How was the idea to adapt Bernard Sachsé’s autobiography born?

I immediately felt connected to the story. Maybe because when 30-year-old stuntman Bernard Sachsé became paraplegic, he was living on commissions, as I had myself for a long time when I was working in music. The fear of an accident, that would hinder your ability to practice the activity to which you have devoted your life from a very young age, is a constant in the lives of musicians. More precisely, the idea of a man rebuilding himself resonated with me.

Albert Dupontel’s performance as Bernard Sachsé is quite riveting.

We had agreed from the beginning that he would perform all the stunts in the film, especially those on the horse. He trained for months for the beach and accident scenes, as well as for the horse-breaking sessions in the riding hall. The acrobatic figures on the beach were actually so dangerous that we had to shoot them on the last day of filming to meet insurance regulations.

Cécile de France, who had never played the piano before, sounds like a professional! How did she do it?

When they act as musicians in my films, I request that actors train long enough ahead to be able to play the pieces themselves – I rule out using special effects on the actors’ hands. The transcendent execution study by Liszt, which Cécile de France plays in the film, is one of the most difficult of the repertoire. We did not cut during the takes for the audition scene, Cécile was playing the full study every time.

There is a lot of sensuality in the scenes between the hero and his horse.

I shot them in the same spirit I have always filmed the musical scenes in my previous features. Music and equestrian art have a lot in common, even in the terminology that is used. [. . .] Throughout the film, you had to feel this passion breaking through. It would give the film its resonance up to the final scenes.