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"I often feel that I write novels the way a filmmaker would; it is as if I was making my film, Il y a longtemps que je t’aime, the way a writer composes a novel. Today, as a man who relentlessly questions the world, I believe I have found a kind of equilibrium – like a the tightrope walker – by mixing two forms of approaches: that of the writer who uses words and locks himself away when he works, and that of the filmmaker, who mixes sounds, words and movements as well as the effects of the film stock, light and human matter, and can only work surrounded by people.
Once the shooting was finished, and the film completed, I didn’t feel I was done with that project. The desire to explore it anew, to look at it from a distance and with words (those of the writer? Of the filmmaker?) emerged. I watched all the stills taken while we were filming; I leafed through the script again; I thought about the set, the actresses, the technicians, the extras, the framing – all kinds of elements that brought me back to that moment when a film is born, to the anxiety (mine and others’), the discoveries, difficulties and wonders of it. In other words, I tried to do a making of of a particular kind. One that would help me come to terms with that double nature of mine. And I feel that thanks to this little book that can be read also like a fragmented autobiography, I continue to tighten the rope that I have walked for so long." -- Philippe Claudel
Philippe Claudel is the author of Les âmes grises, which was awarded the Prix Renaudot in 2003 and which is translated into thirty languages, and of La petite fille de Monsieur Linh (Stock, 2005). His novel Le rapport de Brodeck was awarded the Prix Goncourt des lycéens in 2007. Illustrated with shooting stills, Petite fabrique des rêves et des réalités includes the script of Philippe Claudel’s first film, Il y a longtemps que je t’aime, out in cinemas in France on March 19th 2008, starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Elsa Zylberstein.
Une fois le tournage passé, une fois le film achevé, je n’en avais pas fini avec l’aventure. Le désir de la réexplorer avec le recul, et avec les mots – ceux de l’écrivain ? ceux du cinéaste ? – s’est alors imposé. J’ai regardé toutes les photographies prises durant le tournage, j’ai feuilleté pour la millième fois le scénario, j’ai songé aux décors, aux comédiennes, aux techniciens, au cadre, aux figurants, à toutes sortes d’éléments qui m’ont permis de revenir dans les moments qui sont ceux de la naissance d’un film, de revenir sur les visages, sur les angoisses – les miennes et celles des autres –, les découvertes, les difficultés, les beautés. Bref, j’ai tenté de constituer un making of d’un genre particulier qui ferait comprendre la double nature qui est la mienne. Et il me semble aujourd’hui, grâce à ce petit livre qui peut se lire aussi comme une autobiographie fragmentée, tendre encore davantage la corde sur laquelle j’essaie de cheminer, depuis longtemps déjà. » Philippe Claudel