Jeremie Elkaim Declaration of War Interview

JeremieElkaim Declaration of War Interview

Cast: Valerie Donzelli, JeremieElkaim
Director: Valerie Donzelli
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rated: M
Running Time: 100 minutes

Synopsis: An exuberant young Parisian couple fall instantly and deeply in love, but are pulled from their carefree existence by a twist of fate. Based on real-life events experienced by filmmaker Valerie Donzelli and co-star/writer JeremieElkaim.

Release Date: May 31st, 2012

Interview with JeremieElkaim

Question:You're the co-writer and co-star of Declaration Of War but you occupy a special role in ValérieDonzelli's films. How would you describe it?

JeremieElkaim: It's very difficult to explain exactly my role in Valérie's work. What I can say is that we're in permanent communication, have been for years, and that I'm some kind of counterpoint. I bring her a frame, I help put her ideas in order. Valérie can push her ideas very far, she doesn't know what fear of ridicule is, and she's not concerned with "respecting her subject". She doesn't try to be a good student; she is a strong believer in the fact that rules are not necessary to accomplish a film. She applies this conviction everywhere, all the time. What matters to her is that it is made, that it exists. She is not a cunning person in the pejorative sense, she's always overtaken by herself, and she does with what she is. Pauline Gaillard, her editor, describes her very well: "She carries her subconscious slung across her shoulder".

At the beginning of Declaration Of War, Romeo throws a peanut that lands right in Juliette's mouth. This, to me, symbolises Valérie's work: she makes a gesture, and because she has good instincts and knows how to surround herself with good people, it hits the mark. Valérie has good instincts: she is like a sculptor carving the stone. She works with gestures, the making of the object takes prime position very quickly and she forgets about herself.


Question:How did you approach the project of this story you had both lived?

JeremieElkaim: I think we're always inspired by what we go through in life, by what we are; but Declaration Of War is clearly autobiographical, and that made it very difficult to write. How do you incarnate something that has really happened? It is very complicated; it's very easy to feel yourself beneath reality. Having gone through something very intense oneself doesn't guarantee that it will be intense for others or that it can make a film. We did not want to take a complacent approach and hold the audience hostage. So trying to stick to what actually happened seemed the wrong way to go about it. We had to find the right angle to bring this experience alive and tell a story. The angle of the couple allowed us some distance from the illness in order to be able to embody it better.

After The Queen Of Hearts we began a number of projects. If we threw ourselves into this one it is because in real life, our son was cured. We thought we could share something beautiful with the audience. The thought of getting rid of the bad to share something good made this project appealing. The desire to convey an ideal of life through cinema is something Valérie and I share strongly...


Question:There's a lot of humour in the film...

JeremieElkaim: The fact that we really went through this story ourselves allowed us to talk about it with as much self-mockery as we liked. At first we wanted to go even further in that direction but the film itself imposed a certain intensity.


Question:How did you write the screenplay?

JeremieElkaim: Valérie kept a diary while we were involved in the fight against our son's illness. Not everyone gets to live such intense experiences as this one. Matters of life and death push us to reveal ourselves as heroic, as better than we thought. At the time we almost went through it as if it was an opportunity, as work.

We tried to extract a structure from this disorderly diary, in the same way as if we were trying to adapt a book of correspondence. The trick was to get some distance from the facts and bring fiction in. it was possible because of this goal we had from the start: getting rid of the bad to share the good.

We wanted to make a film with a very high level of energy because that's how we went through this adventure. We pictured it like a hold-up in the hospitals. When we finished the screenplay we really had the feeling that we'd written an action film. Edouard Weil, the producer, was part of this dynamic, he threw the sluices wide open. He understood the film right away, and went along with us like I've never experienced before. He carried the film, he's a dream producer, like you imagine them from the biographies you read, a modern-day Anatole Dauman! The writing and the preparation went very quickly; it took us less than a year for the film to be made.


Question:Notably, Declaration Of War is neither optimistic nor pessimistic but bursting with vitality.

JeremieElkaim: I aspire towards ataraxia: to no longer experience troubles of the soul or existential anxieties, to be ready for life always to be an adventure, happy or sad, it doesn't matter. But to reach a state of total ataraxia must be a little morbid; you'd find yourself passive, ready to accept everything. Too great a wisdom means you don't get off your ass! When we went through his ordeal we were caught up in the life drive, no matter the cost.


Question:This impulse towards life is shown in the characters' ability to stay focused during action.

JeremieElkaim: Yes, we very much wanted Romeo and Juliette to be in the present. If they were to look to the future it would bring something unhealthy. "No useless speculations!" Romeo says at one point, and he is right. Life has more imagination than we have, no point in speculating, so let's just be there, let's live what we have to live. Romeo and Juliette share this energy of the present, it unifies them. This view of life is intuitive for them; they're guided by pleasure.


Question:What was your contribution on set?

JeremieElkaim: The dialogue with Valérie continued, my contribution wasn't only as an actor. But that was the case with all the members of the crew: there were less than ten of us on set, and that forces everyone to be versatile. We had invented the concept of the Swiss army knife technician! When there are ten of you on set, the energy is entirely different than when there are fifty. it allows everyone to talk to one another much more, your eyes are all on the same target, it makes for completely different films. It is more like a family than a bunch of professionals gathered to make a movie.


Question:What does this mean in practical terms?

JeremieElkaim: That hierarchy is overturned. If you notice an object in the frame that shouldn't be there you're not going to wait for the person in charge of objects to remove it, you do it yourself. IfI notice my make-up needs touching up I'll do it myself; if the grip has to become an extra because one of them happens to be missing, he'll show me how to do a travelling shot. We all learn how to do much more than our jobs. Valérie is very good at dealing with anything, at accepting accidents. An actor walking out, a faulty set... She always bounces back, accepts rejections or unforeseen problems in a positive way.


Question:Like Romeo and Juliette...

JeremieElkaim: Yes, as a result we move forward and the film is built with what happened on the shoot and is a testimony to these mishaps. Wong Kar-wai says: "To make films is to resolve problems", I think that fits Valérie well.


Question:What about the decision to play yourselves in the roles of Romeo and Juliette?

JeremieElkaim: I was concerned we wouldn't have enough distance but not too worried because I had the feeling we'd already largely solved the issue in the writing. It made sense that we both acted in the film: we had written the screenplay together, we had thought of the film together… and it meant two less people on set!


Question:How did ValérieDonzelli direct you?

JeremieElkaim: We know each other so well, we can understand each other without communicating, everything is quicker, simpler. And because i had participated to the construction of the character, a lot of paths had been cleared; it took less time to become the character. Valérie has a benevolent gaze that follows the direction of what people really are. Some directors want you to go where you're not so good; Valérie pushes you towards what you're best at.


Question: Weren't you worried to having to replay this drama, having to go through these long hospital corridors again?

JeremieElkaim: No, it was actually quite fun to go back to some of the situations that we had gone through fighting, with such lightness this time around, a film crew and the will to tell a story the ending of which we knew for certain. It was quite refreshing - again and always - to get rid of the bad and keep only the good. It was also moving to see thehospital staff again, so devoted, so wonderful...


Question:You never wanted to co-direct the film?

JeremieElkaim: In my work with Valérie she's the one who carries everything: I'm on the side, like an advisor. The balance between us works because of this complementary relationship. Valérie is good at being the engine of her films, surrounded by the team she has chosen and of which I am a part. We couldn't both be the engine. I'm good at her side because I don't have to carry the responsibility of the film. She manages to let go while carrying the responsibility.


Question:Romeo and Juliette emerge from this ordeal "destroyed but solid."

JeremieElkaim: Yes, they are separated at the end but forever ennobled and unified by this extraordinary experience they shared. They'll never be able to be together like a classical couple, as this trial has had consequences on everything else in their lives, but they have reached a superior understanding. With just a look, they know what they have gone through.

I can't remember which director said: "All films ask only one question: does love exist?" it's really the question of ideals, and if we can start to answer it I'm clearly leaning towards saying: "Yes." I am a believer - not in the religious way - but I believe very strongly in life, in the bond, in listening, in respect... I don't see anything stupid in these values, but rather a greatness that I want to share. I have a death drive like everyone, but I prefer works that make me share the life drive.


Interview by Claire Vassé