. He feels it is necessary to talk about our modern problems, but to
go beyond describing them in the negative.
‘There are a lot of stories right now about anarchy and human beings turning against each other,
but the opposite is also true, in the face of disasters, we keep on working and eating and shaving
and falling in love. I wanted to tell the story of human love and its power.’
Mackenzie, knew it was a challenge to work in the genre of the love story: ‘It is hard to tell
contemporary love stories because we’ve become tired of the clichés. It’s like the pop songs – who
wants to hear another pop song about love? The task is – what makes this love special? How is it
different from all the other love stories? We have so much cynicism these days that it sometimes
takes a shock to the senses to make us see love from a new angle – that’s the beauty of this story
set against such extreme circumstances.’
Mackenzie and Aakeson, from the start, shared the common goal of creating an intimate study of a
couple finding each other against all odds. For this extraordinary tale to come alive a cast of the
highest calibre had to come to the project.
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PERFECT SENSE – DAVID MACKENZIE
HOW THE ACTORS WERE DRAWN TO THE STORY
EWAN MCGREGOR
Mackenzie had wanted to work with Ewan McGregor again since the award winning Young Adam
and saw in the sexy, charismatic, hedonistic character of Michael a perfect role for the 38-year-old
star. McGregor had just come from filming in LA: ‘I just loved this script and think David is such a
good filmmaker. When I got sent Perfect Sense to read I loved the characters, it was such a really
lovely premise – this idea of this relentless love story, this story of these two people falling in love
almost against their better judgement. I’m drawn to stories that I like.’
Ewan reflected on why he chose this British Indie film over other mainstream projects: ‘I don’t think
of them as mainstream films or indie films. I suppose that’s a kind of luxury. But when it comes to
making films that you really love and … you know, the size of it, the budget is irrelevant – why
would you not want to be involved in a story of love with a film director you really respect. It
doesn’t make sense to pass up on that experience just because it doesn’t have a huge budget.’ ‘I
really believe that Independent filmmaking is where you can make comment and make statements.
It’s quite a complicated film, in terms of what it’s saying about life and love.’
EVA GREEN
Mackenzie picked-up on Eva Green from her outstanding roles in Casino Royale and The Dreamers.
She described the script as ‘very intense’ and was drawn to the part of Susan. ‘Susan seems to have
spent her life searching for answers, professionally, personally, emotionally. I loved this about her
and could relate to an extent.’ ‘Susan starts the film surrounded by boundaries that she has put up.
As she faces the loss of her senses, her boundaries are lowered and she allows herself to discover
love.’
Eva was also keen to work with director Mackenzie: ‘I’d seen some of David’s work before and in
particular I really loved Young Adam. For me the thing that connects his films is a deep sense of
character and willingness to take them to unusual places. For an actor, that’s a really attractive
starting point. Knowing you’ll have the freedom to explore. He is very trusting of his cast and is
always interested in pushing in unexpected directions.’
The task then was to see how the two actors interacted. As Mackenzie says ‘They are two people
burned by love in the past and they have to believe in it again. In each other.’ For that to happen
the audience had to believe in them as a real couple. The co-stars worked closely together to bring
out the complexities of the onscreen relationship, while also doing research and training into the
real-life daily work of their characters. In rehearsal and while filming, Mackenzie was impressed by
Eva and Ewan’s dynamic and understanding of each others roles.
As McGregor says – ‘I loved working with Eva, she’s just fantastic. She played a part that was really
challenging. We spent a good week or so working on the scenes …her character is very…she’s been
in one too many bad relationships, I guess, she doesn’t trust my character and men, and there’s
something really lovely about this reluctance. I really like that element of the story, and the fact
that they overcome it. In contrast my character is very optimistic.’
Eva also gained a lot from working with Ewan: ‘I had heard that Ewan is the most generous actor
and everything I had been told was true. One of the truest pleasures of making this movie was
working with Ewan.’
In support, Connie Nielsen plays Susan’s caring sister - while maverick actor Ewen Bremner is the
kitchen comedian who makes the restaurant sequences so realistic. Ewen was keen to work again
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with David Mackenzie again after his role in Hallam Foe. An actor renowned for his improvisation
skills he enjoys the freedom that Mackenzie allows him.
‘Improvisation is a terrifying and exciting position to be put in, by the seat of the pants. …David is
quite mischievous, he enjoys that dangerous element. Although a lot of it’s quite composed, he
likes a bit of mischief in his scenes. He was encouraging me to really run with it, run with an idea….
A lot of what I enjoy about it, is working with these other people, these great actors, they’re all
playing off each other, playing with each other.’
This was also Ewen’s third time working with Ewan McGregor, after first meeting on Trainspotting,
then on Black Hawk Down. He admires Ewan’s work and prodigious output.
‘We hung out a lot together On Black Hawk Down in Morocco, and saw a different side of each
other. I think, since he’s started making movies, he’s really been so prolific, and he’s done so many
different kinds of films, and so many different kinds of parts, and worked with so many great
filmmakers and actors, and he’s really right now, at the height of his powers. He’s in a really
impressive place now, he’s a really impressive actor.’
Ewan McGregor thinks highly of Ewen Bremner’s abilities. ‘He’s a great actor, we have real
camaraderie, he really throws himself into the thick of things.’
EWAN MCGREGOR AND DENIS LAWSON
The actors on set had a close connection, which was even at times ‘familial’ – Ewan McGregor took
the opportunity to work with his actor uncle, Denis Lawson, for the first time (it is claimed that Denis
first inspired Ewan to be an actor when he played a role in the first Star Wars trilogy).
‘I’ve been directed by my uncle on stage and in a short film he made,’ says McGregor ‘but I’ve never
acted with him and I always wanted to. We were waiting for something special to come along.
Dennis was absolutely perfect for the part, they have a nice relationship in the film, Michael and
the restaurant owner, they’re very close and we were absolutely able to use that. It was just so
lovely for me to play those scenes with Dennis.’
Denis puts their family acting history in perspective: ‘Ewan had wanted to act with me since he was
about nine. There was a moment of anxiety though, there when I came across him sitting in the
make-up trailer, but as soon as we got on set it was like the most natural thing in the world. We
had a great time together, and the relationship between the two characters was quite a nice close
one.’
The actors talk of the sense of camaraderie within the script and of working to a tight schedule: two
things that could not co-exist if it were not for the vision of the director.
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THE DIRECTOR’S VISION
Shot over five weeks, Perfect Sense was set in three principal locations around Glasgow, with
additional footage being shot in Kenya, Mexico and India. From the start Producer Berrie and
Director Mackenzie had decided that although the genre of the film was Sci-fi, the focus of the film
should be an emotional journey.
‘We agreed on creating a poetic version of the story rather than a big-splashy special effects
version of it. You could have re-designed it as an 80 million Hollywood movie with lots of special
effects and bombast, if you wanted to do.” says Mackenzie “But we were very conscious that we
didn’t want to do that. We decided to be low-key and to maximise the micro-cosmic, to keep it
minimal, to pull it back from all the tropes and tricks. To push the envelope of the romance – push
the genre inwards not outwards.’ He conceived of telling the story in a simple way. ‘The movie is
telling a vast story with a limited palate. The film is talking about day-to-day things. It’s about how
people cope with terrible changes rather than the disaster itself. That’s one of the things I found
amazing and challenging about it.’
Even during filming although large areas of the city had been shut off for filming epic wide-shots,
Mackenzie favoured tighter shots, focusing on the emotions of the actors.
‘I tried to stick with the aesthetic of not-trying-too-hard. There was an instinct, that told me not to
be too grandiose about it, because the story is grandiose enough in itself, I had to keep it light on
its feet to allow the fiction and the poetics of it to come alive, as well as the seriousness.’
The true-to-life vitality of the acting is nowhere more apparent in the restaurant scenes which
crackle with wit and high energy and are a counterpoint to the gentle intimacy of the central love
affair. Mackenzie explains his technique:
‘In the restaurant, the actors are actually cooking - Ewan and Ewen spent a lot of time training
with three or four chefs, just to get that feeling of authenticity and the feeling of the rush. I spent
quite a bit of time in kitchens studying them and there’s always a bit of a storm and you can feel
the wave of it, it requires great focus.’ ‘I filmed as much as possible as live action, we shot a lot of it
on steady-cam, trying to get the energy right up.’
Ewen Bremner explains how Mackenzie got the cast to act with this energy and confidence in the
kitchen scenes, through three weeks of intensive prep – training with leading chefs. ‘We had some
very good tuition from a friend called Guy, who runs a restaurant, just round the corner from the
set, and he took us all over Glasgow to train us up. Various places, like the fish market and the
university kitchen, his own kitchen, his own restaurant, he really tutored us very well, very
patiently. We wanted to look like we knew what we were doing, the other characters, the non
speaking characters, were all really experienced chefs, so I think they were having a few chuckles
about some of the stuff we were doing, some of the mess we were making. We were in good
hands.’…
Over and above this Ewen picked up some skills that may outlast the film. ‘I’ve learned how to
sharpen a knife. How it’s supposed to be done, how you’re supposed to look when you do it, the
angles of the blades. If you try it without the knowledge… you could really do yourself an injury.’
Such attention to detail lends depth to the acting and authenticity to the film.
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EDITING AND GLOBAL FOOTAGE
While Mackenzie sights the innovative Godard’s Alphaville as a source of inspiration, there is, as in
previous Mackenzie films, an unmistakable openness, accessibility and a celebration of life in this
film, coupled with a pushing at the boundaries of cinema. This can be seen in the use of footage from
around the world to trace the development of the virus: Film crews in three different global locations
were given shooting scripts and instructions and they returned breathtaking footage from Kenya,
Mexico and India. This was then inter-cut seamlessly with archive footage of riots, marches, medicine
and natural history and all were and blended together with a poetic use of voice over.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
But first the shining moments. Maybe the finest in the
history of Mankind. A shared flinching of the temporal
lobe. A shared sense of a greater power, a greater
meaning. They let their guard down and reach out.
Overwhelmed with warmth.
Mackenzie, has in past films shied away from voice-over - ‘We’re used to being told that it’s a
compromise,’ he says, ‘It’s part of the filmmakers arsenal that rarely gets used. But it’s amazing
how powerful voice-over can be if you embrace it.’ He describes the voice-over in Perfect Sense as a
combination of childlike and God-like. This contrast between the epic and the intimate, between
tragedy and romance is threaded through all aspects of the film.
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THE SCORE – MAX RICHTER
Even before he considered casting the film David Mackenzie had already decided on working with
award-winning composer Max Richter. ‘I’d wanted to work with Max for a long time, because I’m
big fan of his work, I have all of his albums in fact! Strangely, he contacted me around the time of
Hallam Foe but we’d already decided on the score by then, so I stayed in touch with him.’ The right
project had to gel, so as to use the epic scope of Max’s music to the full. ‘The moment I read this
film,’ Mackenzie says, ‘I knew it was for Max…There’s something about his music which is both
classical and modern, both beautiful and messed up. I just knew he was perfect for this film.’
‘It’s been a really nice collaboration’, Richter says of working with Mackenzie for several months on
the score – ‘Shuffling ideas around and having the chance to think about the material a bit more
deeply has been great.’ he says. He describes the film as ‘pretty heavy duty’ and so came up with ‘A
string score with a lot of grit and electronics all over it’. This aesthetic of contrasts was also
mirrored in the camera work and visual conception of the film and echoes the tension between
global disaster and intimate romance.
THE IMAGES – GILES NUTTGENS
Director of Photography Giles Nuttgens has worked with David Mackenzie on five films now.
‘Working with people that you have before gives you a great advantage’. Mackenzie says, ‘We can
be robust with each other, push each other - because we don’t want to go to the same places we’ve
been. I was trying to de-aestheticise this film, to push the package’. As with the score and the acting
Mackenzie was looking for “edgy” moments of the fleeting and vulnerable - almost accidental
glimpses of truth.
‘Giles and I - our eyes are in the same place. We’re always looking for something that’s got a slight
awkwardness to it. Not that perfect ‘pack-shot’ mentality, we were not looking for things that
were perfect or composed.’
Nuttgens and Mackenzie went through the script scene by scene with a lot of ‘prediscussion to get a
feeling of the vibe’ but not, Mackenzie insists, ‘pre-visualising’ ‘It’s never about Giles choosing the
frame and me getting the actors in. It’s a much more robust dynamic.’
In the film Nuttgens has an incredibly intuitive sense of what is happening in a scene, sometimes
following action with Steady-cam or catching glimpses of secondary incidents that would usually be
left “off-screen.”
Mackenzie admires Giles’s work: ‘He’s a stylist, a psychologist, an improviser, an aesthete and a
soldier! I want people to go with me and fight the good fight. Giles really is that, he’s a tough guy!’
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PERFECT SENSE IN CONTEXT
Looking back on his five feature films Mackenzie has recently realised that ‘I thought I was someone
who was making anti-love stories, but actually they’re all love stories basically - in-fact I’m going to
have to stop myself making love-stories now!’
Mackenzie believes that Perfect Sense is a coming together of many themes in his previous films and
that it has a message that he finds both humbling and timely. ‘For the last seventy years, we’ve been
living with the shadow of Armageddon, in various different shapes, an awful lot of movies live in
denial of that, and the ones that do try to deal with it, deal with it with bombast while suggesting
that these things are surmountable.’ The question for Mackenzie, at the core of the film is about
survival and love - Do we believe in love anymore? Can Humanity survive without it?
‘One of the things that amazes me about this story is that it starts with our usual modern cynicism Both of these characters don’t believe in love when we start, but they do believe by the end. That’s
a salient point. Maybe, sometimes we need the fear of loss to teach us hope.’
In contrast to other filmmakers like Werner Herzog, with his bleak view of mankind as murderous or blockbusters that’s relish end-of the-world scenarios, Perfect Sense communicates a positive and
simple message about the human capacity to survive and adapt.
In a time which is marked by uncertainty on many fronts (the economic, the ecological - the
apocalypse as almost-willed-for-resolution) Perfect Sense presents a different view. It is one that is
informed by producer Gillian Berrie’s experience in working in International co-production, over ten
years with Denmark and Ireland.
‘One of the ironic things,’ Berrie says, ‘is you try to make some kind of ‘warning film’ about how
things are going wrong for all of us, internationally, and you think no-one’ll care, no one is going to
fund this, it flies in the face of commerce and logic - but then there’s this enthusiasm and
communication between countries and people, and it’s almost alarming, really, how much a need
there is for films like this – the actual co-production process itself is like a metaphor for how people
can come together, and give credible, not just idealistic hope.’
Mackenzie believes that films tell us something about the way we would like to live our lives. ‘I don’t
believe that humanity is heading towards chaos.’ Mackenzie says. ‘In the future, no doubt we’ll see
anarchy on the streets and global disasters, but for all that, I don’t think we’re heading towards
Cormac Macarthy’s THE ROAD. No, you get people working hard to help each other, the human
spirit, somehow or other, urges itself to assist others rather than to brutalise. It’s a very human
thing, we do adapt to fit our circumstances, irrespective of whether we are surviving in extreme or
secure environments. Maybe it’s a gut feeling, and call me a romantic if you like but I believe in the
potential for goodness, for mercy, a desire to build rather than destroy at the heart of the human
spirit.’
Of the film’s conclusion, Eva says ‘The ending is so beautiful. There is a sense of hard-won hope. The
age we live in is cynical but many would say that leaves us more in need of stories of love than ever
before.’
Ewan McGregor also feels the film has a hopeful message:
‘I feel there’s something really poetic about Perfect Sense - it’s like a metaphor for falling in love,
you know, the world is literally falling apart, losing it’s senses, and when we fall in love we lose our
senses, we fall apart, we can’t eat, we can’t sleep, it takes us over. I loved this film, loved it from
the moment I read it… I hope we’ll never tire of telling love stories.’
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INTERVIEW WITH EWAN MCGREGOR
Q - You’ve worked with director David Mackenzie before, what drew you back to the UK to work
with him again?
E – Yeah, I worked with David on a film called Young Adam. And I thought it was a fantastic script
that he’d written and I had very creative time working on it, and he made a beautiful film out of it.
He’s a very interesting filmmaker and there’s something quite unique and special about him. He’s not
a director for hire, he has a real visual sense, a real mood, he manages to inject his films with so much
mood. I think he’s really great. So when I got sent Perfect Sense to read from David, I just loved it, I
loved the characters, it was such a really lovely premise – this idea of this relentless love story, this
story of these two people falling in love almost against their better judgement.
Q – Do you feel that we live in a cynical time, that we are tired of love stories, or that there is still a
role for love stories?
E – I’ve always, loved making love stories, I love romance and romantic stories, I’ve always been
drawn to them and never tired of it. It’s a very powerful emotion. Falling in love with someone is a
very wonderful and all consuming, physical and emotional experience, that we really like as human
beings. So I hope we’ll never tire of telling those stories. For a long time now there’s been a slight
embarrassment about telling romantic stories, it’s more common that you would shroud your
romantic story in comedy for instance. We’ve had a lot of romantic comedies but I’ve always been
interested in films that are romantic without having to be embarrassed about that or shrouding them
in anything other than just what they are. I feel there’s something really poetic about Perfect Sense it’s like a metaphor for falling in love, you know, the world is literally falling apart, losing it’s senses,
and when we fall in love we lose our senses, we fall apart, we can’t eat, we can’t sleep, it takes us
over. I loved this film, loved it from the moment I read it.
Q – What was it like working with Eva Green, an actress who is known for her beauty?
E – I loved working with Eva, she’s just fantastic, what a great girl, an interesting girl, an interesting
actress. She played a part that was really challenging. I really liked her, I liked her as a person first of
all, she’s very dry and witty, she has a very skewed sense of humour, which I like a lot. We started
rehearsing together in Glasgow, and it was very exciting to be back in Scotland and to be there with
her, I think it was her first time in Scotland, so introducing her to Scotland and Glasgow was nice. I
just knew we would get on from the beginning of the rehearsals. And we spent a good week or so
working on the scenes and it was great we just got on. And I think it’s true her character is very…she’s
been in one too many bad relationships, I guess, she doesn’t trust my character and men, and there’s
something really lovely about this reluctance. I really like that element of the story, and the fact that
they overcome it. In contrast my character is very optimistic. Blind optimism! (laugh)
Q – You play a chef in Perfect Sense and look very convincing. Was there a lot of research that
went into this role?
E – Yes, I’m not a cook, I don’t know how to chop or … mainly I don’t know what goes with what. I just
don’t have that understanding or knowledge. Also I think I’m quite a … maybe it’s my roots but I’m
not that fussy. I like good food but I’m not a gastronome. So I had to learn about cooking or at least
to learn to look like I knew how to cook, that was my job, really. I knew I wasn’t going to learn how to
cook in two weeks of rehearsal. I went and hung out with some great chefs in Glasgow. I went down
to Guy Cowans, I did couple of days and nights in his kitchen. And I used to be a dishwasher, in Crief,
where I grew up - there’s a hotel called the Murray Park – I used to work there from the age of
fourteen – I was a dishwasher there and then I became a waiter and a barman, but I was washing
dishes there, from the age of fourteen, for about two years and so I knew how a kitchen worked… So I
had some experience and I spent a few nights during service at Guy’s at Candleriggs, then we went up
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PERFECT SENSE – DAVID MACKENZIE
to a restaurant up north. It was all about the details. I really enjoyed it. I haven’t cooked since, I
haven’t become a great cook because of the film (laugh).
Q – Ewen Bremner said he was amazed at the things he’s learned about a kitchen – like discovering
that you could stick your fingers into boiling sauce and not get burned!
E – (Laugh) Right, If you’re quick it won’t burn! Apart from oil, we learned that. You can’t do it with oil
because the oil sticks to your skin, and that’s it!
Q – What was it like working with Ewen again? This is the third movie now.
E – It was brilliant, I really, really love working with Ewen and I really always have done. It was a nice
continuity together, we were both in Trainspotting together, then both in Black Hawk Down and I
always thought we should have done a scene for the extra features on the DVD for Black Hawk Down,
when I look across at him on the street, under gunfire, and I go Eh! SPUD! What you doin’ here??!
He’s a great actor. We had some weird stuff to play in the kitchen, like the food frenzy – some really
disgusting things we had to do. And he really threw himself into it. I remember watching him pouring
a five litre can of oil into his mouth, and then butter. Oh, it was disgusting! But he was great, it was
great to work with him and it was especially nice for me to work with my uncle Dennis, who I’ve
always wanted to work with as an actor. I mean I’ve been directed by my uncle on stage and in a
short film he made but I’ve never acted with him and I always wanted to. We were waiting for
something special to come along. Dennis was absolutely perfect for the part, they have a nice
relationship in the film, Michael and the restaurant owner, they’re very close and we were absolutely
able to use that. It was just so lovely for me to play those scenes with Dennis.
Q – Why do you continue to be drawn to doing independent films, when you must have so much
influence these days that you have quite a bit of creative freedom in Hollywood anyway?
E – Well, listen, there’s a certain amount of choice in work that I have now. I’m still just drawn to
stories that I like. I don’t think of them as mainstream films or indie films. I suppose that’s a kind of
luxury. But when it comes to making films that you really love and I just loved this script and think
David is such a good filmmaker, you know, the size of it, the budget is irrelevant – why would you not
want to be involved in a story of love with a film director you really respect. It doesn’t make sense to
pass up on that experience just because it doesn’t have a huge budget. I really believe that
Independent filmmaking is where you can make comment and make statements. It’s quite a
complicated film, in terms of what it’s saying about life and love.
Q – What do you think the film is saying?
E – I think a lot of films these days just say “This is a film.” I was reading a script someone had sent
me and recently and I was going ‘This is just a film’, this script… I suppose it might make a good film,
but it’s got f**k all to do with anything, it’s just a film. That’s absolutely what struck me, that this
script I read was only based on other movies and some idea of what the audience might like – well
Perfect Sense doesn’t have any of that, this film is really odd and bizarre, it’s just f**king bananas, it’s
brilliant. And I love the twists and turns in it. I like Michael. He reminds me of…I saw this play Frankie
and Johnnie at the Claire de Lune…Funnily enough it’s about a chef, and they end up in bed together,
and they’re not in any relationship, and he spends the entire play trying to convince her that this
could be it, this could be the big love in their life, and she’s had it with men, the first time she thinks
he’s an idiot. I loved that play and there was something reminiscent in this film about it.
In Perfect Sense, Michael, this guy, his optimism is quite tangible. Their love … it could be alright, why
can’t they just give it a go? And then when he’s talking about when the world loses it’s sense of taste,
and he’s outside the front of the restaurant and there’s Dennis, my uncle, and he’s drunk and saying
there’s no point, no – one will eat out anymore, since they’ve lost their sense of taste – and Michael
just won’t have it. He says no, I think you’re wrong. People will still want to get together and we’ll just
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PERFECT SENSE – DAVID MACKENZIE
have to change. And he has to come up with something new. And I love that about people who are
like that. It’s the only way you get on ‘cos bad things happen all the time and the only way to accept
them is to adapt and change and move on. And that’s the nice thing about my character in the film.
Q – Is this a happy ending? Or a sad ending? Or a sad ending with a positive message?
E – I always thought it was hopeful - the end. I didn’t see it as being…it’s complicated, it’s awful … it’s
not a cheery ending, but at the same time I always thought there was hope in there and I thought it
was quite an uplifting ending. At the end there they’re reaching for each other and know that they’re
truly in love with each other. In a way, I experienced it by reading it, in a way that made me cry, it
was just so beautiful at the end.
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PERFECT SENSE – DAVID MACKENZIE
ABOUT THE CAST
EWAN MCGREGOR - MICHAEL
Ewan McGregor was born in Scotland and studied acting alongside Daniel Craig and Alistair
McGowan. His first and widely acclaimed role was in Dennis Potter’s 1993 TV series Lipstick on Your
Collar - a vivacious acting and singing part which foreshadowed his award winning performance with
Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge. His first feature was Danny Boyle’s 1994 thriller
Shallow Grave. This was then followed in 1996 by Peter Greenaway’s The Pillow Book and by
Trainspotting, which brought him international acclaim and a cult following.
The list of his many films over the following fourteen years has shown his incredible versatility and
ability, stretching form art house films like Velvet Goldmine, to his serial role as Ob-Wan Kenobi, in
the Star Wars prequel trilogy, all the way to comedy with The Men who Stare at Goats. He has also
starred in thrillers such as The Ghost, Stay and The Island (with Scarlett Johansson) and period
romances such as Miss Potter (with Renee Zellwegger - who he also co-starred with in the 2003
Down with Love).
He has also acted alongside Josh Harnett in the Academy Award winning war film Black Hawk Down
and in 2009 supported Jim Carey in the comedy I love You Philip Morris. His other films include
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, Incendiary, Angels and Demons, Nora, Little Voice, Rogue Trader,
Brassed Off, Amelia and A Life Less Ordinary. He has also voiced the animations Robots and Valiant.
He has recently finished starring in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen with Emily Blunt and Kristen Scott
Thomas and the action drama The Impossible with Naomi Watts. He is currently shooting Jack the
Giant Killer alongside Nicholas Hoult, which also reunites him with Ewen Bremner.
Ewan is now one of the most critically acclaimed, publicly adored and prolific actors of his
generation. Perfect Sense is his second feature, after Young Adam (2003) with director David
Mackenzie.
EVA GREEN - SUSAN
Born and raised in Paris, Eva made her breakthrough with her starring role with the internationally
multi-award-winning director Bernardo Bertolucci in The Dreamers in 2002 (playing alongside
Michael Pitt). Bertolucci famously described her “so beautiful, it’s indecent”. The film generated
much controversy due to Eva’s numerous nude scenes. She then went onto win a BAFTA and an
EMPIRE award for her performance in the James Bond film Casino Royale (starring Daniel Craig). For
this role IGN named her the best Bond Femme Fatale ever: “this is the Girl, that broke – and
therefore made – James Bond”.
Eva then appeared in The Golden Compass, as the witch Serefina, and in Franklyn, playing a
Schizophrenic artist. She played the role of Sibylla in Ridley Scott’s action/epic Kingdom of Heaven
alongside Orlando Bloom and Jeremy Irons. She then went on to star in Womb, a film about a
woman that clones her dead husband. She has recently appeared as the sorceress Morgana, in
Starz’s ten part series Camelot. Eva is currently filming Tim Burton’s gothic-horror Dark Shadows
alongside Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.
Eva speaks English and French, collects and frames insects, has an interest in Egyptology, plays the
Piano, and has modelled for Emporio Armani and Lancome and was featured in Christian Dior’s
“Midnight Poison” advertisement, directed by Wong Kar-wai. Vogue has commented on her “Killer
looks, intelligence and modesty”, while The Independent describe her as “gothic, quirky and sexy”.
She finds herself “Nerdy” and says she likes to act because “it allows her to wear a mask”.
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PERFECT SENSE – DAVID MACKENZIE
EWEN BREMNER – JAMES
A native of Edinburgh, Ewen Bremner made his breakthrough playing Spud in Danny Boyle’s cult
1996 film Trainspotting. His subsequent feature credits include Marvelous, The Zero Sum, Mojo, Life
of Stuff, The Acid House and Julien Donkey-Boy for which he won the Best Actor Award at the
Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema. Bremner has also appeared in Paranoid,
Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, Pearl Harbor, Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, Call Me Irresponsible, Sixteen
Years of Alcohol, Skagerrak, The Rundown, The Reckoning, Around the World in 80 Days, AVP:
Alien vs. Predator, Woody Allen’s Match Point, Frank Oz’s Death at a Funeral, Fools Gold and You
Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.
On television, he appeared in two different takes on the story of Elizabeth I: as King James VI in
Channel Four’s “Elizabeth I” starring Helen Mirren in the title role and as Sir James Melville in the
BBC’s “The Virgin Queen” with Anne-Marie Duff as the queen. Ewen has also appeared in popular
dramas such as “Spooks” and “My Name is Earl”. He has recently completed filming of David Hare’s
thriller Page Eight alongside Bill Nighy, Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. He is currently filming Jack
the Giant Killer, which reunites him with Ewan McGregor. This is his second film with David
Mackenzie as director, as he played the role of Andy in Hallam Foe.
CONNIE NIELSON – JENNY
Danish actress Connie Nielsen hit the spotlight in 2000 with her Empire Award wining portrayal of
Princess Lucilla, opposite Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott's Academy Award-winning Gladiator. Then
followed the suspense thriller Demonlover, costarring Chloë Sevigny and Gina Gershon. Her other
lead roles range from The Hunted (with Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro; to Basic (opposite
John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson); to One Hour Photo where she starred opposite Robin Williams;
to Mission to Mars opposite Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins and Don Cheadle; to The Devil's Advocate
starring Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves.
She has given unforgettable performances as a German heroin junkie in Permanent Midnight
opposite Ben Stiller, and in Rushmore opposite Bill Murray. Other film credits include Dark Summer,
Voyage, Return to Sender and the comedy The Ice Harvest (with Jon Cusack). In 200 4 she won Best
Actress Awards from the Danish Academy Awards and from the San Sebastian Film Festival for her
role in the Danish drama Brothers. And in 2005 she played opposite Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes
and James Franco in The Great Raid.
Connie is currently filming alongside Nicole Kidman, Clive Owen and Robert Duvall in the HBO film
Hemingway & Gellhorn.
STEPHEN DILLANE - SAMUEL
Dillane comes from a distinguished background as a theatre actor with notable roles which include
Prior Walter in Angels in America, Clov in Beckett’s Endgame, his 2005 one-man version of Macbeth
and his Henry in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, for which he won a Tony award in 2000. Onscreen,
Dillane may be best known for his portrayal of Leonard Woolf in The Hours (2002), and his portrayal
of Horatio in Franco Zefferelli's film adaptation of Hamlet, with Mel Gibson in the title role.
He played Michael Henderson in Welcome to Sarajevo and is also known for his performance as
legendary English professional golfer Harry Vardon in The Greatest Game Ever Played. He received
an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Thomas Jefferson in the HBO mini-series John Adams
(2008), and won the 2009 BAFTA for Best Actor for his work in The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall.
He has recently filmed Twenty8k.
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PERFECT SENSE – DAVID MACKENZIE
INTERVIEW WITH DAVID MACKENZIE
On voit beaucoup de films ces temps-ci sur fond de fin du monde, de contamination.
Je crois que l’humanité est arrivée à un carrefour, un point de rupture. Il est difficile de ne pas
percevoir que la manière dont nous vivons aujourd’hui est durablement stable. Le sentiment qu’il va
falloir changer profondément nos modes de vie est plus que jamais présent. Peut-être pas pour notre
génération mais probablement pour la suivante ou celle d’après. C’est inévitable. Les cinéastes
peuvent difficilement passer à côté de ce sujet, d’autant plus quand il est lié à l’espoir de la mort du
capitalisme tel qu’il est pratiqué.
Il y a trente ans, on bénissait cette idéologie, il y a dix ans on espérait en voir émerger une autre,
aujourd’hui, avec la crise bancaire il n’y a qu’une accélération des choses, mais on ne sait pas vers
quoi, si ce n’est un inévitable changement. Je crois que les cinéastes sont perméables à ce type de
sentiment.
Perfect sense renoue avec certaines thématiques de vos films précédents, notamment celles de
Young Adam, mais sous un angle beaucoup plus romantique.
Young Adam était précisément un film anti-romantique. Et c’est probablement ce qui m’a attiré vers
Perfect sense, l’envie de raconter une histoire similaire sous l’angle opposé. Certains critiques anglais
ont écrit que Perfect sense était un film “extatiquement romantique“. À un certain niveau, tous mes
films sont fleur bleue. Mais jusqu’à ce film, j’avais toujours pensé que pour qu’une romance soit
réussie il fallait qu’elle soit un peu torturée. C’est seulement depuis peu, depuis que je suis devenu
père que j’ai réalisé que l’amour pouvait être quelque chose de bon en soi. Perfect Sense aurait pu
être un vrai mélo, il en prend la direction mais est en permanence rattrapé par les événements
extérieurs à ce couple. Cela dit, peut-être que, oui, je deviens un peu plus perméable au romantisme.
Vous restez en revanche fidèle à une vision assez crue de l’amour, y compris, autre récurrence de
vos films, lors des scènes de sexe…
Parce que c’est finalement quelque chose d’assez ordinaire : nous faisons tous l’amour. J’ai toujours
trouvé que les scènes de sexe à l’écran étaient malhonnêtes. Du coup, je veux les montrer comme
une concrète collision entre deux personnes, qu’elles me servent à pouvoir amener des enjeux
narratifs supplémentaires. Mon but n’est pas de choquer les spectateurs avec ces séquences, mais de
rester le plus sincère et franc sur ce sujet. D’ailleurs, si elles sont effectivement crues, les scènes de
sexe de Perfect sense tirent cependant vers la sensualité, parce qu’il était nécessaire de conserver
une certaine douceur à cette histoire.
À partir de là, dans quelle mesure, l’aspect science-fiction du film n’est pas qu’une façade…
L’équilibre a été difficile à trouver entre les deux registres. Il fallait qu’ils s’enrichissent l’un, l’autre ;
qu’ils fassent tous les deux sens. Sans vouloir comparer les deux films, mon point de repère était
Titanic. Le film de James Cameron sait incroyablement entremêler une histoire macrocosmique et un
point de vue beaucoup plus élargi. Cela dit, Titanic n’a pas été une influence en termes de récit ou de
formes. J’étais plus attiré par le principe du scénario, d’être sous un élément humain, dans une
échelle intime, à l’inverse plutôt attiré vers le minimalisme. J’ai sans arrêt demandé à l’équipe, aux
comédiens, d’aller dans ce sens. Il aurait été facile de tirer le film vers l’emphatique, vers les bons
sentiments, vers l’ostentatoire ou l’esthétisme publicitaire. Le mot d’ordre a été : profil bas. Il était
hors de question d’en mettre plein la vue. Tous ceux qui ont travaillé sur ce film étaient conscients
qu’on n’était pas dans le registre du blockbuster mais de quelque chose de plus subtil,
métaphorique. La part de science-fiction de Perfect sense se devait d’être discrète pour rester
plausible, donner l’air de se passer dans un futur très proche.
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PERFECT SENSE – DAVID MACKENZIE
En ça Perfect sense reste profondément européen, malgré sa toile de fond, on n’est pas dans un
traitement de blockbuster hollywoodien.
D’autant plus que, juste avant, je suis allé tourner une comédie à Hollywood. Une semaine après être
rentré de Los Angeles, je reçois le scénario de Perfect Sense. J’ai mis une bonne vingtaine de pages
pour y entrer, mais à un moment, il y a eu comme un déclic, j’ai été accroché. Pas seulement par
l’histoire ; parce qu’aussi j’avais entre les mains de quoi faire un film s’inscrivant dans un genre tout
en fuyant ses conventions.
Évidemment, sur le papier ça ressemblait à un blockbuster porté par un pitch en or, mais plus
j’avançais, plus je voulais aller vers un traitement minimaliste. Plus les films hollywoodiens en font
des caisses, plus je les trouve creux, sans substance. Là, j’avais la possibilité de faire un film épique
mais basé sur l’humain, sur l’intime. L’identité européenne que vous évoquez tient aussi au fait que
l’on ait tourné à Glasgow, mais en essayant de la rendre méconnaissable, qu’elle devienne une ville
contemporaine typique: urbaine et cosmopolite. Qui plus est trois films européens ont été mes
références pour Perfect Sense: La jetée, Alphaville et Radio On. Ils baignent tous dans cette ambiance
minimaliste et ont une vibration très particulière.
Pour revenir à votre allusion à Titanic, on peut y faire une comparaison : son casting. Eva Green et
Ewan McGregor forment un couple tout aussi glamour que Kate Winslet et Leonardo DiCaprio.
Encore plus en réunissant un Jedi et une James Bond Girl !
J’avais déjà travaillé avec Ewan. Et ça m’a facilité la tâche : quand on fait un film qui joue sur
l’apocalypse et une histoire d’amour, soit des registres contradictoires au possible, c’est rassurant
d’avoir sous la main quelqu’un à qui vous n’avez pas besoin d’expliquer des heures votre démarche,
et en qui vous avez confiance. Eva a été une découverte. C’est une personne unique, vraiment
différente des autres. Un mélange de grande timidité et de curiosité envers les autres. Par jeu, on a
justement essayé de la déglamouriser au maximum, lui donner le look d’une scientifique revêche, lui
faire porter des vêtements épais, larges.
Vous faites le choix de ne pas donner d’explications au fait que cette maladie fait disparaître les
sens.
J’ai rencontré des gens travaillant pour diverses agences sanitaires, des épidémiologistes, pour voir si
ce scénario était plausible. En fait, tout est possible, parce que leur travail consiste à prévoir ce qui
est imprévisible pour la science, ou parce qu’ils sont au contact de quelque chose qui est au stade de
processus continu : par exemple, on ne connaît pas encore tous les symptômes, toutes les
conséquences que peut avoir sur l’organisme la grippe porcine. La plupart que j’ai vus ont eu la
même réponse sur cette idée de perte progressive des sens : “Ce serait un cas très intéressant à
étudier.“ Venant de la part de gens qui doivent anticiper les choses sans savoir si elles arriveront
vraiment, ça m’a conforté dans l’idée qu’il n’était pas nécessaire de rajouter des explications
scientifiques, ou plus de scènes se passant dans des laboratoires où on aurait vu des gens en blouses
blanches faire des analyses. Partir du fait établi qu’il s’agit d’une contagion me paraît tout aussi
efficace.
L’un des symptômes de ce virus est une crise d’agressivité avant chaque perte d’un sens. Cette
maladie n’affecte pas tant les organes que les émotions…
L’être humain n’est pas qu’un corps, mais aussi la combinaison de ses émotions, elles réagissent
entre elles comme peuvent le faire des neurones ou des hormones. Je tenais à ce que les
personnages perdent malgré eux le contrôle, ne soient régis à un moment que par une sorte de feu
d’artifice d’émotions, l’agressivité restant la plus particulière d’entre elles.
Même sur un tournage, quand on sait bien que c’est factice, lorsque quelqu’un devient violent, ça
électrise l’air, ça stupéfie tout le monde. Cet effet est le même sur des spectateurs, ils savent qu’ils
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PERFECT SENSE – DAVID MACKENZIE
sont dans une fiction, mais dès que la violence explose, cela a un impact. Cette tension me paraissait
nécessaire pour amplifier, par ricochet, les sentiments du film.
Pour autant, de la voix-off qui raconte le film, donc laissant sous-entendre que tout le film n’est
qu’un flash-back, à la dernière image d’une immense tendresse, Perfect sense peut être perçu
comme un film paradoxalement optimiste.
Et pourtant, cette voix n’est pas celle d’Eva, mais celle d’une jeune écossaise. C’est curieux parce
qu’on me parle beaucoup de cette possibilité de flash-back. Ce n’était vraiment pas mon intention.
Mais ça me plaît parce qu’elle rejoint la forte impression que j’ai eue à la lecture du scénario : je suis
convaincu que Perfect Sense parle en fait de l’incroyable capacité d’adaptation de l’être humain aux
pires contextes. Combien d’histoires terribles a-t-on entendues et que les gens ont fini par surmonter
Comment ont-ils pu finir par surmonter des guerres ? L’humanité est constamment confrontée à de
telles situations et finit par s’y adapter de manière quasi-naturelle. On peut trouver cette idée assez
fataliste mais j’y vois plutôt une belle définition de la magie qui fait partie de l’espèce humaine.
Après tout, Perfect sense est un conte de fées pour les nihilistes.
BIOGRAPHY DAVID MACKENZIE – DIRECTOR
PERFECT SENSE (2010) is David Mackenzie’s sixth feature film. His previous film, SPREAD (2009)
premiered at Sundance in 2009, where it was a major seller of the festival. His fourth film HALLAM
FOE (2007) was the winner of eight international awards including Silver Bear for best music and the
German Art House Cinema Guild Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007 - the same
prize that Mackenzie’s third feature ASYLUM won in 2005.
YOUNG ADAM (2003), starring Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton premiered in Cannes in 2003, and
won several awards, including a London Film Critics Award for David, the Best New British Feature
award from the Edinburgh Film Festival and a Scottish BAFTA for Best Director.
Mackenzie’s first feature, the experimental road movie THE LAST GREAT WILDERNESS premiered in
Edinburgh in 2002 and went on to have its international premiere in Toronto the same year.
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