Olivier Assayas on ‘Clean’
Was it very different writing about a character for Maggie to play as opposed to writing about her ‘as’ herself in Irma Vep ?
For Irma Vep I was using the obvious images I had of her – I’d only met her a couple of times. It was really Maggie as ‘Maggie Cheung the Hong Kong cinema superstar’. So it was about the fantasies you build on the surface of movie stars. But after Irma Vep I felt I owed it to her to make a film about her real self. She told me she was getting all the credit for Irma Vep, when really it was her co-star Nathalie Richard who should have got the praise, because what she was doing was so much more lively and complex. In many ways I agreed, because the humanity of Nathalie’s character is ultimately what makes the film.
Somehow I always felt I owed it to Maggie to give her a part that would use her deeper, more human side. But it’s difficult, because she’s a very complex character and can only be in very specific parts because of the strange mix of cultures she is. In Clean what I was interested in was the geographic and cultural fragmentation of this individual. Emily is like Maggie in that she’s all over the place – part Chinese, part British, part French; she’s part of a globalised culture, a story happening on two different continents, in four different cities. And I realised that if I wanted to put all these things together, I’d need something as simple as it gets in terms of a story arc.
You say in your press notes that you wanted a project where Maggie wasn’t seen as a Chinese woman in a western film. But if it hadn’t been for Maggie, would Emily still have been Chinese?
No, though the fact that Emily happened to be Chinese made her more interesting, less conventional. And the reason for the simplicity of the story is the complexity of Emily – if she’s less complex, the simplicity of the storyline becomes a little thin.
The scenes where she descends from the fantasy world of rock aristocracy to work as a waitress for her uncle play poignantly on Chinese notions of status.
Like all modern Chinese, Emily becomes herself by cutting off her ties to traditional thinking and the values of the family, which can be extremely tough, especially for women. I always had the idea that the lowest Emily can go is to be reabsorbed by her community in the most limiting way.
Both Clean and Irma Vep are about deglamorising – about a character stepping down from the gods. In Irma Vep Maggie arrives in Paris and she’s just sitting in an office somewhere in a different world. It’s very much at odds with the glamour of the Hong Kong movie goddess.
To me in Irma Vep she never loses that glamour because even if you put her in an office or a back alley her character is always gracious – she has an aura. In Clean it’s more about someone who has let herself become a rock ‘n’ roll stereotype and in the process has forgotten who she really is. The arc of the film is about what happens when the bubble bursts.
People ask me if I was inspired by someone like Courtney Love or Yoko Ono, and I say no – I’m not inspired by them, though the character herself is. She has at the back of her mind the stereotype of the woman who is a terrible influence on her artist/musician boyfriend and ends up trapped in that part.
But Emily’s character gradually comes to light – not just to us but to herself. When she begins to reconstruct herself she starts from scratch; it’s like someone trying to walk in the dark. For me it’s not about getting her son back or getting off drugs, it’s simply about understanding who she is again.
Clean strikes me as one of the few films about rock to deal convincingly with its deep-down mundanity – another example being Paul Schrader’s Light of Day .
I like Light of Day. I thought Joan Jett was great in it. I was a little intimidated when I realised I’d have to deal with that sort of indie-rock background: it’s very difficult, and no one gets it right. I thought the only way to do it was to use real musicians, have people play their characters – they’re not stars, they’re just people who are famous within their own world.
I kept on using them as consultants. I kept asking James Johnston, ‘Would you do this, is this believable?’, or I’d ask David Roback, ‘Would you put the mike there, where would you be sitting?’, or I’d ask Tricky, ‘Who would you speak to, who would you not speak to, do you sit on your own in your car, what sort of people are around you?’ I tried to put them in an ambience they would recognise and accept as totally believable. If you get one detail wrong, it’s the one thing that will stand out and make you look like a fool. It’s not cool.
What’s surprising is how much you leave out – despite the title, you make very little of the painful process of Emily coming off smack.
I don’t want to dramatise drugs and I don’t want to dramatise getting off drugs. For me the painful part is not what you usually see in film, where people are raving mad and hitting their head on the wall because they’re in pain from withdrawal. For me the issue of getting off drugs is more about dealing with the inner pain of being yourself. People don’t take drugs for fun, but because they need them, because there’s something within themselves they can’t deal with. So when you get off drugs you have to face the same problems that made you a junkie in the first place. The physical issue of withdrawal has been shown a million times in films and I don’t think it’s interesting.
There’s a wonderful incongruity in the cast list – seeing Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte, Beatrice Daile and Don McKellar credited together really makes you wonder what sort of film you’re going to see.
I’ve always been excited by the short-circuit you create by putting together people who are not supposed to meet. Like when I was doing Paris s’éveille (1991) I was excited by the notion of having Jean-Pierre Léaud and John Cale on the same credits list – having John Cale score a Parisian film about kids. Irma Vep was my first shot at expanding that policy. The premise was, ‘Maggie Cheung comes to Paris and meets Jean-Pierre Léaud, what do they have to say to each other?’
Interview by Jonathan Romney, Sight and Sound, July 2005
CLEAN
Director: Olivier Assayas
©/Presented by: Rectangle Productions, Leap Films, 1551264 Ontario Inc., Arte France Cinéma
Co-production: Haystack Productions, Rhombus Media
In association with: Canal+, CNC - Centre national de la cinématographie, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Téléfilm Canada, The Film Consortium, UK Film Council, The Works International, Matrix Film Finances
With the support of: National Lottery through UK Film Council, i2i
In association with: TMN - The Movie Network, Astral Media
Executive Producer (The Works): Aline Perry
Executive Producer (Matrix Film Finance): Rupert Preston
Produced by: Edouard Weil, Niv Fichman, Xavier Marchand
Co-producers: Nathalie Choukroun Lacoste, Jane Moore, Daniel Iron
Line Producers: Frédéric Sauvagnac, Sari Friedland
Line Producer (UK Crew): Jo Farr
Line Producer (San Francisco Crew): Ellen Lent
Associate Producers: Forensic Films, Elizabeth II
The Film Consortium: Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Andy Ordonez
Production Co-ordinator (French Crew): Clémentine Harland
Production Co-ordinator (Canadian Crew): Nadia Day
Production Accountants (French Crew): Philippe Levy, Johanne Bernard
Production Accountant (Canadian Crew): Daniel Horvat
Location Scouting (French Crew): Emmanuel Roussille, Manuel Pouet, Nathalie Bezon
Locations (Canadian Crew): Sherry Wolfson, Elizabeth Parker, Gordon Brooks, Charles Wilkinson
Locations (San Francisco Crew): Dan Kemp
Locations (UK Crew): Chris Morgan
Post-production Co-ordinator (French Crew): Mélanie Karlin
1st Assistant Director: Matthew Gledhill
Casting: Antoinette Boulat, Shaheen Baig, John Buchan, Millie Tom
Written by: Olivier Assayas
English Script Adaptation: Andrew Litvack, Don McKellar
Director of Photography: Éric Gautier
B Camera Operator (French Crew): Jean-Charles Cameau
Special Effects: Arane, Mikros Image
Editor: Luc Barnier
Production Designers: François-Renaud Labarthe, Bill Fleming
Property Master (French Crew): Yvon Moreno
Construction Manager (French Crew): Vincent Amiel
Costume Designer: Anaïs Romand
Key Make-up: Thi-Loan Nguyen
Key Hair: Franck-Pascal Alquinet, Debra Johnson
Credits: Arane, Mikros Image
Laboratory: Deluxe Laboratory Ltd
Sound Design: Daniel Sobrino, Roman Dymny, Nicolas Moreau
Sound Recording: Guillaume Sciama, Richard Flynn, Herwig Gayer
Stunt Co-ordinator (Canadian Crew): John Stoneham Jr
Special Thanks to: Robin O’Hara, Scott Macauley, Michèle Grignon, Kerry Barden, Marty Gross
Cast
Maggie Cheung (Emily Wang)
Nick Nolte (Albrecht Hauser)
Jeanne Balibar (Irène Paolini)
Don McKellar (Vernon)
Martha Henry (Rosemary Hauser)
James Johnston (Lee Hauser)
James Dennis (Jay)
Rémi Martin (Jean-Pierre)
Lætitia Spigaerelli (Sandrine)
Béatrice Dalle (Elena)
Arnaud Churin (store manager)
Cheung Man Kit (restaurant owner)
Kurtys Kidd (detective)
Shaun Austin-Olsen (record label owner)
Jodi Crawford (Gloria)
Ross McKie (Vancouver police 1)
Calum Dehartog (Vancouver police 2)
Clare-Marie Grigg (cafeteria nurse)
Paul Brogren (motel clerk)
X-Ray (X-ray)
Joana Preiss (Aline)
David Salsedo (Jeff)
Mike Hoong (waiter in restaurant)
Régis Vidal (Alexis)
Jürgen Doering (Irène Paolini’s fan)
Shaun Matheson (police officer 1)
John Stoneham Jr (police officer 2)
Michelle Palmateer (Avis agent)
Paraskevi Antonarakis (manager of diner)
Shannon Novak (record label employee)
Tricky, David Roback, Liz Densmore, Metric, Emily Haines, James Shaw, Josh Winstead, Joules Scott-Key (themselves)
France-UK-Canada 2004©
111 mins
35mm
MAGGIE CHEUNG: FILMS OF ROMANCE, MELANCHOLY AND MAGIC
As Tears Go By Wong Gok kaa moon
Sun 1 Sep 12:00; Sat 28 Sep 20:30; Sat 5 Oct 12:30
Days of Being Wild Ah Fei ching chuen
Mon 2 Sep 20:50; Fri 27 Sep 18:20; Mon 7 Oct 20:50
In the Mood for Maggie
Tue 3 Sep 18:15
A Fishy Story Bat tuet maat dik yan
Tue 3 Sep 20:35; Sun 22 Sep 18:10
Song of the Exile Haak tou chau han
Sat 7 Sep 20:50; Sun 29 Sep 12:40
Irma Vep
Mon 9 Sep 20:30; Wed 18 Sep 20:50; Sat 5 Oct 20:50
Farewell China Oi joi bit heung dik gwai jit
Wed 11 Sep 20:45; Mon 23 Sep 18:00
Green Snake Ching se
Thu 12 Sep 20:45; Sat 28 Sep 18:20
The Heroic Trio Dung fong saam hap
Sat 14 Sep 18:35; Fri 4 Oct 20:50
The Actress (aka Center Stage) Ruan Ling-Yu
Sun 15 Sep 18:00; Sat 21 Sep 20:10
In the Mood for Love Fa yeung nin wah
Thu 19 Sep 18:10 + intro and discussion; Tue 8 Oct 18:30; Fri 27 Sep 20:45; Sat 5 Oct 18:15
Comrades: Almost a Love Story Tian Mi Mi
Sat 21 Sep 17:30; Mon 30 Sep 20:35
Hero Ying xiong
Mon 23 Sep 20:30; Sun 6 Oct 18:00
Clean
Thu 3 Oct 18:00; Tue 8 Oct 20:45
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