Interview : Arnaud Desplechin – On Challenging himself for My Golden Days

French film-maker Arnaud Desplechin likes to challenge himself with each film by trying out something different. With his latest release, My Golden Days, Desplechin took on the challenge of working with teenagers and breaking up narrative. The film depicts Paul Dédalus (Mathieu Amalric) looking back on his life, and reflecting on an affair he had as a teenager with a young woman, Esther (played by Lou Roy-Lecollinet).

I caught up with Desplechin to talk about making the film and delve into the inspirations behind the storytelling.

Awards Daily: One thing that strikes me is how beautiful the narrative is. Talk to me about that.

Arnaud Desplechin: Thank you for that. When I started writing it, I knew I didn’t want to write a novel. In a way, I had already done that with My Sex Life… or How I Got Into an Argument and so this is a story of a man plunging into his memories. When I do plunge into my own memories, it’s only bits and pieces that I recall which don’t make sense. So, I knew that I wanted three stories, rather than one.

Each story would belong to different areas, one was about childhood and almost like a poem to his childhood, we kept that part short at just seven minutes.

After that, we had the trip to the USSR, and finally we had the coming of age part. I thought it would be different and close to my own memories that aren’t one logical story, but bits and pieces of recollections. I look at them and wonder how is it possible that I experienced different things and what sense do they have. This was the way I tried to construct it like a brain process, rather than the narrative.

AD: What was the inspiration for you when you were constructing the narrative?

Arnaud: There are so many films. I looked at the early Milos Forman movies, such as The Loves of a Blonde. I love coming-of-age films, especially The Outsiders. All The Real Girls was another inspiration. They all nourished my work. Also Summer with Monika obviously was a huge inspiration, it’s such a great and wonderful film.

AD: I really like the romanticism in the film, the museum scene is one of my favorite moments.

Arnaud: Well, she’s a landscape. She’s huge and he’s so humble in front of her. I like that fact that it’s funny and absurd, and that she has a strange face. She can be beautiful and yet ugly at the same time, and it was just perfect for my camera. It was a tribute to a face that I really loved to film.

AD: Another one, was the beginning scene, when Esther and Paul first meet and she tells him, “You’ll never forget me.”

Arnaud: [laughs] I love that. She’s sitting on a rock, almost like a statue. She’s untouchable, nothing can touch or hurt her.

Now you have Esther’s movie, and by the end of the movie she’s discovered love and is vulnerable but she can’t go back to this woman who she was at the beginning of the film. She’s become a hero, but it comes at a price.  I love the movement of Esther’s triumph in the opening scene you mentioned, and the loneliness when she’s pitiful in her room, writing the endless letters to Paul.

AD: There’s a lot of beauty to the film including the actors. This was their first film, so tell us how you found them?

Arnaud: France is a small country you know. We auditioned around 900 boys and girls for the role. We met TV actors, theater actors, film actors. These two though had something specific. The big thing for me was would they accept me? As in, would my directing help them? Will they feel free and comfortable with me?

I kept stopping to ask if I was helping them or being an embarrassment. As a result of that, the three of us developed a great friendship. Those two brought a light and freshness to the scenes, even the dark moments that you see.

AD: On that note, one of the themes you deal with is death. What made you want to explore that avenue when working with young actors?

Arnaud: I like the fact that the young people exclude the adults. You have a few adults in the film, even the dad is in the house as a guest.

I love the fact that the young adults have such a power that they almost reject the adults in the film, with the exception of the teacher. Paul is fascinated by this character and is in love with that character.

AD: I was going to say, that was one thing that was surprising about this film, was that you chose to work with teenagers.

Arnaud: Yes, it was my first time. It was my greatest wish as both a writer and filmmaker. I knew I was able to write pretty lines. I knew experienced actors would love to have done that museum scene, but what kind of writer would I be if I couldn’t a younger generation?

I remember the first interview that Lou gave, a journalist asked her about how she was being praised all over the internet for her role, and it felt so fulfilling to hear her talking about her feelings and the words. I accomplished something, an artistic collaboration with these actors.

AD: Let’s talk about the technique. One thing you have in this is the split screen. What was the choice behind using that?

Arnaud: As you said, the film is built around three stories. When the main part starts with Esther, I wanted to show the audience in a playful way, “Let’s get rid of what you’ve just seen. Let’s see what’s happening now.” So, I needed to invent something with a different style to show that.

During the first two parts, we have one point of view — Paul’s. In the third, we’re switching between the sister, the brother, the priest; we’re not always with Paul. So that gave me the idea to have the split screens with the different perspectives, and not just Paul’s. I thought it was playful.

AD: It was totally a different viewing experience. So, what’s next for you?

Arnaud: It’s been a busy year. I just had my first experience directing my first play and I was terrified. I survived. The play was a hit and I learned a lot from it. It was good, at my age to be tested by something like that.

After that I started writing a new film, I thought I’d finish it by May, but actually I completed that in February. I guess I’ll be shooting that this summer. I’m still astonished that I finished it so quickly, but the writing was so vivid and brutal at the same time.

I always try to surprise myself, so I can surprise my audience. This story is different, it’s not about teenagers. It’s a story about women in their 40s, three different characters depicting women in France today.