Catherine Deneuve: “Singing is exhilarating for us actors”

Christophe Honoré presented Les Bien-Aimés, (The Beloved), his Out of Competition film that will close the 64th Festival de Cannes. He was accompanied by the actors, Rasha Bukvic, Louis Garrel and Paul Schneider, the comedians, Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni and Ludivine Sagnier, and the composer, Alex Beaupain.

 

Catherine Deneuve on Christophe Honoré:

“I’ve always liked Christophe’s way of portraying female characters and love affairs. When I heard about the project, I was immediately interested. During filming, Christophe was very attentive, friendly and open.”

 

Catherine Deneuve on having to sing in the film:

“Singing is exhilarating for us actors because it’s a form of expression that goes beyond the spoken word.”

 

Christophe Honoré on his view of cinema:

“I’ve never been of the view that the role of cinema is to film everyday life, but I do try to make films that are true to life.”

 

Alex Beaupain on the film’s creation:

“For Les Bien-Aimés (The Beloved), we worked the opposite way round to how we did in Chansons d’Amour (Love Songs): Christophe would send me the scenes and I would create the songs around them. In Les Chansons d’Amour, the songs dictated the scenes, whereas in this new film, the scenes dictate the soundtrack.”

 

Ludivine Sagnier on starring alongside the actor Rasha Bukvic again:

“We already worked together in the film La Californie (French California) directed by Jacques Fieschi, and so I was delighted to once again be able to form such a strong and flamboyant couple with this magnificent actor who just gets more and more handsome in each film.”

 

Christophe Honoré on the actor Milos Forman:

“When we contacted him about starring in Les Bien-Aimés, we sent an email thinking we wouldn’t hear anything back. Instead, Milos replied saying, “It’ll be the last chance I have to play Catherine Deneuve’s husband”.

 

 

Comments recorded by A.C.