It is the first time that you adapt a book into a movie. What did you like about Sylvie Testud’s universe?

[Not only did she write the book that I adapted, but its subject touches on her own experience.] She had been offered to write a script, and she had even written several versions of it, when three weeks before the shooting was supposed to start, she learned that the film would not be made in the end, although she had already started the process, having chosen a cast and hired a team. She was so distraught that I advised her to write a book in order not to remain focused on this disappointment, but rather exorcize it by trying to do something of it . . .

You were very touched by the book . . .

I laughed a lot while reading her book, but I got moved as well. Therefore, I offered her to adapt it with her and make it into a movie. I could tell that she was relieved not to have to undertake the project herself. I think she was happy to know that the story would eventually be set on the screen and that we both shared the responsibility of the project.

[In your film, Sylvie Testud is playing the part of the main character, Sybille, the struggling film director.] Even if we laugh a lot in this film, the dilemma that Sylvie/Sybille faces is heartbreaking . . .

She is trapped, caught between her desire to complete her film project and a sort of fascination for her two producers. They got her in their grip and she cannot detach herself from their influence anymore. When Sybille talks about it, she draws a parallel with a love story. No matter how many times one has been warned, when one is in love, nothing and no one can prevent you from getting carried away and enraptured!

The characters of the two producers portrayed by Josiane Balasko and Zabou Breitman sometimes drag us in a burlesque farce completely off-the-wall.

It is the first time that I make such a wild and exuberant film, and I loved it! This is, all the same, the story of a failure and it was quite a challenge to make people laugh about such a topic. This is why I chose to overstate the point and opted for excessiveness. The two producers are purposefully caricatured. When you know what a talented actress Josiane Balasko is, you understand how she constructs her character and I find it exulting to see her shifting to hysteria while remaining truly sincere! Even if we do not necessarily understand those two women, they remain credible until the end. Josiane and Zabou have great comical power and they portray with brio these two wicked and hysterical nuts, while remaining human at the same time. They form, in my mind, a priceless pair.