Kristen Scott Thomas in a scene from "Sarah's Key"Julien Bonet
For his first feature, Gilles Paquet-Brenner cast Marion Cotillard as twins. For his latest, Sarah's Key, the French director himself did double duty – essentially shooting two films that became one (not to mention a gala at last year's Toronto International Film Festival).
Julia Jarmond, an American journalist living in Paris, is researching the 1942 Vel'd'Hiv Roundup (Paris police arrested and held Jewish families before sending them to Auschwitz) when she discovers an unsettling personal connection to Sarah, a 10-year-old girl who hid her younger brother just before she and their parents were rounded up.
Paquet-Brenner talks about the challenge of intertwining Julia's story with Sarah's fate and the casting that makes it work.
Sarah's Key adapts Tatiana de Rosnay's 2007 novel, her first written in her mother tongue, English. Did you read it in English?
No, it was published first in France, so I read it in translation – and before it became this worldwide bestseller – so we were lucky to buy the rights. I fell in love with the book. It has such great characters and a story that connects to an historical event I did not know much about. I think that was the same for many people in France. For a long time after the war, the state refused to acknowledge the roundup. Throughout the sixties, seventies and even eighties many former collaborators were still in the power elite.
The two narratives are separated by 60 years. Did you have a lot of moving pieces to work with?
Actually, [co-screenwriter]Serge Joncour and I followed narrative in the book. What interested me was bringing a contemporary perspective to history. It was challenging to keep the story fluid, so the audience wouldn't get lost. We worked hard on transitions and pacing, so in editing we didn't diverge from the script. But I was careful shooting the first and last shot of every scene. It was really like making two movies.
Kristin Scott Thomas is Julia. It's one of those roles you can't imagine anyone else playing. Aside from being a great actor, she raised her children in France and speaks flawless French. But she's in high demand. How did you get her attention?
When we were finishing the screenplay, Il y a longtemps que je t'aime ( I Loved You So Long) came out and was a huge game-changer for Kristin. Before that, many people considered her cold, especially in English roles. Now she is one of the favourite actresses for French people. Her daughter had read the book and saw the screenplay on Kristin`s bed and told her she had to read it.
Julia faces a personal dilemma, but her emotional journey is driven by Sarah`s story. Yet Scott Thomas had very little to react to. Can you explain a little about her approach?
Yes, her work is so interior, she is reading, listening, thinking. We had to wait for Kristin to finish a play so we shot the 1942 story and even cut some scenes together. I was able to show her images so she could place herself according to what she saw. She saw Sarah`s story was powerful and felt she should not compete with it. Kristin knows how to find the right distance. It's important because she is a vessel for the audience, which helps the movie from becoming too sentimental..
How did you find Mélusine Mayance, who plays Sarah?
I was scared because if you don't have a real actress you don't have a movie, and Sarah is such a complex character. I remembered Mélusine from a movie she made when she was 7 and how mature she was. We went through a screen test but I always knew it would be her.
There are so many films with big stories about the French resistance versus collaborators, which is why I liked the character of the farmer, who is just a little guy.
Yes, he kind of represents the French population – so many people just spent the war looking for basic needs. It's clear [the farmer]starts out as heartless but Sarah insists he help her, and then he becomes a real hero.
Sarah's Key opens Friday.
Special to The Globe and Mail.