"A divine comedy"

Empire

LE GOÛT DES AUTRES
(THE TASTE OF OTHERS)

Directed by Agnes Jaoui

About The Film

This is a comedy of manners, of taste and of the unaccountable decisions of the heart. Castella (Jean-Pierre Bacri) is a businessman, acknowledged to be good-hearted but not over-gifted with social grace or sophisticated tastes. His marriage to Beatrice (Brigitte Catillon) is not exactly unhappy, although her fondness for pets, chintz and ruched curtains doesn't tend to involve him. A big business deal that Castella is putting together necessitates that he takes on a bodyguard, Moreno (Gerard Lanvin) in addition to his trusting chauffer Deschamps (Alain Chabat)

Dragged by his wife to see a high-brow play, Castella falls instantly for one of the actresses, Clara (Anne Alvaro) only to discover he already knows her as his English teacher. Now he will do anything to win her affection, even though this involves first aspiring to the cultural approval of the arty circle in which she moves.

While Castella attempts to re-educate his tastes, Moreno and Deschamps both become attracted to dope-dealing barmaid Manie (Agnes Jaoui). Moreno ought to disapprove of her because he's an ex-cop. Deschamps ought to remember her because they once slept together. Despite these obstacles they, like Castella, have to negotiate the demands of the unaccountable attraction that they feel. With a fine ensemble performance, the film gradually unfolds the complications of heart, taste and the taste of others that affects who the characters are and what they become.

Interview with Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri

How would you define what the film is about?
A.J. - "Our starting point was the fact that all around us, our friends, our husbands were ninety-nine and nine tenths percent from the same social circles as we are - in spite of how open-minded we'd like to think we are or we'd like to be. In the film, there are different milieus which exist in parallel, but can't intermingle. You can try to cross the border from one to the other, but it gets complicated and difficult."
J-P. B. - "It's pretty natural to stay within one's social peers, but we really wanted to talk about sectarianism and parochialism, as well as about the dictatorship of tastes. Just because you hang around with a certain kind of person, doesn't mean you should be closed off from the world and never fairly and openly consider what others' tastes might be, how it is to participate in those tastes, to listen to another music."
A.J. - "While I was preparing the film, I came across a piece written by Phillipe Berthier as preface to Balzac's Lost Illusions. And which applies perfectly to our theme. All you have to do is substitute the name of Castella for that of Lucien de Rubempre and here's how it sounds: 'Between the different worlds of the world there is no fluidity, no interpenetration, only the outwardly tranquil but dully hostile juxtaposition of incompatible blocs. Moving from one milieu to another means crossing through an invisible abyss which some immemorial law seems to hold agape - to each his little box. Heaven help the "pariahs" - those who, finding themselves in a subservient position, aspire to be welcomed into the supreme sphere. This desire for elevation, which is also a desire for mixing, is opposed to nature and the "social organ" will soon teach them as much by casting them out as if by instinct for self-defence, eliminating foreign bodies and shoring up the immune system of a group whose identity is being threatened. Such is [Castella] who introduces an element of instability and disorganization, which is to say of life, risk and surprise.'"

For how long have you wanted to direct a film?
A.J. - "Since Cuisine et Dependances, I think. But I didn't feel ready. I still don't, actually, but I figured it was time to take the plunge. I really wanted to find out if the images I always have in my head would work or not. And I wanted to be in charge of the whole project, from the writing through the production."

Were there aspects of directing that you didn't expect?
A.J. - "Yes. For example, I knew I had to make a certain number of choices, but I had no idea how many! Also, in spite of the fact that Jean-Pierre was very present and supportive, I have never felt so alone in my life."
What stage of direction did you like most?
A.J. - "The beginning of the shoot, I think. I started feeling a bit more confident about what I had shot and, at the same time, I could rebuild, like in the writing, based on material that already existed. Toward the end of editing I started getting panicky again because things were becoming permanent. In my life, I don't like choices and I don't like permanent decisions!"
What are your influences in film?
A.J. - "When I started working on the shot list, I began seeing films differently - and I screened all the Woody Allen films I'd already seen. I learned a lot from that. I knew I had no technical know-how, or very little, so I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. I wanted to do the best for the script and for the actors who I trusted. That's why there are a lot of one-shot sequences. I felt that's what would best serve the actors and the film."

Where does your collaboration with Jean-Pierre Bacri end? It must have been hard for him to give up his power of decision after co-writing the script with you.
A.J. - "I kept consulting him all the way through. He was the first person I asked for advice and opinions. He directed me in my scenes and told me what he thought of the scenes with other actors. I needed him there."
And was it difficult for you to direct him?
A.J. - " No, because we're used to playing the stuff we write together. We start talking about it while we're still writing. But I had to make sure I wasn't too familiar with him, not to take him for granted or try to take shortcuts on the assumption that he would know what I was talking about in any case."

The tone of this film seems graver than the others you've written together.
J-P. B. - "It's perhaps slightly more moving than the previous ones. But I always feel our stuff is very grave. There's humour in it because we just can't help ourselves, but the root of it is deadly serious."
A.J. - "Especially this theme of exclusion. We all know about it, starting as kids in grade school when you're dying to be accepted by one clique or another and you don't even know why you're rejected. And this keeps up through high school and into adult life even when, as an adult, you manage to revitalise a little. It's something that makes me cry."

All the characters in the film are fairly lonely. Do you think we are all alone in the world?
A.J. - "Of course we're all alone in the world. And that's why it's very tempting to try, as Clara and Antoine try in the film, to form a group, a parish, with very precise rules and codes…It's very reassuring. But the line between a crowd and being sectarian is very thin."
J-P. B. - "Each of us is different, with different sensations, impressions, complexes, desires overt and repressed, frustrations, each his own personal existential anguish. But from another point of view, living with other people is a chance to escape all that. Society - which is not really a choice but obligatory - even a small society, even a group of friends, represents warmth and, at best, affinities, complicity."

http://www.legoutdesautres.com

Director's Information