Same Old Song (on Connait La Chanson) Pressbook

7/28/2019 Same Old Song (on Connait La Chanson) Pressbook

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A Merchant Ivory Films Release

in association with

Artistic License Films

presents

On Connait La Chanson

(Same Old Song)A Film by Alain Resnais

1998/35mm/color/1:85/Dolby SRD/120min.

Distribution Contact:

Artistic License Films

250 West 57th Street, Suite 606New York, NY 10107


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212.265.9124 Fax 212.262.9299

Publicity Contact:

Samantha Dean & Associates, INC.

36 West 44th Street

Suite 1401

New York NY 10036

212.391.2675 Fax 212.391.4913

SYNOPSIS

Simon is secretly in love with Camille. Following a misunderstanding,

Camille falls in love with Marc. Marc, a charming estate agent and Simon's

boss, is trying to sell an apartment to Odile, Camille's sister. Odile is

determined to buy the apartment, despite the silent disapproval of her

husband, Claude. Claude, an apparently insignificant man, looks

unfavorably on the reappearance of Nicolas after many long years. Nicolas,

Odile's old friend, becomes Simon's confidant...


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Selected Press Quotes

"ON CONNAIT LA CHANSON is a very special film, exciting, intelligent,

moving, funny, superb, unique... And a complete success."

Libration, France

"Alain Resnais has never been this young and this free. Like an American

comedy from the Golden days of Hollywood... ON CONNAIT LA

CHANSON is a pure delight."

Les Inrockuptibles, France

"A delightful romantic comedy... lively, funny, and moving!"

Le Monde, France

"A film that you will always cherish! A film that will definitely make you

happy!"

Le Nouveau Quotidien, Switzerland

"Audacious, delightful and just about perfect from first note to last, Alain

Resnais' SAME OLD SONG presents a familiar tune in a clever new

arrangement... Result is a bittersweet delight that cements the 75 year-old

Resnais' status as one of international cinema's most playful and innovative

elder statesmen."

Variety, U.S.A.


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CREDITS

Director. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alain Resnais

Screenplay & Dialogue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agns Jaoui, Jean-Pierre Bacri

Music & Arrangements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bruno Fontaine

Executive Producer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bruno Pesery

Associate Producers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Michel Seydoux, Ruth Waldburger

First Assistant Director. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thierry Verrier

Second Assistant Director. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..Camille Lipmann

Script Supervisor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sylvette Baudrot

Line Producer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Catherine Chouridis

Production Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Didier Carrel

Director of Photography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Renato Berta

First Assistant Cameraman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jean-Paul Toraille

Set Designer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jacques Saulnier

Decorator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Philippe TurlureChief Sound Engineer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pierre Lenoir

First Sound Assistant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Didier Carquin

Sound Mix Engineer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jean-Pierre Laforce

Chief Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Herv De Luze

Assistant Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Christophe Pinel

Background Sound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michel KlochendlerCostume Designer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jackie Budin

Wardrobe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anne Dunsford-Varenne

Make-up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .Jackie Reynal

Hair. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Nellen

Illustrations for Titles and Press Books. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Floch


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CAST

Claude. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Pierre Arditi

Odile Lalande. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sabine Az ma

Nicolas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jean-Pierre Bacri

Simon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Andr Dussollier

Camille Lalande. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Agn s Jaoui

Marc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lambert Wilson

Jane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jane BirkinFather. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jean-Paul Roussillon

Doctor#3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nelly Borgeaud

Von Choltitz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gotz Burger

Young man with check. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jean-Pierre Darroussin

Restaurant customer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Charlotte Kady

Doctor#1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jacques Mauclair

Caf owner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pierre Meyrand

Female guest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Claire Nadeau

Elderly man. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dominique Rozan

Young fired man. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jean-Chretien Sibertin Blanc

Doctor#2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bonnafet Tarboureich

Restaurant waiter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wilfred Benaiche

Little lady (on tour). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..Francoise Bertin

Guest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Bouvier

Female guest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Frdrique Cantrel

Guest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jerome Chappatte

Nurse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Romaine De Nando

Female guest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nathalie Jeannet

Young woman kissing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Delphine Quentin


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Marc's colleague. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Geoffroy Thiebaut

A Conversation with Alain Resnais

How did Same Old Song come about?

Alain Resnais: After Smoking and No Smoking, Bruno Pesery asked me to film

an opera written for the big screen. It probably would have been easy to

finance the project in English but I felt that my knowledge of the language

was insufficient for such an undertaking. I therefore looked for analternative. During the work on the adaptation ofIntimate Exchanges, the

series of plays by Alan Ayckbourn that led to Smoking and No Smoking, I had

become close friends with Agns Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri. I admired the

musicality of their dialogue and their performances on stage and screen. I

therefore asked them if they would be interested writing a screenplay. They

replied that they would but, having not appeared in our two "twin films,"

they didn't want to write for other actors than themselves. This suited me

perfectly. We then spent three or four afternoons talking about characters,outlines, what we wanted or didn't want to do on film. We ferreted through

my subject box. I think I even gave the "Jaoui-Bacris" a totally outrageous

half-hour improvisation, a little like automatic writing, that I had recorded on

audio tape. The theme of the outer appearances that we wear throughout our

lives rose to the surface along with other elements, like a guide and her visits

and the psychology of the hermit crab. Then, as I am a great admirer of the

English writer, Dennis Potter, I showed them extracts from his TV films. In

some of them, the characters regularly lip-synch to popular songs. And

gradually, the outline of the film came into shape. The challenge was thefollowing: how not to copy Potter, given my passion for his work? We

therefore decided to use French songs rooted in an everyday climate,

excluding any notion of fantasy. The songs, with two or three exceptions,

don't describe the characters' imaginary world either. Nicole Vedres, with

whom I worked as an assistant in 1947 on Paris Mil Neuf Cent, told me one day

that the novel, in its descriptions of love and its melodies, could never match

so-called popular or music-hall songs. And I've often noticed that popular

songs accompany the acts of our everyday lives. If we behaved at allnaturally, we'd use song lyrics in conversation.


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In you mind and that of the writers, does the choice of song extracts for the

action provide a sort of anthology of French song?

Alain Resnais: No, definitely not. We didn't aim to have a balanced mix,

either on a chronological level or according to the number of songs by asingle performer. The songs that we used are those that came to us naturally,

through an association of ideas. Most of the extracts are very short,

sometimes cut in the middle, corresponding to the way our minds work (we

rarely remember a whole chorus and even more rarely a verse). But other

extracts are longer. We didn't set ourselves strict limits.

The members of the audience will probably react differently according to

whether they know the songs or not.

Alain Resnais: We wanted a large number of hits (in particular, so that the

audience wouldn't think that the songs had been written for the film) but you

can sense a hit even if you've never heard it before. I knew nothing of some of

the songs suggested by Agns Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri but if I felt that they

were hits when listening to them, I'd immediately endorse them.

Your love of musicals is well known and yet it is hard to find an illusion to the

genre in Same Old Song.

Alain Resnais: I was particularly determined not to stray into that area. A

musical almost always contains dancing or at least movements and gestures

by actors to evoke dancing. Once again, we were aiming for a more everyday

style. We wanted the songs to enter the scenes without any warning. If the

audience, even only once or twice, could forget that it was hearing a song and

think that the words were dialogue, then we would be happy.

Interview by Franois Thomas


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A Conversation with Agns Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri

How did you work?

Agns Jaoui: In the same way as on Smoking. We'd record the scenes on

audio tape, playing all the parts. Alain would then listen and leave hisremarks on our answering machine. We started meeting after completing the

first draft.

Did you know that there would be songs in the film?

Jean-Pierre Bacri: That was the basic idea.

Agns Jaoui: Alain wanted to pay tribute to the films by Dennis Potter (The

Singing Detective, Pennies from Heaven, and Lipstick on Your Collar...) that he hadshown us. And I had much the same feeling as when he first talked to us

about Smoking. I thought: "This is original, it's Resnais, I want to do it." He

would say: "I don't know if this is going to work but I really want to try." He's

very creative, like a painter who doesn't just want to paint a pretty picture but

also invent something.

Did you think of the songs as you were writing or did you start by writing a

"traditional" screenplay?Agns Jaoui: In a couple of cases, a song gave us the idea for a scene but,

usually, the situations suggested the songs to us. From that point of view, it's

a "traditional" screenplay, not an excuse to use songs.

How did you go about choosing the songs?

Jean-Pierre Bacri: Above all we wanted well-known songs with melodies

that most people could identify, popular tunes.Agns Jaoui: A popular tune is something that is universal that reaches the


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collective subconscious and the culture of a generation or a country. At the

same time, for each one of us, it can evoke a moment or an event in our lives.

Jean-Pierre Bacri: But we had set ourselves other criteria. The lyrics of the

songs had to correspond to the dialogue and above all not be a superfluous

addition or a commentary on the writing. If we had taken the songs out,we'd have needed to replace them with dialogue.

Did you choose all the songs?

Jean-Pierre Bacri: No. Alain chose a few.

How did you fit in with the "Resnais family?"

Agns Jaoui: Very easily. Alain treats people very equitably. Once he haschosen them, he loves them and shows it.

How does he approach the work of direction?

Agns Jaoui: Before shooting, he organizes individual work sessions with

each actor at his home during which a very precise agreement is reached on

the psychology of the character and the situations. And once we're on the set,

he allows the actor total freedom. He may intervene concerning a matter of

rhythm or to say: "I'm very pleased with that but if you want to put a little

more irrationality into it, go ahead." You feel very comfortable with him.

I suppose the song passages required the most rehearsal.

Jean-Pierre Bacri: Yes. We would learn the songs at home and when we

arrived in the morning, we would work hard on the synchronization with the

sound engineer.

Was the song played on the set as you were acting?

Jean-Pierre Bacri: Yes. In the middle of the dialogue, there was a "buzz" all

of a sudden and the song would start up.

It's rare to see song so intimately blended with dialogue.

Jean-Pierre Bacri: I'm not a big fan of musicals and that was one of our major

concerns from the word go. The sung passages had to be firmly in context, onan equal footing with the plot and the emotions. The songs aren't


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complete. You here three lines here, three lines there. And that had never

been done before.

Agns Jaoui: Yes, we used like proverbs. "Every cloud has a silver lining,"

"Always look on the bright side of life"... old ideas and commonplace notions

that sum up the emotion and, at the same time, reduce it.Jean-Pierre Bacri: In this way, the songs have a direct link to the theme of

appearances because the medium of song is both universal and imprecise or

approximate. True, people use it to communicate and form bonds, but this is

also a mask and it's not an ambitious and personal way of communicating. If

someone is sad, you say "Every cloud has a silver lining," and he understands

what that means. And, at the same time, you don't really reveal your own

personality. They are merely a semblance of contacts and relationships. In

the film, the family photo shown by my character (Nicolas) that looks like anad for breakfast cereal is an image of success. The ad for breakfast cereal is a

photographic song: "I show you a certain idea of happiness and you think I'm

happy."

Agns Jaoui: We also aimed to talk about happiness and the difficulty of

being happy, of what happiness means. For me, one of the reasons why

people feel unhappy is because they compare themselves to others. We are

bombarded with images of young, healthy people with a happy family... and

we continually compare ourselves to this image of happiness. If you're overtwenty-five, if you're a bit fatter, a bit thinner, a bit taller, a bit more single, a

bit more childless, etc.... not only do you feel unhappy, but you also feel

lonely, excluded and abnormal.

Jean-Pierre Bacri: In the film, the theme of appearances is balanced out by

the thesis. This is a successful relationship. It's taken to its complete and

logical conclusion. in this case, on the yeomen of Paladru Lake in the year

1000. You do 800 pages to deal with the issue fully, and you end up within

something thick, solid, expansive - the ideal way of boring other peoplesilly. We need brief and simplistic signs, as in advertising or these songs that

don't mean anything but that we identify with. They talk to everyone,

providing a sort of secret for success encapsulated in three words.

Agns Jaoui: And, at the same time, the consumer society, like popular

music, is reassuring. We're not saying that it shouldn't exist.

Jean-Pierre Bacri: Not at all. One of the common themes in Cuisine et

Dpendances, Un Air de Famille and Same Old Song is the idea that you can go

beyond those appearances and get to the heart of things, despite the dangers

of conflict, even with yourself, and the risk of seeing yourself as you really


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are. Too bad if it's even further from that particular ad and the songs. You

discover yourself. That's the main thing. Discovering yourself.

Agns Jaoui: Odile (Sabine Azma) is the character who maintains this need

to put on a front the most stubbornly. She is always on top of the world and

doesn't understand other people's suffering because she refuses to accept herown.

Jean-Pierre Bacri: For her, as for many people, admitting one's weaknesses is

tantamount to failure. It's a defeat.

In the film, Camille (Agns Jaoui) has a nervous breakdown just when

everything is going well for her. She is in love, she has just obtained her

doctorate... Do you think that often happens?

Jean-Pierre Bacri: When you spend years - as someone working on a thesis

does - devoting all your energy to a specific goal, once you reach that goal,

you end up in a void.

Agns Jaoui: You say: "So what, I've obtained my doctorate - or whatever -

and nothing has changed. I'm not different, better, more beautiful, I'm just

myself. I could die tomorrow. What use is it all?" And in general that

happens when you're twenty-five or thirty. Becoming an adult, marks the

end of a certain dream, a certain projection into the future, and you have toface the present and the absurdity of this life... You are. that's all.

Jean-Pierre Bacri: You pursue a goal to avoid the angst of living.

Agns Jaoui: But the angst is always there...

Jean-Pierre Bacri: ... Yes, but the goal has a sort of smoke-screen hiding

it. And as soon as you reach it, the angst reappears. So you quickly put the

screen back up. That's why we're going to start writing again as soon as

possible.

Interview byCatherine Wimphen


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Alain Resnais Filmography

Direction:

1948 Van Gogh

1950 Guernica

Co-directed with Robert Hessens1953 Les Statues Meurent Aussi

Co-directed with Chris Marker1955 Nuit et Brouillard

1956 Toute la Memoire du Monde

1958 Le Chant du Styrene

1959 Hiroshima, Mon Amour

1961 L'Anne Derniere a Marienbad

(Last Year in Marienbad)1963 Muriel Ou le Temps D'Un Retour

Muriel1966 La Guerre est Finie

(The War is Over)1967 Loin du Viet-Nam

(Far From Vietnam)1968 Je t'aime, Je t'aime


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1974 Stavisky...

1976 Providence

1980 Mon Oncle D'Amerique

(My American Uncle)1983 La Vie est un Roman

(Life is a Bed of Roses)1984 L'Amour a Mort

1986 Melo

1989 I Want to go Home

1991 Gershwin (Encyclopedia Universalis)

1993 Smoking and No Smoking

based on Intimate Exchanges by Alan Ayckbourn1997 On Connait la Chanson

Documents

Same Old Song (on Connait La Chanson) Pressbook