With her first feature, 2 Days in Paris, Julie Delpy becomes a notable cinematic tour de force.
She’d already received an Oscar nomination for co-writing Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset, in which she also starred, but, with 2 Days, which she wrote, produced, directed, stars in, edited and composed the music for, Delpy goes auteur all the way.
The film is an amusing, quirky romantic dramedy set and shot in Paris (of course). In it, Marion (played by Delpy) and her boyfriend (Adam Goldberg) are having “mismatched” problems and attempt to sort out cultural differences, jealousies and sexual frustrations, among other relationship-breaking issues.
“I’ve been trying to make a film for years now, and I have other scripts on the shelf, several of them, in fact,” says Delpy. “But this is the first one I’ve been able to raise the money for—and direct. And it’s because it’s a popular subject: relationships, you know. So, it was a deliberate choice to write this one after I listened to my colleagues’ advice.”
But, you did everything on the film? How did that happen? Is there anything you can’t do? Well, I am very creative, and I’m always thinking about things in a way to keep me from getting bored. I can think of a story or lyrics that way, and I also see things all the time that give me ideas—so I’m always taking mental notes that will come out later in scripts or something.
The production of 2 Days in Paris just sort of worked itself out, but with a lot of effort from me. I wanted to make the film, and that was my priority—so I went in any direction that was necessary to make it work. I mean, I wanted to direct it, but I didn’t count on that when I wrote it. I did write it with Adam in mind, but not so much for myself as Marion. I produced because it needed to be done, and I wrote the music because one day I was watching some of the film with a friend, and we decided something was missing: music. So I went home and sat down—fortunately, I have a computer right there in a room at home—and I composed the music for the scene we’d been watching. And, you know, I have a whole folder on my computer filled with movie music I’ve composed, so that wasn’t hard. Sometimes I just write music to entertain myself.
But, you know, you can’t really say I did everything on this film because it was really a collaboration, and I had a lot of help from everyone. From all my friends, you know. They were all in it—some of them are not actors, but they had small parts. And my parents play Marion’s parents in the film. So there was a lot of support. And, you know, as I said, the film was always the first priority. So, if someone had a better idea than mine for making the film better, I’d just say, ‘OK, let’s go with that.’ Everything is done in the interest of making the best film.
Did you watch romantic comedies while writing the script or as a way to prepare for directing it? Absolutely not—because I didn’t want to be influenced by them and make something to fit that formula. Most of them are a formula, you know. So, I wanted to avoid that. But I watched Raging Bull a lot. Because I think Marion is a lot like Jake LaMotta—so angry and ready to take on anything. So, I wanted to see how Jake LaMotta handles things, as a model for Marion.
There’ve been some comments that Marion’s attitudes are a bit racist. Do you think that’s true? You mean the scene in the taxi, I assume. Look, she’s just reacting the way angry people react when they don’t like something. French people are very careful to be politically correct on one level, but sometimes they react in life in quite a different way. Marion reacts very directly, very strongly, without much analysis beforehand. That’s part of her character, and I think she’s very real in that regard.
Was it difficult to direct yourself? Well, in some cases it might be very difficult, but it wasn’t too difficult in this. I really saw myself as the straight man in the film. Adam had all the funny, tricky stuff to do. Marion just sets him up. I wrote the part that way. But if it had been different, more complicated, I might not have been able to handle it. Anyway, I was afraid of that.
And, you know, I’ve been acting for such a long time, I kind of know when I get it right. I could watch the scene on a monitor, and if I wasn’t satisfied, we’d do another take. And I really trusted my AD and DOP to tell me if they thought it wasn’t working and we needed to do it again. I relied on their eyes.
How about your parents? Was it difficult to direct them? You know, they’re primarily stage actors, so they’re used to working a little differently. I wanted them to improvise a bit, but they were uncomfortable with that idea. They preferred to work from the script, and that was fine. Actually, it was a lot of fun working with them. We’re very close, so having them on the set made it feel like home, very comfortable. And I really like that. It’s very important to me. Because I’m not all work, you know. I really like to have fun. We would work very hard, very intensely during the day, then we’d break and go out for a nice dinner.
She’d already received an Oscar nomination for co-writing Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset, in which she also starred, but, with 2 Days, which she wrote, produced, directed, stars in, edited and composed the music for, Delpy goes auteur all the way.
The film is an amusing, quirky romantic dramedy set and shot in Paris (of course). In it, Marion (played by Delpy) and her boyfriend (Adam Goldberg) are having “mismatched” problems and attempt to sort out cultural differences, jealousies and sexual frustrations, among other relationship-breaking issues.
“I’ve been trying to make a film for years now, and I have other scripts on the shelf, several of them, in fact,” says Delpy. “But this is the first one I’ve been able to raise the money for—and direct. And it’s because it’s a popular subject: relationships, you know. So, it was a deliberate choice to write this one after I listened to my colleagues’ advice.”
But, you did everything on the film? How did that happen? Is there anything you can’t do? Well, I am very creative, and I’m always thinking about things in a way to keep me from getting bored. I can think of a story or lyrics that way, and I also see things all the time that give me ideas—so I’m always taking mental notes that will come out later in scripts or something.
The production of 2 Days in Paris just sort of worked itself out, but with a lot of effort from me. I wanted to make the film, and that was my priority—so I went in any direction that was necessary to make it work. I mean, I wanted to direct it, but I didn’t count on that when I wrote it. I did write it with Adam in mind, but not so much for myself as Marion. I produced because it needed to be done, and I wrote the music because one day I was watching some of the film with a friend, and we decided something was missing: music. So I went home and sat down—fortunately, I have a computer right there in a room at home—and I composed the music for the scene we’d been watching. And, you know, I have a whole folder on my computer filled with movie music I’ve composed, so that wasn’t hard. Sometimes I just write music to entertain myself.
But, you know, you can’t really say I did everything on this film because it was really a collaboration, and I had a lot of help from everyone. From all my friends, you know. They were all in it—some of them are not actors, but they had small parts. And my parents play Marion’s parents in the film. So there was a lot of support. And, you know, as I said, the film was always the first priority. So, if someone had a better idea than mine for making the film better, I’d just say, ‘OK, let’s go with that.’ Everything is done in the interest of making the best film.
Did you watch romantic comedies while writing the script or as a way to prepare for directing it? Absolutely not—because I didn’t want to be influenced by them and make something to fit that formula. Most of them are a formula, you know. So, I wanted to avoid that. But I watched Raging Bull a lot. Because I think Marion is a lot like Jake LaMotta—so angry and ready to take on anything. So, I wanted to see how Jake LaMotta handles things, as a model for Marion.
There’ve been some comments that Marion’s attitudes are a bit racist. Do you think that’s true? You mean the scene in the taxi, I assume. Look, she’s just reacting the way angry people react when they don’t like something. French people are very careful to be politically correct on one level, but sometimes they react in life in quite a different way. Marion reacts very directly, very strongly, without much analysis beforehand. That’s part of her character, and I think she’s very real in that regard.
Was it difficult to direct yourself? Well, in some cases it might be very difficult, but it wasn’t too difficult in this. I really saw myself as the straight man in the film. Adam had all the funny, tricky stuff to do. Marion just sets him up. I wrote the part that way. But if it had been different, more complicated, I might not have been able to handle it. Anyway, I was afraid of that.
And, you know, I’ve been acting for such a long time, I kind of know when I get it right. I could watch the scene on a monitor, and if I wasn’t satisfied, we’d do another take. And I really trusted my AD and DOP to tell me if they thought it wasn’t working and we needed to do it again. I relied on their eyes.
How about your parents? Was it difficult to direct them? You know, they’re primarily stage actors, so they’re used to working a little differently. I wanted them to improvise a bit, but they were uncomfortable with that idea. They preferred to work from the script, and that was fine. Actually, it was a lot of fun working with them. We’re very close, so having them on the set made it feel like home, very comfortable. And I really like that. It’s very important to me. Because I’m not all work, you know. I really like to have fun. We would work very hard, very intensely during the day, then we’d break and go out for a nice dinner.
