INTRODUCTION
Jonathan
Demme, the Academy Award(R)-winning director of The Silence of the
Lambs, as well as such films as Melvin and Howard, Something Wild,
Philadelphia and Beloved, was ready for
a change. After devoting himself to the discipline of classically
structured films for more than a decade, he wanted to return to
the more playful and escapist style of some of his earlier films
like Something Wild, Married to the Mob, and the first pictures
he did with Roger Corman.
He
had an idea: what if he could take one of his all-time favorite
flicks, Stanley Donen's 1963 romantic thriller Charade, as a jumping-off
point for a sometimes faithful, sometimes radically different new
version - dramatically reshaping the relationships and personalities
of the lead characters, de-emphasizing key elements of the original,
amping up other aspects of the story and setting, and frequently
taking the original storyline in entirely new directions. Demme's
picture would still be set in Paris, but instead of focusing largely
on Parisian charm and elegance, his characters would inhabit a different
"City of Lights" with its own quirks, sprawl, diversity,
sounds, and surprises. Stylistically, he would depart from the High
Style of the original in favor of an approach that was just blossoming
in the Paris of the early '60's - the fabled "French New Wave"
that gave birth to the films of Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard,
Claude Chabrol, Agnes Varda, Jacques Demy, Alain Resnais, and many
others.
And
so - voila! While paying homage to both Donen and the Nouvelle Vague,
Demme invites moviegoers to sit back and take an unconventional,
unpredictable and thoroughly cinematic ride with The Truth About
Charlie.
The
Truth About Charlie stars Thandie Newton as a young woman searching
for answers about her husband's murder and a missing fortune, and
Mark Wahlberg as the mysterious "helping hand" all too
ready to assist her at every turn.
Her
name is Regina Lambert (Newton). She meets Joshua Peters (Wahlberg)
while vacationing in Martinique with plans to return home and terminate
her recent marriage to the enigmatic Charles Lambert (Stephen Dillane).
Life with the charming Charles started out with tremendous excitement
and promise, but things have gone quickly and dismayingly downhill.
But
upon her return to Paris, they get much worse...
Reggie
no longer needs the divorce. Charles has been murdered. Their apartment
and bank account have been completely emptied. She is totally freaked.
A trio of Charles' former (and very ominous) cohorts, Il-Sang Lee
(Joong-Hoon Park), Emil Zadapec (Ted Levine), and Lola Jansco (Lisa
Gay Hamilton), are menacing her in hopes of recovering a bundle
of missing cash. As chance would have it, Joshua is in Paris now,
too, anxious to help.
Regina
could use the assistance, because the more she learns, the more
she needs to discover to fill in the missing pieces of this puzzle
and to protect herself from the escalating danger. In the midst
of all the chaos, Joshua reveals a growing affection for Reggie,
even as disturbing allegations about him surface and undermine her
trust.
Hard-edged
Paris Police Commandant Dominique (Christine Boisson) considers
Regina herself a likely suspect in Charlie's death. The attentions
of a by-the-book American embassy official (Tim Robbins) make her
situation even more complicated. But as the pressure on her increases,
Reggie's struggle to extricate herself from the web of deceit and
intrigue surrounding Charlie's murder transforms into a belief that,
in fact, she must learn the truth about Charlie - and herself -
in order to move forward with her life (if she survives the search!).
As the truth about Charlie finally emerges, the truth about the
smitten Joshua likewise comes into startling focus.
Universal
Pictures presents The Truth About Charlie, a "mystery/thriller
with an active sense of humor," to quote director Demme, and
starring Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights, Three Kings), Thandie Newton
(Jefferson in Paris, Mission: Impossible 2, Beloved, Bertolucci's
Besieged) and Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption).
The
Truth About Charlie also features a glittering international cast
including Joong-Hoon Park (Sundance 2000 surprise hit Nowhere to
Hide, Two Cops, Say Yes), Ted Levine (The Silence of the Lambs,
The Fast and the Furious), Lisa Gay Hamilton (Beloved, True Crime,
television's The Practice), Christine Boisson (Antonioni's Identification
of a Woman, Un Amour de Trop), Stephen Dillane (The Hours, Spy Game,
Welcome to Sarajevo), Frederique Meininger (Annaud's The Lover,
Tavernier's 'Round Midnight), Magali Noel (Rififi, many Fellini
films), Simon Abkarian (When The Cat's Away, The Man Who Cried),
Sakina Jaffrey (Cotton Mary, The Perfect Murder, The Mystic Masseur)
and seminal New Wave director Agnes Varda in a cameo role. Special
musical appearances are made by the legendary Charles Aznavour and
Anna Karina, as well as by Pierre Carre and Gallic rappers Saian
Supa Crew.
Based
on Peter Stone's screenplay for the motion picture Charade, The
Truth About Charlie was written by Demme & Steve Schmidt and
Peter Joshua and Jessica Bendinger. Demme produced the picture with
Ed Saxon (The Silence of the Lambs, Adaptation) and Peter Saraf
(Ulee's Gold, Adaptation). Ilona Herzberg is executive producer;
Neda Armian and Mishka Cheyko are the co-producers.
Demme's
behind-the-camera team includes director of photography Tak Fujimoto
(Signs, The Silence of the Lambs), production designer Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski
(My Beautiful Launderette, Madeline, Snatch), Academy Award(R)-nominated
editor Carol Littleton (Beloved, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial), Academy
Award(R)-winning composer Rachel Portman (Emma, Beloved) and costume
designer Catherine Leterrier (The Messenger: The Story of Joan of
Arc, Gorillas in the Mist).
ABOUT
THE PRODUCTION
With
The Truth About Charlie, his 16th feature film, director Jonathan
Demme offers a new take on Stanley Donen's 1963 film, Charade.
"Charade
was a huge hit that has pretty much become an enduring classic,"
said Demme, who also co-wrote and produced The Truth About Charlie.
"It's a terrific story with rich characters and settings. I
love the way it combines mystery and suspense with relationships
and humor. I asked Stanley Donen how he would feel about Charade
being remade and I was thrilled when he gave me his blessing.
"Charade
was made in 1963 and depicted Paris in appropriately charming, stylish,
elegant terms," Demme continued. "When approaching the
remake, I was excited by the fact that at the same time as Stanley
Donen was filming Charade in Paris, the New Wave directors were
blasting out their shoot-from-the-hip pictures like A Woman Is a
Woman (Godard), Shoot the Piano Player (Truffaut), Cleo from 5 to
7 (Varda), The Cousins (Chabrol), and Lola (Jacques Demy) right
around the corner. So The Truth About Charlie provided a chance
for us to play with the notion of a kind of latter-day New Wave
spinoff on Donen's high style."
NOUVELLE
VAGUE ...ALWAYS IN
The
films of the French New Wave proved a seminal force in the history
of modern cinema, and have always exerted a special hold on Demme.
"The
first New Wave movie I ever saw was Francois Truffaut's Shoot the
Piano Player with Charles Aznavour," Demme recalled. "There's
a moment in the film when one of the characters confesses something
to someone, and adds, 'And if I'm lying, may my mother drop dead.'
And the movie cuts to an old woman clutching her chest and keeling
over backwards! That was one of the most exciting moments I ever
had in a movie theater. I didn't know movies could do that kind
of thing!
"So
it was really exciting to consider a new version of Charade from
a New Wave visual perspective," he continued. "Today the
New Wave is as influential as ever - and probably always will be.
So many new films all over the world, as diverse as those of Wong
Kar-wai, Lars von Trier, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson,
to name just a few, are directly influenced by those of the original
New Wave auteurs."
Demme
also observed their influence in Tom Tykwer's bold 1999 hit Run,
Lola, Run.
"I
loved the way Lola gave flashes of what was going on inside people's
minds. I thought 'Hey! The Truth About Charlie could have a subliminal
dimension that would be a lot of fun, as it was in Lola. In fact,
we named Lisa Gay's character 'Lola' as a salute to that picture!"
Using
new technology also appealed to Demme. "We decided to play
around with the look by shooting the subliminal material digitally
so it would have a different look, a totally different feel from
the rest of the picture."
Finally,
Demme settled on the overall approach that was in keeping with his
various sources of inspiration. "The idea for us all was to
try and shoot the kind of movie we would have liked to do fresh
out of film school. It seemed like a fun approach for the style
of movie we wanted to make, and it brought a real kind of excitement
to the process."
Editor
Carol Littleton, a frequent Demme collaborator, agreed. "Not
that any of us had attended film school!" she laughed. "But
the idea was to free ourselves from the normal way of shooting a
movie. Jonathan's last three or four films had been pretty highly
structured and formal in their presentation. Now we had an opportunity
to get away from that."
CHARACTER
REFERENCES
A
brand new approach to the characters of Reggie and Joshua Peters
- the couple at the center of the story - was key to the reimagining
of the new Charade. "I wasn't interested in trying to duplicate
the cosmic iconic pairing of Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant in any
way," Demme emphasized. "First and foremost, it simply
couldn't be achieved today, and second, trying for that kind of
duplication wouldn't interest me as a filmmaker anyway.
"At
the center of the story are these two characters - a woman in jeopardy,
and a guy too damned helpful to even hope for. They are quickly
surrounded in the story by an array of characters bent on getting
from Reggie things she claims to know nothing about," he continued.
In
the original Charade, Audrey Hepburn falls quickly and hopelessly
in love with the super-elegant silver fox of all-time... 60-year-old
Cary Grant (whose running gag is that Reggie's aggressively amorous
advances pose a coronary risk to a guy his age).
The
equation is flipped in The Truth About Charlie - character-wise
and heartstrings-wise - with a cool, edgy, and street-smart Mark
Wahlberg being the one to this time tumble quickly for Reggie's
irresistible blend of warmth, naivete, and... gumption (as Tim Robbins'
"Mr. Bartholomew" refers to her).
Instead
of romantic sparks instantaneously flying, Reggie and Joshua enter
into a bumpy relationship under decidedly fraught circumstances
that mixes natural attraction with an escalating sense of possible
deception, finally leading to out-and-out alienation with a dwindling
hope for redemption. Joshua seems to be burdened by a serious case
of "multiple personality deficit syndrome," which makes
romancing Reggie progressively more difficult, to say the least.
The
actress Demme envisioned as Reggie was actually a key motivation
for making The Truth About Charlie in the first place. Thandie Newton
had played a major role in Beloved, Demme's most recent film, and
the director counts himself among her greatest fans. "I was
really keyed to making another movie with Thandie," he said.
"She's truly a great young actress: charming, deep, incredibly
smart, funny, so totally classy, and ready to try anything as an
artist, really fearless, and equipped with a remarkably imaginative
point of view on character and story.
"Reggie
at her core is an uncorrupted person, a woman of real integrity
and decency, with a strong sense of right and wrong," he continued.
"When I saw Charade again, I immediately felt that here was
a superb vehicle for this exceptionally gifted and thus-far underutilized
actress."
Newton
was thrilled. "There's nothing nicer than going into a film
working with your family and, let's face it, Jonathan is my family
after Beloved," she said. "He has a huge respect for the
people he joins with to make a movie, and the people he collaborates
with are so exceptional. His confidence allows you to deliver your
very best work."
Newton
also savored portraying a character she so admired. "Reggie's
naive and idealistic, but she has a very strong moral standing,"
the actress observed. "Despite the fact that the most bizarre
and unbelievable things are happening to her, she logically and
truthfully tries to work them through and solve the dilemma."
The
nature of collaboration on the set was liberating for the actress.
"It's almost like the dream life of Jonathan; that's why it
feels to me like such an original film. We were able to invent things
as we went along. People on the street were included and sometimes
didn't even know it. It gave a freshness and immediacy to shooting
that was really exciting."
Demme
had not worked with Mark Wahlberg before, but had been very impressed
by Wahlberg's performance in Boogie Nights. Then, after seeing the
young actor's work in Three Kings, Demme was confident the actor
would bring something special to the character of Joshua Peters.
"I told him to forget Cary Grant. I considered having that
tattooed on my forehead, because we would be going 180 degrees from
there. I referred to Mark as the 'anti-Cary Grant.' Instead of this
older, dapper, elegant, urbane guy, we were going for a young guy
- street-smart, edgy, self-made - a Boy Scout on the surface who
might just harbor a Heart of Darkness on the inside. A guy who is
falling head over heels for a dream girl that he can't seem to be
straight with, for reasons known only to him."
Wahlberg
was ready. "Joshua is definitely the most challenging role
I've played to date. So much is going on in his attempt to solve
the mystery and in his attempt to win Reggie. Throughout the story,
he's constantly switching gears and reinventing himself to stay
in the game as the plot thickens."
Demme's
working methods sometimes surprised the actor. "Jonathan did
an incredible job keeping everything fresh for all of us,"
Wahlberg explained. "I mean there are characters who appear
in almost every scene but Jonathan wouldn't tell me who they were
- if they were with me or against me. People are going to be surprised."
Demme
cast Tim Robbins as Mr. Bartholomew, whose analogue was played by
Walter Matthau in Charade. Even as Demme urged his actors to avoid
referencing the earlier film for their characterizations, Tim Robbins
was something of an exception. "I think he had a slight eye
on Walter Matthau," Demme allowed. "I love the sense of
humor, the levels, Tim brings to Bartholomew. It was a little disquieting
for me at first to start 'directing' a director whose films I admire
so much. But the sheer fun and excitement of watching Tim Bartholomew-ize
himself dispelled my nerves pretty quickly."
Robbins
enjoyed taking on the mantle of the inscrutable bureaucrat. "Bartholomew
is very straight, conservative, by-the-numbers - or so it seems,"
he said. "I liked playing someone who is so calculating."
Demme
cast each role as if it were a lead, beginning with the all-important
Commandant, the Parisian police inspector who questions Reggie about
Charlie's death. Unlike the character in the original, the Commandant
is a woman in The Truth About Charlie, portrayed by the eminent
stage and screen French actress Christine Boisson, who amongst her
many other credits has starred in recent Paris stage productions
of two plays written and directed by Harold Pinter. "The first
time I read the script, the Commandant was a man," said Boisson.
"The character is a little like Bogart, tough, strong but especially
because she's a woman, very human. She feels empathy."
The
Truth About Charlie represents the English-language debut of Joong-Hoon
Park ("Il-Sang Lee"), an enormously popular comedian and
film star in his native South Korea and throughout the rest of Asia.
Nowhere to Hide, directed by Myung-se Lee, was a surprise hit at
the Sundance 2000 Film Festival. Starring Park as the crafty, tireless,
and hard-pressed "Detective Woo," the film went on last
year to a well-received release in the United States and Europe.
Lisa
Gay Hamilton ("Lola Jansco") earned her theatre degree
from New York University and followed it up with a master's degree
from Juillard. In 1993, she appeared at the New York Shakespearean
Festival playing Isabella opposite Kevin Kline in Measure for Measure.
Krush Groove (1985) was her first feature film, which has been followed
by roles in 22 television productions and movies, including The
Sum of All Fears, True Crime, Twelve Monkeys, Jackie Brown, and,
with director Demme, the key role of "Young Sethe" in
1998's Beloved. Hamilton has been a regular on David E. Kelley's
television series The Practice since its inception over five years
ago. She also continues to act on the stage, and won an Obie Award
for her performance in Athol Fugard's Valley Song in a recent Los
Angeles production. Hamilton is currently directing and co-producing,
with Demme, a documentary portrait of the late Beah Richards, whom
they worked with and came to adore during the making of Beloved.
Ted
Levine ("Emil Zadapec") is widely acknowledged as one
of the very finest "character actors" working in America
today. His forty-something appearances on film and television include
memorable roles in Wild Wild West, Heat, Georgia, Ironweed, The
Fast and the Furious, and previously with Demme as "Buffalo
Bill/Jame Gumb" in The Silence of the Lambs. Demme was thrilled
at the chance to reteam with Levine for the role of the sly and
decidedly hypochondriacal mercenary Zadapec in The Truth About Charlie.
For
the mysterious Charlie, Demme signed Tony Award(R)-winning British
actor Stephen Dillane, who also appears this fall in The Hours.
Consistent with the project's love affair with the New Wave, the
film is blessed with special appearances by Nouvelle Vague icons
Anna Karina, Agnes Varda, Charles Aznavour and Magali Noel.
Widely
considered the female personification of the Nouvelle Vague, Anna
Karina starred in seven Jean Luc Godard films including A Woman
Is A Woman, Band of Outsiders and My Life to Live. Her extended
filmography reads like a "Best of the French New Wave."
The
films of Agnes Varda, now in her sixth decade as a filmmaker, include
Cleo From 5 to 7, Vagabond, and One Sings, the Other Doesn't. The
wife of the late, great director Jacques Demy (The Umbrellas of
Cherbourg), Varda won global acclaim last year for her groundbreaking
digital documentary, The Gleaners and I.
Charles
Aznavour, considered a French national treasure the world over for
his unparalleled career in music and films, starred in Shoot the
Piano Player as Charlie, the pianist with a tragic secret. Shoot
the Piano Player was the film that hooked Demme on a lifelong love
of French cinema. Aznavour is currently starring in Atom Egoyan's
Ararat.
The
Truth About Charlie's "Mysterious Woman in Black" is Magali
Noel, whose credits include Fellini's La Dolce Vita, Satyricon,
and Amarcord; as well as Jules Dassin's Rififi and countless other
French and European films of the past several decades.
Noel
read first for the role of Charlie's vengeful mother, Madame Du
Lac, a role that was eventually cast with Frederique Meininger.
"There was no way on earth that the luminous Magali Noel could
play such an operatically tragic character," Demme said, "But
after meeting this magical actress I was desperate to have her in
Charlie. Magali agreed to a special role we created for her, the
'Mysterious Woman in Black' who mirrors and illuminates Reggie's
intense emotional journey at two key points in the picture."
French
stage actor Simon Abkarian was cast as the Commandant's inscrutable
sidekick, another role Demme conceived after meeting the actor,
who had been recommended by Tim Robbins. "I was so taken by
his presence that we invented a part for him on the spot,"
the director said. "There wouldn't be much dialogue, but Simon
said, 'You know, Jonathan, there are many ways to communicate besides
words.'"
THAT
JE NE SAIS QUOI...
Very
early on, Demme recognized another reason he was so passionate about
the project - the city of Paris, and the role it has played in films
for so many years.
"Paris
still possesses all its old-school beauty and grandeur, but a whole
new, global character has emerged in recent years that offers a
lot of unused visual possibilities," he explained.
Demme
and his crew pushed Paris from a sophisticated backdrop for the
story into a key character in the film, with a tense, dangerous
allure that heightens both the suspense and the romance. "We
were gluttons for Paris, and the Parisian population," the
director said. "We shot all over the place, day and night.
We were trying to devour Paris!"
"We
wanted to make the city feel mysterious and scary," added cinematographer
Tak Fujimoto. "We wanted it overcast and gray-different from
the traditional view of Paris, more realistic, more paranoid."
Production
discovered that the rules for filming in France could be helpful.
Demme offered a telling example: "There's a rule that as long
as the camera isn't mounted, you can shoot wherever you like without
a permit."
Great
news for Demme, who emulated the hand-held camera work of New Wave
filmmakers while shooting. "We did every shot with an un-mounted
camera," he explained. "We never attached the camera to
a tripod or a dolly, and where there's a shot that isn't moving,
the camera is resting on top of a deflated soccer ball or something.
No real grounding allowed - the camera is never locked down. That
excited us. It became a challenging discipline, especially for Pierre
Morel, our awesome young camera operator."
Fujimoto
loved it. "Sometimes we would just pick up the camera and start
shooting whatever was going on - faces in the crowd, spontaneous
events on the streets, even the rehearsals. It was very liberating,"
said the cinematographer.
They
also made the most of seeming limitations. Two key sequences that
occur on trains had to be filmed within a strictly enforced amount
of time. "Those scenes were very exciting," Demme recalled.
"We could only have the train cars for a limited time, and
for some reason, we were only permitted to shoot while the train
was moving away from Paris - so that was another element we had
to cope with. But hopefully those restraints helped create a sense
of urgency in the sequences."
Very early
on, Demme recognized another reason he was so passionate about the
project - the city of Paris, and the role it has played in films for
so many years.
"Paris
still possesses all its old-school beauty and grandeur, but a whole
new, global character has emerged in recent years that offers a
lot of unused visual possibilities," he explained.
Demme
and his crew pushed Paris from a sophisticated backdrop for the
story into a key character in the film, with a tense, dangerous
allure that heightens both the suspense and the romance. "We
were gluttons for Paris, and the Parisian population," the
director said. "We shot all over the place, day and night.
We were trying to devour Paris!"
"We
wanted to make the city feel mysterious and scary," added cinematographer
Tak Fujimoto. "We wanted it overcast and gray-different from
the traditional view of Paris, more realistic, more paranoid."
Production
discovered that the rules for filming in France could be helpful.
Demme offered a telling example: "There's a rule that as long
as the camera isn't mounted, you can shoot wherever you like without
a permit."
Great
news for Demme, who emulated the hand-held camera work of New Wave
filmmakers while shooting. "We did every shot with an un-mounted
camera," he explained. "We never attached the camera to
a tripod or a dolly, and where there's a shot that isn't moving,
the camera is resting on top of a deflated soccer ball or something.
No real grounding allowed - the camera is never locked down. That
excited us. It became a challenging discipline, especially for Pierre
Morel, our awesome young camera operator."
Fujimoto
loved it. "Sometimes we would just pick up the camera and start
shooting whatever was going on - faces in the crowd, spontaneous
events on the streets, even the rehearsals. It was very liberating,"
said the cinematographer.
They
also made the most of seeming limitations. Two key sequences that
occur on trains had to be filmed within a strictly enforced amount
of time. "Those scenes were very exciting," Demme recalled.
"We could only have the train cars for a limited time, and
for some reason, we were only permitted to shoot while the train
was moving away from Paris - so that was another element we had
to cope with. But hopefully those restraints helped create a sense
of urgency in the sequences."
SOUNDS
OF PARIS
Demme's
eclectic musical taste has always been a hallmark of his films and
it roams freer than ever in The Truth About Charlie.
"Paris
is the acknowledged epicenter of global music," he said, "and
working here gave us a chance to have an especially rich, diverse
soundtrack. The artists in the Francophone world, singers and musicians
from French Africa, the French Middle East and the French Caribbean,
all come to Paris to record their music. It's an intrinsic part
of the city's character today."
For
the scene inside Tango Palace, where all the characters interact,
production filmed at a Parisian club called Balajo. Demme was attracted
to the tango because of its sense of sensuality and danger. Ultimately
80 dancers, including most of the principal actors, participated
in the action.
Demme
cast Anna Karina as a Tango Palace singer. Karina, a New Wave icon
who has become a singer of note during the last few years, wrote
and performed an original song and was backed up by her own band.
Charles Aznavour also sings "When You Love Me," one of
his most recent heart-bending ballads.
WHO,
WHAT, WHERE, WHEN
Demme's
technical crew included two of his most valued collaborators, director
of photography Tak Fujimoto, who has shot most of the director's
films since starting out together in 1974, and editor Carol Littleton
who cut Swimming to Cambodia and Beloved. He chose Academy Award(R)-winner
Rachel Portman (Emma), who wrote the score for Beloved, as his composer.
Joining his team for the first time were production designer Hugo
Luczyc-Wyhowski and costumer designer Catherine Leterrier.
Demme's
shooting crew was primarily French. "It was exciting to work
with an all French crew," he said. "Everybody on the crew
reads the script, everyone is a cineaste, everyone has an opinion,
and it creates an incredible camaraderie on the set that adds to
the creative mix, to the sense of immediacy and excitement in filming."
Filming
began with scenes inside the French Police Headquarters Interrogation
Room, then moved to Avenue Bosquet in the Seventh Arrondissement
for interiors of Reggie and Charlie's apartment. The company's next
stop was Place de la Concorde for Reggie's initial encounter with
Mr. Bartholomew while riding the Millenium Wheel.
Several
scenes inside Reggie's Hotel Langlois bedroom and bathroom were
shot on studio sets. Back on the streets, the unit filmed at the
labyrinthine flea market in the city's Clignancourt district, then
shot exteriors of Reggie and Charlie's apartment on Rue Greuze in
the fashionable 16th Arrondissement.
The
unit shot exteriors in Montmartre and moved afterwards to the Gare
du Nord, filming inside the Eurostar train when Reggie tries to
flee the city. Scenes were also filmed at Charles de Gaulle Airport,
underneath the Arc de Triomphe.
The
Hotel des Croises (Hotel of the Crusades) on Rue St. Lazare provided
the exterior, main lobby and stairwells for the film's many important
Hotel Langlois scenes. The movie hotel is named in honor of Henri
Langlois, creator of the legendary Cinematheque Francaise, "the
church where the original New Wave filmmakers reportedly gathered
to worship cinema." After filming, the owners of the Hotel
des Croises actually changed the official name to the Hotel Langlois!
The movie company donated the Hotel Langlois marquee constructed
by the art department to the Hotel's appreciative - and cinema-loving
Ð owners.
Scenes
were also filmed on Boulevard St. Germain and on Rue des Rosiers.
"We
wanted the geography of the scenes to be a bit confusing, like the
story, like the maze that Reggie's caught in," said production
designer Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski, "and we wanted to show Paris
as something other than just a beautiful place. We wanted things
to be real but we also wanted a kind of heightened reality.
"We
tried to use locations that were interesting graphically, that contributed
to the camera movement. We shot in a lot of corridors. For the second
police investigation we shot in a 19th century corridor in the Gare
du Nord and this contrasted to the corridor we shot in underneath
the Arc de Triomphe traffic circle in which Reggie is led to the
morgue where she has to identify Charlie's body.
"Jonathan's
idea was to throw away the rule book and get back to being playful,"
the production designer said.
That
attitude - mandate, actually - created a sense of freedom on the
set that permeated every department. Editor Carol Littleton, for
example, was instructed to abandon the idea of having a proscenium
in the coverage. "Jonathan wanted to capture the feeling of
being right inside the scene," she explained, "as if the
viewer were completely involved. The proscenium would disappear,
as it were, and we would be inside the action.
"He
wanted the film to be full of life and to show a view of Paris that
hadn't been seen before. I believe that for a long time Jonathan
has wanted to make a film in France with the flavor of a film by
Godard or Truffaut, and I think he accomplished that with The Truth
About Charlie's."
Costume
designer Catherine Leterrier worked with Demme and production designer
Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski in creating a vision that mixed props, cars
and clothes focused strongly on the sixties, so that in Charlie,
when a character hails a cab, it's a classic French car that you
can only see today in films of the 50s and 60s. But the cars are
arresting visually and add texture to the atmosphere. The costumes
were also designed in this way.
"Reggie's
look is naive and simple, but sophisticated," Leterrier said.
"Her apartment was robbed during her absence and everything
she owns is gone. All she has are the clothes on her back and whatever
is in the suitcases she carried back from Martinique - mostly colors
that were popular in the sixties, beige and orange, and a white
raincoat reminiscent of the one worn by Anna Karina in Godard's
A Woman Is A Woman.
"I
knew how much Jonathan was inspired by French Nouvelle Vague, low
budget movies by Godard with Karina and Belmondo," Leterrier
said. "And I had read somewhere that for Godard's Breathless,
which was made so cheaply, Belmondo borrowed a jacket from his father
and wore it throughout the film. So we designed a jacket for Mark
that looked as if it came from a flea market and was kind of beat
up, though, in fact, it was tailor made." |