When director Jean-Marc Vallée started Café de Flore, he wasn’t sure about casting Vanessa Paradis because she was just too glamorous (she is, after all, Miss Chanel) for the role he needed to fill, which was a plain and dowdy young mother.
Toni-Marie Ippolito of Tribute caught up with Vallée at the Toronto International Film Festival to find out what changed his mind. He also discusses why music was so important for the film and why this project was such a big undertaking for him.
Tags:
cafe de flore, jean-marc vallee, TIFF 2011, toronto international film festival
Comments:
I was at the one 0'clock show and I made the best out of it.I imagined that I was watching a silent movie and made up my own interpretation. I understood a word here and there and from them I entertained myself. The scenery was great.
I'd never heard of Jean-Marc Vallee, nor Cafe de Flore before, but watched it online out of curiosity, and loved it, was moved to tears. What I like about it is that it's intelligent and mature, it's ponderous, it gives time to the characters to reveal their stories. It assumes the viewer will be intelligent too. I was immersed in the world of this film. The music that weaves through the story is just right. And I'd never heard of most of the actors - apart from Vanessa. Kevin Parent was perfect as Antoine (I was amazed to discover this is his first acting role) and Helene Florent played Carol with all the pain, confusion, madness a bereft woman would have in her situation . These days, a film doesn't have to be star-filled Hollywood blockbuster lookalike. Jean-Vallee has made something very rare here - a pretty perfect gem of a movie.