Astrid Berges-Frisbey The Well Digger's Daughter Interview

Astrid Berges-Frisbey The Well Digger's Daughter Interview

Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Kad Merad, Sabine Azéma
Director: Daniel Auteuil
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rated: PG
Running Time: 105 minutes

Synopsis: On the cusp of the Second World War in France, 18-year-old Patricia cuts across the fields to take her well-digger father his lunch. On the way, she meets a handsome young man, Jacques Maze. She is pretty, with the fine manners of a young lady; he is a fighter pilot about to be called to the front. They meet only twice but fall madly in love. However their romance is curtailed as Jacques is called away to fight in the war. Still pining over her missing love, she finds herself pregnant, and in the middle of a rift between her father and Jacques' upper-class parents. The Mazels refuse to acknowledge their grandchild, accusing Patricia of blackmail. But when Jacques is reported missing, will the bond of family triumph over class division?

Interview with Astrid Berges-Frisbey

Question: When did you hear about th he work "The Well-Diggers Daughter" for the first time?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: Five or six years ago. I was enrolled in an acting class and one of the first texts I had to work on… was a scene from "The Well-Digger's Daughter"! Life can be so funny: the first time I went on stage in my acting class was for "The Well-Digger's Daughter". Then I read about Daniel Auteuil's project and I remember being intrigued because, being so fond of Pagnol, I was curious to see how it would turn out. And then they called me for a screen test! I had two scenes to work on. The first scene in the film, the meeting with the character of Jacques and the crossing of the stream. And then the confession scene, when Patricia tells her father she is pregnant.


Question: What state of mind were you u in for this audition?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: As always at such moments, I was a little nervous but, at the same time, II felt driven by a kind of exciting energy. I rarely wear a dress in everyday life but it amused me to put a dress on and wear a pair of boots… The casting director had explained that if I got through the first round, the next stage would probably be a meeting or a screen test with Daniel Auteuil. Three weeks later, my agent called to say that I h had an appointment with Daniel Auteuil. I was very excited going there. Daniel Auteuil held his arms out to me and said, "Welcome." Then as we talked - his son had been born shortly before - he said, referring to him, "He could be your child." I did not really understand what he meant or, at any rate, I didn't dare believe it. And then he said, "You've no idea how difficult it is to choose the actress to play your daughter, but I'm glad it's you." He told me like that! I could hardly believe it. It was beautiful to find out that way, straight from him. I was extremely touched by the trust that he immediately placed in me. Daniel Auteuil thought that young people today aren't really familiar with Pagnol. So I told him about my acting class and above all how much I loved Pagnol.


Question: What do you like about Pagnol?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: I saw some of his films at first but, above all, once I started working on texts to become an actress, I read a lot of his work. I love his writing. It's writing that speaks to me, touches me and moves me deeply. He says serious things with apparently simple words that come from the heart. He uses a very special kind of language. In fact, it is very difficult to translate Pagnol. His language is full of sunshine and humanity, serious and light at the same time, funny and deep. I like his approach to people, true, ordinary people that he makes into extraordinary characters. And most of his stories are completely timeless. "The Well-Digger's Daughter" is the best example of this. Of course, if it were written now, the setting would be different, the characters too probably, but the feelings and emotions it provokes would be the same. It's all this, in my opinion, that makes him a great author. And to have the opportunity to work on a Pagnol adaptation with someone like Daniel who feels such strong and obvious love for him, well, that was amazing…


Question: Have you seen Marcel Pagnol's film?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: I hadn't seen that one and I did not see it prior to shooting. But I'll no doubt watch it after our film is released… Talking with Daniel, listening to him, watching him work, I quickly understood how this text, this world and these characters have a very personal resonance for him. He had no trouble at all in making this story his own. It's fascinating to sense this blend of respect, loyalty and liberty in him.


Question: How did you work with Daniel Auteuil?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: We talked a great deal. Daniel places a great deal of trust in the people he chooses. He shared all his joys and all his questions with me throughout preparation. He called me to tell me, "That's it, I've found your sister!" He was so excited about meeting Emilie Cazenave. It was the same when he found the house. He was so eager to make the film that he communicated his passion and energy to everyone. I don't have much experience but I have never seen a crew so fully behind its director. You could tell that t he was very touched by it… One day, before shooting began, almost out of the blue, he decided that he needed to do a read-through with all the actors. So we all met up, except for Jean-Pierre [Darroussin] who could not be there. It was wonderful to see Daniel so elated, as if, by bringing us all together, he was diving into the heart of f the living matter of his film. For us, it was very stimulating because, during the reading, we suddenly had a view of the film as a whole, we understood what he was expecting of us, what he wanted…


Question: How would you define Patricia?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: Patricia is a young woman who, early on, has been forced to play the role of a mother. She is a strong and complex young woman. She was raised both in the city with a rich lady, and in the country when she returns to help her father to raise her sisters. She is not a prisoner of her social environment, but she is forced to "submit" to things, to "submit" to the burden that being an unmarried mother represents at the time, being from a poor family and having a child with the son of a rich family… I love the way in which she accepts the situation. She knows that this child didn't happen along by chance. In a way, she has chosen Jacques. She is not some naïve girl who has let herself be fooled. She is a very responsible person who accepts the consequences of her deeds.


Question: What, for you, is the most touching thing about her?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: Her loyalty to her father and her strength. She accepts her father's decision that she must leave the family home and, at the same time, she lays down her conditions at the end for a marriage that she wants to be sure is taking place for the right reasons and not only to save appearances, something that she couldn't care less about. I like that kind of integrity. Moreover, she's someone who, even if she is hurt, is able to forgive. I like the way she deals with what happens to her, I like the way in which we see her become a woman over the course of the story and I like the liberty that she displays, in the end, despite e the constraints of her condition and the period.


Question: In what way is she close to you? Or distant from you?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: I think I have a lot in common with her. Firstly, because I'm the oldest of three sisters that I took a lot of care of. But it's not just that… I think that, like her, I can be very determined, I'm honest with what I think is fair. I have that faculty to both forgive and not to lose sight of what really counts for me. The main difference is probably that I would never have waited for my father to throw me out, I'd have left before that! But perhaps it's just a question of the period… In any case, Patricia is a character that I found fairly easily. I have to say that all the work don ne ahead of shooting helped me a great deal. Notably the work on the costumes with Pierre-Yves [Gayraud]… For me, a lot of things happen at the moment of the character's "physical" creation. It's a stage in which I always invest myself a great deal. The more precise the costumes are, the more precise you are in your performance. I loved working on that with Pierre-Yves, the assistant designer and the h hairdresser… Actually, on an artistic level, I think that everyone - the set designer, the costume designer, the hair and makee-up artists - has done a wonderful job, guided by Daniel who fully accepted the period film aspect but for whom nothing should be frozen in time. And the result is so right, so alive…


Question: Were there any scenes that you particularly apprehended?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: One, but I wasn't really apprehending it, it's just that we were obliged to shoot it first. And, because of that, it worried me a lot to start with that particular scene. It's a "post-baby" scene when I go to visit the Mazels and my father gets worried and angry. In fact, he's afraid that they'll steal his "baby"! Initially, we had planned to shoot more or less in sequence, or at least begin with the scene by the river, but because of the bad weather r, the whole schedule was altered. I was already dreading playing Patricia as a mother before playing Patricia as a girl. But, above all, it's a scene in which, in this father-daughter couple, I'm in control, I'm the one who decides and who puts my father in his place.

Starting with that scene with Daniel, with everything that it represented, was pretty stressful! A few days later, we even had to shoot the end of the film! For everyone, it was fairly strange to find ourselves shooting the final scene at t the very start of the shoot. At the same time, it was a real joy. For Daniel first and fore emost. It's as if the fact of having to manage everyone at the same time from the very beginning, of having to dive into the fray right away, had freed something within n him. It was as if, all of a sudden, it had liberated him both as an actor and a director.


Question: So, for you, were the acting partner and the director one and the same person?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: Yes. Daniel was everywhere at once. In the frame and not in the frame. It was fascinating to see him direct a big scene and, a second later, step in front of the camera for a close-up with a lot of lines, shoot one or two takes, which astounded us so much because he was amazing, then step back behind the camera to prepare the next take. Of course, he has plenty of experience but even so… What mattered to him was giving everyone time, being there for each one of us. He is incredibly generous. In fact, he had prepared his film so well with his director of photography, his cameraman and his first assistant -playing all the scenes himself on the sets well before shooting (sometimes he would call me and say, "I'm tired of acting everything, I can't wait for you to get here!") - he was so steeped in this story and his character, that his well-digger heart was the driving force for the film. He wasn't just an actor directing other actors, he was a real director. He is involved in everything, he discusses everything, he chooses everything, everything goes at his pace… Again, although I have very little experience, I have never seen a crew behind someone 300% like that. He was able to handle difficult situations such a as locations with an incredibly high wind that was knocking down the lights, a scene that was supposed to be shot over three days but one day it rained, the next was s sunny and the third day the sky was full of clouds! Yet he handled it all, showing that he was the captain of the ship, while performing lengthy monologues!


Question: How does he impress you as an actor?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: Through his precision, his p power and his intensity… I have very strong memories of the scene where he leaves me on the road… All of a sudden, I had the feeling of being carried off by an avalanche. . I had never known anything like it. Such restraint and yet such power… Moreover, the wind was so strong and present that you u would think he's getting angry at the same time as the wind. It was a true gift - even if it didn't always make life easy - having a wind like that… In that scene, Daniel is exceptional… It was so upsetting, that I had to step away between takes to go and cry in secret, in order to let off all the emotion that he had communicated to me. His acting is so amazing and so precise, so close, deep down, to the people off this land whose story he is telling. They don't easily show their emotions but they have tender hearts…He knows exactly what he wants to express and he has absolutely incredible mastery of it. Quite frankly, he astounded me!


Question: Had Nicolas Duvauchelle already been chosen when Daniel Auteuil gave you the role of Patricia? What is his best as set in your opinion?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: I think he was one of the first actors chosen by Daniel. He was sure Nicolas was right for Jacques Mazel. Nicolas' best asset is most definitely his intuition and his instinct. He is a very concrete person. His acting comes from the very depths of is personality. Even if it is not necessarily concrete for him in his private life, when he expresses it in front of the camera, it obviously is. He's wonderful.


Question: Was the seduction scene that opens the movie easy to perform?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: To perform, yes, it was pure acting… But to shoot it was a lot more complicated. It was very hard for the crew because they had to set up tracking shots on the water, they were all in waders. Except for Nicolas who ended up with bruises all over his feet from carrying me over the stones! But it was a magical spot…


Question: And Kad Merad's best asset?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: His energy. He is someone who brings boundless and generous energy to a shoot. And Daniel, who I think has had to suffer sometimes in his career from b being a little too reined in, did a magnificent job of both not holding Kad back and at the same time focusing him on the character… Kad does wonderful work in the film. He is both funny and always on the verge of emotion… What energy! Just like Sabine [Azema] in fact. It's fascinating to see an actress like her, with all the experience she has, doing her job with so m much passion, freedom and almost innocence, like a five year-old child taking her mother's dresses and starting to perform for her family, totally into it… The couple she forms with Jean-Pierre [Darroussin] - who is a calm and very meticulous presence - is magnificent, both funny and heartbreaking. I also like the scenes I have with Marie-Anne [Chazel]. There is a great deal of strength in the character and at the same time we sense the wounds and suffering that have given her this strength. Marie-Anne brings incredible truth to the character…


Question: Did you know Emilie Cazenave?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: No. As soon as Daniel told me about her, I really wanted to meet her because it was important for me to know who would be my sister! It's a fairly difficult part to cast: she had to be my younger sister and, at the same time, her love for Kad, well Félipe, had to be plausible… It was really good to work with her. I love the scenes we have together at home. They're so believable! You believe in this reality, in this everyday aspect. It's a real victory to succeed in bringing so many people together and, in a trice, turning them into a true family… When I saw the film, Emily and Daniel really touched me in the scene where they are alone during Patricia's absence and a the father is in a terrible state…

Amanda is a beautiful character. Like all the "Pagnolian" characters in this film. These are real people, generous people, living out deeply human stories… Even Mrs Mazel, played by Sabine, who is the most complex character because we could easily hate her, well, Pagnol does not judge her and even makes her touching…


Question: If you could retain just one image of this whole adventure, or just one moment?

Astrid Berges-Frisbey: There are so many! The first image that perhaps comes to mind is the final scene that I mentioned earlier and that we shot almost at the very start of filming. At the last minute, Daniel decided to do a long shot but we had to hurry because it was the last day we had on the set and the light was going. We virtually improvised the scene and we couldn't have done more than two takes. It was full of energy, movement, spontaneity… life! It was a magical thing to experience such a moment…

And, of course, the moments when I shared a scene with Daniel, those moments when he was there for me… So many things… It's the most incredible human adventure that I have experienced so far.