presents If You Don t, I Will A film by Sophie Fillières "Genuinely funny, [with] terrific comic timing." The Hollywood Reporter Exquisitely played! Entirely pleasurable to watch. -Variety France / 2014 / Drama/Comedy / French with English Subtitles 102 min / 1.35:1 / Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound Official Film Webpage Film Movement Press Contact: Lisa Trifone 109 W. 27th Street, Suite 9B New York, NY 10001 tel: (212) 941-7744 x 209 fax: (212) 941-7812 lisa@filmmovement.com Film Movement Theatrical Contact: Rebeca Conget 109 W. 27th Street, Suite 9B New York, NY 10001 tel: (212) 941-7744 x 213 fax: (212) 941-7812 rebeca@filmmovement.com
Exclusive New York City Theatrical Engagement Film Forum 209 W. Houston St. www.filmforum.org Opens December 17, 2014 Showtimes: 12:30, 2:45, 5:00, 7:15, 9:40 FULL SYNOPSIS Pomme and Pierre have been together a long time. Passion and spontaneity have given way to predictability and cold shoulders. But there s a lingering optimism, a hope they can return to the couple they used to be, attending chic art openings and sharing a laugh like young lovers. On a hike together one afternoon, Pomme declares her independence by deciding to stay in the woods rather than return to an underwhelming life with Pierre. Pierre tries to get back to normal, despite his worry over her whereabouts and the indelible sense that he s missing his better half. Meanwhile, Pomme begins an extended meditation in the forest on where her own life should go next, with or without Pierre. In the end, both are left to contemplate the strength and meaning of each other's commitment. SHORT SYNOPSIS Pomme and Pierre have been together a long time. Passion and spontaneity have given way to predictability and cold shoulders. On a hike together one afternoon, Pomme declares her independence by deciding to stay in the woods rather than return to an underwhelming life with Pierre. Pierre tries to get back to normal, despite his worry over her whereabouts and the indelible sense that he s missing his better half. Meanwhile, Pomme begins an extended meditation in the forest on where her own life should go next, with or without Pierre. In the end, both are left to contemplate the strength and meaning of each other's commitment. LOGLINE Pomme and Pierre have been together a long time, and when Pomme refuses to leave the forest after a hike, both are left to contemplate the strength and meaning of each other's commitment. ASSETS Official trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_8pl_sm40q Downloadable hi-res images: http://www.filmmovement.com/filmcatalog/index.asp?merchandiseid=390 2
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS OFFICIAL SELECTION: Berlin International Film Festival (Panorama) San Francisco Int l Film Festival Sarasota Film festival Sydney Film Festival Melbourne Film Festival Chicago International Film Festival London Film Festival Jerusalem Film Festival Brussels Film Festival 3
INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR SOPHIE FILLIÈRES Q: Did you write the part of Pomme for Emmanuelle Devos? SOPHIE FILLIÈRES: When I was writing, I kept thinking about who else could play Pomme, but Emmanuelle was the obvious choice every time. I was very keen to work with her again. She has something eminently alive, a solidity that stems from the strength of her acting. She curls up in the characters, never spilling over despite her powerful personality. It was also a very physical, concrete and material journey despite her character's vacillations and flakiness. Emmanuelle is a very physical actress. She is rooted in reality, and I needed that for the film. She can bend but she does not snap. I needed that pliability. The male protagonist plays a greater role than in your previous movies. SF: True, my previous movies were more concerned with portraits of women. With this film, I wanted to talk about relationships, spotlighting the more or less low-level violence of conjugality, inflexible and infuriating misunderstandings, and jealousy, perhaps imagined, as a breaking point. The breakdown of trust and selfconfidence when the battle for the necessary energy becomes too hard; when vitality crumbles and one won't, or can't, show it. From the first draft of the script, the male protagonist played a very important but elusive role. When Mathieu Amalric agreed to do the movie, I immediately sensed that his mysteriousness in the sense that he is indecipherable would connect with Pierre, and that was crucial for me. Knowing it would be Mathieu, I reworked the role, playing on his opacity, charm and power of seduction. While making Pierre unfathomable and indiscernible, he hints at the love he once had for Pomme. And perhaps still has for her. Mathieu precisely and powerfully captured that ambivalence. In Good Girl, Fontaine Leglou couldn't bring herself to say "yes" to the man proposing to her. In this film, while hiking in the forest, on the conjugal treadmill, your heroine says "no!" It's not about saying yes anymore... SF: No, it's not about saying yes anymore! As a couple, they have stopped inventing themselves. They were. It's important for the audience to understand that they loved each other. They weren't fooling themselves or each other, or fooling around on each other even. The film questions and shows what has become of their love. They both lost whatever brought them together long ago. There may be lingering impulses, but they are truncated, as if slamming into a brick wall. Alone in the forest, away from him, away from his eyes, Pomme relocates herself. And a larger, more mysterious space opens up to her, territory without doors, full of depths and heights, demanding other constraints that concern only her. She has to think and act for herself, beyond the conjugal confines and relationship with her son that fence her in all the time. 4
SF: It's a backdrop into which she decides to topple lose herself almost. She veers off the beaten path. And something she'd forgotten or lost resurfaces. She has to reconnect with things cold, hunger, fatigue. Even so, I didn't want to overplay the character's physical struggles, which are off topic. The forest may be a place where she must survive, but the real threat to her survival is Pierre, not life out in the wild. I wanted Pomme to be in a place with no human interactions. In the middle of nowhere, she can't talk a great deal. I was interested in seeing what happens when there is no one to talk to. Pomme removes herself from her conjugal environment, where her inspiration has dried up, and camps out in the fairytale environment of the forest. She emerges from the woods and returns to society when she has something to tell: she saved a chamois. SF: She did, she really did! Their relationship has long since stopped generating stories to be told, things to say... Pomme's first attempt to go back takes her to a small hotel on the edge of the woods, where a group of musicians is staying. It's a microcosm of society that Pomme joins, which merely provokes the realization that she is absolutely not ready to go back. Pomme goes back to town, back to Pierre, resolute but unsure... SF: Yes, she plays it by ear. Actually, the final scene is a single shot driven along by the words and feelings that come to her, and to him also, although he basically hasn't changed. She has. When she leaves Pierre, she appears to us fully. When she's alone in the forest, we forget about him. And when Pomme closes the door of their apartment behind her, we want to go with her, leaving the final shot to Pierre alone. Of the two of them, he embodies solitude. But for both of them, there'll be an afterwards. Paris, January 2014 5
CREW BIOGRAPHIES SOPHIE FILLIÈRES, Director and Screenwriter Sophie Fillières is a Paris-born filmmaker who graduated from the French school la Fémis with a degree in film direction in 1990. Her first short, Girls and Dogs, won the prestigious Prix Jean Vigo the following year. Since then, she has written films ranging from experimental thrillers (Sombre) to comedies (A Man, A Real One) and directed five feature films presented in international film festivals such as Toronto (2005 s Good Girl) and Berlin (1994 s Grande Petite and 2009 s Chiara Mastroianni-starring Pardon My French). If You Don t, I Will premiered in Berlin before making its way to the London Film Festival ahead of its US release. FILMOGRAPHY 2014 If You Don t, I Will 2009 Pardon My French 2005 Good Girl 2000 Ouch 1994 Grande Petite CAST BIOGRAPHIES EMMANUELLE DEVOS (Pomme) Emanuelle Devos spent most of her childhood following her mother, an actress, on movie sets and theater stages. At the age of 12, she saw her mother work with Jeanne Moreau, whom she credits with influencing her own decision to pursue acting. Devos earned her breakthrough role in Arnaud Desplechin s debut La vie des morts, recipient of the Prix Jean Vigo. She went on to shoot with iconic directors Cédric Klapisch and Alain Resnais, and win two Césars for her work in Jacques Audiard s Read My Lips (2001) and Xavier Giannoli s In the Beginning (2009), earning a further three nominations. She has become in the last two decades one of the most respected contemporary French actresses. SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY 2014 If You Don t, I Will 2013 Violette 2009 Coco Before Chanel 2008 A Christmas Tale 2005 The Beat That My Heart Skipped 2004 Kings & Queens 2001 Read My Lips 2000 Esther Kahn 1996 My Sex Life or How I Got Into And Argument 6
MATHIEU AMALRIC (Pierre) Mathieu Almaric is a French actor, director and screenwriter who rose to fame in 1997 after winning the César Award for Most Promising Actor for his performance in Arnaud Desplechin s My Sex Life Or How I Got into an Argument opposite Emmanuelle Devos. He has since won two Best Actor Césars, for Kings and Queens (a movie which also earned frequent co-star Devos a nomination) and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. He is best known internationally for his performances in the Bond film Quantum of Solace and Steven Spielberg s Munich. His directorial career has brought him further acclaim: in 2010, On Tour (which he also co-produced, cowrote and co-starred in) competed for the Palme d Or at the Cannes Film Festival and earned him the festival s Best Director prize before going on to receive major nominations at the Césars, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY 2014 If You Don t, I Will 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel 2013 Venus in Fur 2010 On Tour 2009 Wild Grass 2008 Quantum of Solace 2007 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly 2005 Munich 2004 Kings & Queens 1998 Late August, Early September 1996 My Sex Life or How I Got Into And Argument 7
CREDITS CREW Director Screenwriter Producers Cinematography Production Designer Sound Engineer Film Editor Sound Editor Re-recording Mixer Costume Design Make-up First Assistant Director Script Supervisor Location Manager Unit Manager Sophie Fillières Sophie Fillières Maurice Tinchant, Martine Marignac Emmanuelle Collinot Manu de Chauvigny Henri Maïkoff Valérie Loiseleux Christophe Winding Emmanuel Croset Carole Gérard Stéphanie Selva Guillaume Huin Mathilde Profit Laurent Coppola Christian Lambert CAST Pomme Pierre Sonia Mellie Romain Simone John the Coach Marouani Death Tom Forest Ranger The Sphinx Pomme s Co-worker Marouani s Daughter Emmanuelle Devos Mathieu Amalric Anne Brochet Joséphine de La Baume Nelson Delapalme Julia Roy David Clark Laurent Poitrenaux Anthony Paliotti Alexandre Pous Jean-Claude Bolle-Reddat Damien Gouy Anne Comte Elisa Ruschke 8