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PRESENTS
JUST A SIGH
A FILM BY
Jérôme Bonnell
JUST A SIGH
Starring Gabriel Byrne and Emmanuelle Devos
IN CINEMAS JULY 31, 2014
Just a Sigh shows two charismatic stars in top form as they pursue an attraction in glances
and tentative gestures. Their flirtation unfolds in real-time against a backdrop of vibrant
Paris locations on World Music Day. Director Jérôme Bonnell masterfully conducts the
sparkling repartee between Emmanuelle Devos and Gabriel Byrne with insight and affection.
“a bracingly romantic drama that's alive with a mature sense of passion and mystery.”
- LOS ANGELES TIMES
“beautifully acted” – NEW YORK TIMES
“a beautifully modulated turn by Emmanuelle Devos” - VARIETY
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DIRECTOR’S NOTE
Jérôme Bonnell
As far back as I can remember, the vague, unconscious seeds of this film were planted when
I first saw François Truffaut’s The Soft Skin as a teenager. I was particularly impressed by the
long night sequence in the provinces during which a third wheel, played by Daniel Ceccaldi,
(reminders of whom may exist in my screenplay in the character of Rodolphe), unknowingly
prevents two lovers, played by Françoise Dorléac and Jean Desailly, from being alone. I was
struck by the harrowing suspense of the scene, built on practically nothing - a simple
adulterous lie - and especially to what extent Truffaut was able to transform the pure
present-ness of the moment into cinema. The tension is disproportionally greater than the
actual, banal situation.
Hence my initial wish, to make a movie whose main subject is the suspenseful blow-by-blow
account of a love affair, treated in real time. Based on that deep-seated but playful desire,
the rest of the story and its time-span emerged gradually, almost of their own volition. And
then there was also the desire, after J’attends quelqu’un, to work again with Emmanuelle
Devos. I already imagined her participation when writing the first lines of the screenplay. It
was while writing it that my real subject caught up with me. I stumbled on a quip by Tristan
Bernard that summed up with pitiless precision what I was trying to do: “What seems to be
love, is always love.”
My subject was the apparently fictional, but actually very real, idea that even if a love story
lasts only a few hours, it is no less intense, and no less important in the context of an entire
life. The profound issues that came up while I was writing it continue in a direction I never
tire of taking: subsisting links with childhood, fears of the (adult?) world, of one’s future life,
of a border with no return that one is about to cross. Here we are dealing with characters
halfway through their lives, but each caught up in very personal emotions. Our characters
are themselves surprised when they fall victim to their own sentimentality. They thought
that long experience had given them a certain distance from things. That is exactly what
touched and fascinated me.
The subject is a forty-three year old woman. Being that age today is something very different
from what it was only ten or twenty years ago. At her age today there are still many vestiges
of adolescence. At her age today some women still have children. We are living in a new
world in which we will all – or so they say – live to be a hundred. And just for the fun of it,
what kind of a day will someone have, who suddenly finds herself without a cell phone or
bank card in the new millennium? What kind of obstacles does that imply, and what kind of
new-found freedom? I wanted to evoke, or‘use’ that context, so typical of Western society
today, without falling into the trap of psychosocial argumentation.
Because what is most important for me are sensations. That again has to do with the notion
of time, probably the first issue that comes up in cinema. It reflects an obsession I have been
examining, little by little, ever since my first film: formally reducing certain ellipses, or
making them occur unexpectedly; suspending time, the better to accelerate it, like in a
musical score; searching for a harmony between moments of suspense and moments of
quiet contemplation.
Time is just as much the central issue of the film and of the eventful occurrences of the day,
as it is of Alix’s life. Pregnancy at her age is for Alix, still childless, something unimaginable.
With it comes the idea, old as the world, but here pressingly concrete, that life will never
again be the same. In a way, one is finally saying good-bye to a world of prolonged
childhood. Furthermore, aside from the fantasy of the ‘passing stranger’, the choice of
making her lover an Englishman is not insignificant. Alix speaks to him in his own language,
in a language not her own, and so in a way, she is still playacting, still on stage, just as she
has been her entire life. Life helps her to act well, as much as vice versa.
Here my own love of actors is a fortunate coincidence, because this story within a story
moves me in a particular way. It may be part of the great pleasure I take in this project, and
remains an essential question: how do you film an actress playing an actress? A job one does
as much to hide as to show oneself off; a life in which renouncing childhood is unthinkable;
in which one always runs the risk of losing touch with reality. Such considerations, however,
need to be treated with infinite precaution. One must never succumb to clichés or overindulgence. My wish is to examine nuances and avoid caricature. What interests me here is
not ‘what you see’ when an actress is acting, but ‘what it does to her’.
We will privilege high angle shots – both discreet and more obvious – with the camera often
overhead, tracing the romantic (or divine) movement of the destiny being played out, while
sustaining the tension, the suspense of an absolute present. The camera will move freely,
but without any needless agitation. It will never leave Alix, as it accompanies her POV. It will
also film her eyes, her hands, and each clock she encounters. It will treat Paris (terra
incognita for me until today) and its shifting cityscapes like the episodes of a tale, like the
background for a treasure hunt or an initiatory journey, with the idea that Alix, on a trip or
brief visit, is experiencing a parenthesis between two performances in Calais.
We will breathe with her, we will identify with her fears, her lies... and her truth. We will be
there with what she sees and hears. We will never film a body whole during scenes of
lovemaking, but we will not deprive ourselves of doing just that during the onset of desire.
We will favour sequence shots for “set pieces” (onstage, during disputes...), but intercut
intimate scenes, although never losing sight of the overall musical rhythm in which time
becomes in turn threatening, and then hovers in suspension. A lot of preliminary work will
go into our exploration. The actors will have texts to read and will discuss with each other
their roles, the screenplay and its scenes, and most importantly, everything that takes place
off screen. We will choose to show some things, not to show others. Such a balance will
work only if each alternative exists, not only in theory, but rigorously real. It is that kind of
rigor that will give us a sense of freedom when shooting. Because what I care about most is
the pleasure my actors take in acting and my own surprise at what they come up with.
FILMOGRAPHY
Feature films:
2013 just a sigh (Le Temps de l’aventure)
2010 THE QUEEN OF CLUBS (La dame de trêfle)
2007 WAITING FOR SOMEONE (J’attends quelqu’un)
2005 LES YEUX CLAIRS
2002 OLGA ’S CHIGNON (Le chignon d’Olga)
Short films :
2009 QUATUO R
2003 NOUS NOUS PLÛMES
2000 LISTE ROUGE
2000 POUR UNE FOIS
1999 FIDÈLE
ABOUT THE CAST
Gabriel Byrne (DOUG)
Actor Gabriel Byrne was born on May 12, 1950, in Dublin, Ireland. His mother was a nurse
and his dad was a barrel maker. He explored several careers, including teaching, archaeology
and becoming a priest. At 29, he joined Dublin's Abbey Theatre. His film career took off
when he starred in The Coen Brothers' Miller's Crossing. He produced In the Name of Father,
which was nominated for five Oscars.
Early Life and Career
Actor, writer and producer Gabriel Byrne was born on May 12, 1950, in Dublin, Ireland. The
eldest of six children, Byrne was born to a poor Dublin nurse and a barrel maker. At age 12,
he moved to England to become a priest, but was expelled for smoking. In January 2010,
Byrnes stated he was abused by Christian Brothers in Ireland as a child.
He studied archaeology at University College Dublin and then switched gears once more to
become a teacher at an all-girls school. After one of his students asked him to start a drama
club, Byrne became interested in acting.
Acting Career
Byrne joined Dublin's prestigious Abbey Theatre at age 29 and made a name for himself in
the Irish soap operas The Riordans and Bracken. After moving to America, he starred in two
1985 television miniseries, Christopher Columbus and Mussolini: the Untold Story. He made
appearances in such films as Excalibur and Siesta before starring in The Coen Brothers'
Miller's Crossing. The hit film made his name in Hollywood, and Byrne made several
successful films throughout the 1990s, including Little Women, The Usual Suspects, The Man
In The Iron Mask and End of Days.
More recently, he skillfully portrayed the privileged Marques of Steyne opposite Reese
Witherspoon's ambitious Becky Sharp in 2003's Vanity Fair. He won a Golden Globe for his
role of Dr. Paul Weston in the 2008 HBO drama series In Treatment. In 2009, he played Paolo
Vinci in Julie and Julia.
Gabriel Byrne has also produced several films, most notably In The Name of the Father,
which was nominated for five Academy Awards.
Emmanuelle Devos (ALIX)
1989 EMBRASSE-MOI Noémie Lvovsky
1991 LA VIE DES MORTS Arnaud Desplechin
1992 THE SENTINEL (LA SENTINELLE) Arnaud Desplechin
1994 THE PATRIOTS (LES PATRIOTES) Eric Rochant
FORGET ME (OUBLIE-MOI) Noémie Lvovsky
1996 MY SEX LIFE… OR HOW I GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT (COMMENT JE ME SUIS DISPUTÉ…
(MA VIE SEXUELLE) Arnaud Desplechin
ANNA OZ Eric Rochant
1997 LE DÉMÉNAGEMENT Olivier Doran
ARTEMISIA Agnès Merlet
1999 I'M NOT AFRAID OF LIFE (LA VIE NE ME FAIT PAS PEUR) Noémie Lvovsky
MAYBE (PEUT-ÊTRE) Cédric Klapisch
2000 ESTHER KAHN Arnaud Desplechin
COURS TOUJOURS! Dante Desarthe
VIVE NOUS Camille de Casabianca
OUCH (AÏE) Sophie Fillières
2001 SUR MES LÈVRES Jacques Audiard
2002 THE ADVERSARY (L’ADVERSAIRE) Nicole Garcia
2003 SMALL CUTS (PETITES COUPURES) Pascal Bonitzer
IT'S EASIER FOR A CAMEL… (IL EST PLUS FACILE POUR UN CHAMEAU…) Valéria BruniTedeschi
THE RED KNIGHT (RENCONTRE AVEC LE DRAGON) Hélène Angel
2004 KINGS AND QUEEN (ROIS ET REINE) Arnaud Desplechin
BIENVENUE EN SUISSE Léa Fazer
GILLES’S WIFE (LA FEMME DE GILLES) Frédéric Fonteyne
2005 THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED (DE BATTRE MON COEUR S’EST ARRÊTÉ) Jacques
Audiard
THE MOUSTACHE (LA MOUSTACHE) Emmanuel Carrère
GENTILLE Sophie Fillières
2006 WAITING FOR SOMEONE (J’ATTENDS QUELQU’UN) Jérôme Bonnell
CEUX QUI RESTENT Anne Le Ny
2007 TWO LIVES PLUS ONE (DEUX VIES… PLUS UNE) Idit Cebula
A CHRISTMAS TALE (UN CONTE DE NOËL) Arnaud Desplechin
BANCS PUBLICS Bruno Podalydès
À L’ORIGINE Xavier Gianolli
THE UNSPOKEN (LE NON-DIT) Fien Troch
2009 WILD GRASS (LES HERBES FOLLES) Alain Resnais
LES COLLEGIENS Riad Sattouf
COMPLICES Frédéric Mermoud
COCO BEFORE CHANEL Anne Fontaine
CAST LIST
Alix
The man (Doug)
Rodolphe
Diane
Olivier
Emmanuelle Devos
Gabriel Byrne
Gilles Privat
Aurélia Petit
Laurent Capelluto
CREW LIST
Directed by
Screenplay
Photography
Editing
Sound
Sound editing
Sound mixing
Costumes
Art direction
Casting
Script
First assistant director
Production manager
Head of post-production
Make up
Hair stylist
Producer
Produced by
Coproduced by
With the participation of
With the support of
Jérôme Bonnell
Jérôme Bonnell
Pascal Lagriffoul - AFC
Julie Dupré
Laurent Benaïm
Julie Brenta
Emmanuel Croset
Carole Gérard
Anna Bachala
Isabelle Ungaro
Christine Catonné
Guillaume Huin
Diego Urgoiti-Moinot
Mélanie Karlin et Eugénie Deplus
Barbara Schneider
Ainhoa Eskisabel
Edouard Weil
Rectangle Productions
Scope Pictures
Element Pictures
France 3 Cinéma
Alvy Distribution
Canal +
Ciné +
France Télévisions
Le Pacte
Eurimages
La Région Île-de-France
With
Cofinova 8
Cofinova 9