OFFICIAL SELECTION
TORONTO
FILM FESTIVAL 2000
OFFICIAL SELECTION
BERLIN
FILM FESTIVAL 2001
the Girl
from
a story by Monique Wittig
a
film by Sande Zeig
produced
by Dolly Hall
A contemporary film noir set in
Paris.
A painter and her two lovers.
A mysterious man.
Synopsis
A
beautiful Painter who frequents a Paris nightclub has an affair with a
singer. The Painter, tells the
story of her increasing obsession for the singer.
She calls her The Girl. When
The Painter asks The Girl to spend the night, The Girl takes her to the
hotel where she lives. They
make love but The Girl lets her know "it's just one night." The
Girl and The Painter continue seeing each other after her art classes or
late at night. However, they
each carry on other relationships: The Girl continues to see men and The
Painter continues to see her long-time lover, Bu Savé.
A
suspicious-looking Man, who seems to know The Girl, appears in the club.
At first, The Painter watches The Man from a distance but later
begins to follow him. While The
Painter and The Girl engage in an ever more complex game of appearances, The
Painter becomes aware that The Man is threatening The Girl.
Suddenly,
The Girl disappears. The Painter looks everywhere, but cannot find her in
the hotel, at the nightclub or on the streets of the city.
Just when The Painter learns The Girl and The Man have left Paris
together, The Girl reappears, looking more elegant than ever.
The Man has an even more powerful presence.
The
Painter goes to The Girl's hotel as she has so many times before.
She finds The Man and The Girl together.
Crushed, she runs out. She
walks the streets. She paints obsessively.
But she has to return to The Girl's hotel one more time.
This time she discovers The Girl and The Man together again, but it
will be for the last time.
The
Cast
The
Girl...................................................................................................Claire
Keim
The Narrator..........................................................................
Agathe de la Boulaye
The
Man...............................................................................................Cyril
Lecomte
Bu
Savé..............................................................................................Sandra
N’Kake
Bartender.........................................................................................Ronald
Guttman
Bodyguard............................................................................................Cyrille
Hertel
Hotel
Clerk............................................................................................Pascal
Cervo
Piano
Player.......................................................................................Franck
Prevost
The
Filmmakers
A Dolly Hall production in association with Method Films
Director...................................................................................................
Sande Zeig
Screenwriters..........................................................................................
Sande Zeig
Monique Wittig
From a Story By..............................................................................
Monique Wittig
Producer...................................................................................................
Dolly Hall
Co-Producer and Casting
..................................................................Claude
Martin
Executive
Producers.................................................................................Sue
Delisle
Gil
Donaldson
Production
Designer.........................................................................Phillipe
Renucci
Director of Photography........................................
....................George Lechaptois
Editors...........................................................................................
Geraldine Peroni
Keiko Deguchi
Associate
Editor........................................................................................Karen
Sim
Music................................................................................................
Richard Robbins
Supervising Sound
Editor...........................................................................Tom
Paul
Associate
Producers.........................................................................Celeste
Peterka
Vicky
Waldron
Painting and
Drawings.....................................................................Thierry
Tourant
Title Sequence Design.........................................Marlene
McCarty for vBureau.com
84
mins. 35mm. Color
Music
It's
A Mean Man's World"
written
by Peal Woods,
Dinah
Washington
and
Leroy Kirkland
Used
by permission of
EMI
Longitude Music
"You
Don't Know What Love Is"
written
by Gene DePaul
and
Don Raye
Used
by permission of
Universal
Music Publishing
"Not
One For Wastin' My Time"
writen
by Mark Taylor
lyrics
by Shannon Gibbons
Used
by permission of Taymons
Music
Publishing (ASCAP) and
Huricane
Sisters
Music
Publishing (BMI)
"I
Get Red Hot"
written
and used by permission of
Franck
Prévost and Claire Keim
"Petit
bout", "La Valse doute" ,
"Quintes
avides" and "Stoppez tout"
written,
performed and
used
by permission of
Franck
Prévost
Night
Club Music
Performed
by Claire Keim, Vocals
and
Franck Prévost, Piano
"Olympia"
written,
performed
and
used by permission of
Me'shell
NdegéOcello
About
the Cast
The
Girl:
Claire Keim.
Claire Keim has been acting on stage, in movies and on French
Television since 1990. Her film
credits include Tonino Pulci's Donne
in Bianco, Cristina Comencini's Mariages,
Xavier Durringer’s J’irai au
paradis car l’enfer est ici, Phillipe Haïm’s Barracuda,
Alexandre Jardin’s Oui, Coline
Serreau’s La Belle verte,
Laurent Bénégui’s Au petit
Marguery, Frédéric Darié’s Bout
d’essai and Veit Helmer’s Tour
Eiffel. Ms. Keim has also
worked extensively in television and theater including the title role in the
highly publicized and critically acclaimed Juliette
for Jérôme Foulon which played on France’s TF1 to over 7 million
viewers. Additional television
credits include: L'Incrusté,
Danse avec la mort, Highlander
2, Les Coeurs brulés, Appelle-moi
par mon prénom, La Derniére fête,
L’Explorateur, Unusual Suspects, Vérité
Oblige No 2, and Chambre 13.
The
Painter:
Agathe
de la Boulaye.
Agathe de la Boulaye developed her craft in the theater starring in
such works as: Michel Mourlet's L'Epreuve
du feu, Dominique Schneider's Gratin
and Max Naldini's Chrysanthème ou le
sang des fleurs for director Max Naldini; Henrik Ibsen's Un ennemi du peuple for director Jean-Luc Tardieu; and Robert
Dhery's Branquignol for director
Mathieu Mathelin. Her film
credits include Jame's Ivory's Jefferson
in Paris, René Mansor's Un amour
de sorcière, Miriam Kruishop's Vive
elle and The Days After, François
Ruggieri's Hygiène de l'assassin
and Claude Faraldo's Il.
She also has numerous television credits including:
L'Allée du roi, verdict
"Crime d'amour", L'Homme
de la loi, Les Grands enfants,
La Femme du veuf, le crime, Stress and Highlander.
Bu
Savé:
Sandra N'Kake.
Sandra N’Kake has built her resume in theater, on television, as a
singer in both film and in theater, and recently in her acting feature debut
for J.M. Longval et Smaïn in Les Deux
papas et la maman.
The
Man:
Cyril Lecomte.
Cyril Lecomte has an extensive theater, television and film resume
which highlights the broad range of his talent.
On stage he’s appeared as Aristophane in La Paix and as Molière in Le
Tartuffe for Marcel Maréchal, as well as 300 Millions, Arlequin poli
par l’amour, Les Libertins, Stand de tir and
Atteinte à l’ordre.
His film credits include Orlando,
Le roi de Paris, Tu as des
contacts dans le cinéma?, A
fond la caisse, Cannes talent 98, Les Collègues
and Peau d’homme, coeur de bête.
The
Bartender:
Ronald
Guttman. Belgian-born Ronald
Guttman has appeared in many Americn movies: TV & theatre productions
while continuing to be cast in European projects.
Film credits include "Hunt
for Red October," "Avalon,"
"Green Card," "Danton"
and Henry Bean's "Believer,"
(2001). TV roles range from
"And the Band Played On"
(HBO) to the NBC mini-series, "Beast."
On stage Ronald has played leading roles at Circle in the Square, UBU
Rep, Long Warf, Naked Angels and in Paris and Brussels.
About
the Filmmakers
The
Writer/Director:
Sande Zeig.
Sande Zeig's first short film Central
Park (produced in association with Good Machine, Inc.) was presented in
over 30 film festivals, including Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, Locarno, Rio de
Janeiro and Taipei. Central
Park was broadcast on Canal+ (France) and SBS (Australia).
The Girl is her feature film debut.
Zeig worked for many years in theater as an actor, writer and
producer, where her credits include the New York Equity Showcase of Behind the Heart, an adaptation of Djuna Barnes' stories, the Paris
premiere of The Constant Journey,
written and co-directed by Monique Wittig, and the New York production of Impersonators,
a one-person show. Zeig has
been an artist in residence at Goddard College and the University of
Wisconsin as well as a MacDowell Colony Fellow.
She has received a California Council for the Arts' Artist in
Residence grant, an Astraea Foundation grant and an Art Matters Fellowship.
Zeig is President of Artistic License Films, a New York based
distributor of independent film.
The
Co-Writer:
Monique Wittig.
Monique Wittig received the Prix Medicis for her first book, The
Opoponax. Her other books include Les
Guerillères, The Lesbian Body,
Across the Acheron, The Straight Mind and Other
Essays, Paris-la-Politique, and with Sande Zeig, Lesbian Peoples: Material For a Dictionary and the play, The
Constant Journey. Wittig's
works have been translated into a dozen languages from their original
French. Her work has secured
increasing critical and theoretical interest, and is the subject of a book,
several hundred articles, and several doctoral dissertations. Wittig is a
Professor in the department of Women's Studies at the University of Arizona
in Tucson. The
Girl is based on her first fiction written in English, also titled The
Girl.
The
Producer:
Dolly
Hall.
Named as "Producer to Watch" by Variety.
Hall began her producing career in 1990 and went on to Line Produce
the 1993 Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear winner The
Wedding Banquet, directed by Ang Lee.
Hall's other producing credits include such award-winning films as The
Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, Siao Yu, johns. All
Over Me, Eye of God, High Art, 54 and Wirey
Spindell. In 1999,
Greenestreet Films tapped Hall to head its Digital Film Division.
The first digital feature under DFD's banner, entitled Famous, which was directed by Griffin Dunne and produced by Mira
Sorvino and Hall, was an official selection of the 2000 Cannes International
Film Festival. As of July 2000,
Hall resumed her duties as President of dollface, inc. She is currently executive producing Fisher Steven's Still
A Kiss, and Jesse Peretz, The
Inherited Château.
The
Editors:
Geraldine Peroni. Geraldine Peroni has been a long-time
collaborator with Robert Altman. In
addition to Dr. T and the Women,
their films together include Vincent
& Theo, Short Cuts, Ready
to Wear, Kansas City, The Gingerbread
Man, and The Player, for which
Geraldine received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Editor.
Peroni has also worked with directors Nora Ephron on Michael,
Tom DiCillo on Johnny Suede and
Tim Robbins on Cradle Will Rock.
Most recently she edited Jesus’
Son based on the short stories of Denis Johnson and starring Billy
Crudup.
Keiko
Deguchi. Keiko Deguchi came to
New York from Japan in 1985 to study cinema at NYU. She has been working in
film editing since 1987, and has assisted on film by Robert Altman, Brian
DePalma, Nora Ephron, Paul Shrader and Tom DiCillo. Her credits as an editor
include DiCillo's The Real Blonde,
Bette Gordon's Luminous Motion and
Yoshifumi Hosoya's. Home Sweet Hoboken.
She is currently editing Patrick Stettner's The
Business of Strangers.
The
Director of Cinematography:
George
Lechaptois. Chilean born cinematographer George Lechaptois, works in Paris
in independent film and
television. His feature
film work includes Bourlem Guerdjou's Vivre
au paradis, Naceaur Ktari's Sois
mon Amie, Malik Chibane's De
quelque part and Douce France,
Francois Lunel's Heroji, Antoine
Desrosiéres's A la belle etoile.
His television work includes Baldipata:
radio trottoir and Le
serment de Baldipata for France 2.
The
Music:
Richard Robbins.
Long
known for his association with Merchant Ivory Productions, Richard Robbins
has composed original sound tracks and created scores from period music for
them for seventeen feature films including The
Europeans, Quartet, Heat and Dust, A Room with a
View, and Maurice.
He also composed the scores for Mr.
and Mrs. Bridge, The Ballad of the
Sad Cafe and Jefferson in Paris.
Robbins’ scores for Howard's End and Remains of
the Day were both nominated for Academy Awards. In addition to the scores for The
Proprietor and Surviving Picasso,
Robbins has written the musical scores for A
Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, Place
Vendôme, Cotton Mary and The
Golden Bowl.
The
Casting and Co-Producer:
Claude Martin. Early in her career, Claude Martin was assitant casting director on Jean de Florette. Her recent casting work includes Medhi Charef's Au pays de Juliette, Marie France Pisier's The Governor's Ball, Prince's Under the Cherry Moon, Bourlem Guerdjou's Vivre au paradis, Arno Desplechin's Comment je me suis disputé ma vie sexuelle, Héléne Angel's prize winning Coeur d'homme, peau de bête. She was assistant to Kristin Scott Thomas on Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer. She is currently casting the new film by Rithy Pahn's Que la barque se brise. The Girl marks her first producer credit.
The
Girl
Director's
Statement
The central theme of The Girl is freedom, and how love
equals freedom. There are three
main relationships in the film. The
first relationship is between The Painter
and The Girl. The Girl has given herself the freedom to have this
affair, not the kind she usually has. It
brings a kind of poetry into her life that changes her.
The second relationship is that of The Painter
and Bu Savé. Bu Savé is the only character in the film who has a name.
If love equals freedom, freedom equals Bu Savé.
From the very beginning it is understood between them that this is
"not the first time" (that one of them has had another affair) and
"it won't be the last". This is their agreement. It's one that
pushes the limits of intimacy. One that we do not often see.
The third relationship is that of The Girl and The Man.
This is one of possession, jealousy, and violence.
But The Girl refuses to be threatened.
Other themes include "a stranger in a strange
land". Here The Painter enters The Girl's world which is entirely
foreign to her. The film is
from The Painter 's perspective, therefore her world is the “norm” and
The Girl's is an unfamiliar place into which she is introduced.
The Girl treats The Painter strangely.
She wants her one minute, then wants to get rid of her the next. The Painter
taking this in stride and with a sense of irony, knows The Girl will
be back. Their worlds will
continue to collide.
The film follows the film noir genre in many ways. The
main character falls into an unknown world, falls in love and narrates the
story through voice over. Extreme
high, low and expressionistic angles are used.
Other visual elements include darkness, silhouettes, mirrors and
reflections.
The Painter's struggle as an artist is a continued theme.
The affair with The Girl inspires her but eventually her work starts
spinning down. She can't easily negotiate between the inspiration and
distraction.
The Painter introduces
a new type of hero. She's attractive, she's an artist, and she knows how to
throw a punch. She's modern, distant and, at the same time, passionate.
The film takes place in a Paris that is timeless. There
are no modern references to technology, not even a reference to time.
Paris becomes a character of its own, yet it's not the Paris of
tourism. There are no monuments or other signs of culture.
Only the streets and the bridges, the Seine and the exterior hotel
mark the time until The Painter will
meet The Girl again. The Seine
also functions as a bridge for The Painter's thoughts and the path back home
to her loft, her lover, and her painting.
The Seine serves as a transition between the old and the new. It’s
the only reference to time.
The story by Monique Wittig, from which the film is
adapted, is based on creating suspense through words. In the film, that same suspense had to be created through
other means. I chose silence as
a device. The Man is
threatening through his physical presence.
He doesn't need to say a word for us to feel his underlying menace. As a matter of fact, no one speaks very much at all.
The relationships are established
through juxtaposition and movement.
Wittig's story itself is very cinematic.
The relationships are very distinctive and the characters, like in
the film, are both passionate and distant. In order to express the humor and
poetic nature of the text, I chose a very sparse, economic style. The film
strives to create a texture through understatement.
____________________________________
Monique Wittig is a
world renowned writer and theoretician.
I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with her on a number of
projects including a book of fiction that we wrote in French and translated
into English (and which was published in more than six countries), a play
that toured the mid-west prior to a one month run programmed by Simone
Benmussa at the Theatre de Rond Point in Paris, and screenplay based on
Wittig’s first short story written in English, “The Girl.”
I
find all of Wittig’s work extremely cinematic.
When I read “The Girl” I found a world that I had never seen on
screen. From my first reading,
I wanted to make “The Girl” into a film.