After his feature film debut, Toto-le-héros (Toto the Hero), which garnered the Caméra d'Or and the Audience Award at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, Belgian director Jaco van Dormael wanted to make a more linear film. He wanted a film where, contrary to Toto's exploration of a narrative structure, the extraordinary element would come above all from the characters themselves. "At first, it was the character of Georges, the mongol, that motivated me… I wanted to show what he has that we don't have," says van Dormael. "The reason why [mongols] interest me is because I feel totally at ease with them. They are amazingly generous. They have a talent for life, for loving life, that we often lack. Their world exists just alongside ours and yet we know nothing about it. Every country has been explored, yet there remain unknown worlds just next to us if we can be bothered to see them. For me, they symbolise difference, another way of seeing the world."
Van Dormael developed and wrote the screenplay which revolves around Georges' encounter with Harry, a 'very normal guy'. Their initial meeting sets the film's tone with Georges saying - "Me mongol" - and Harry whose wife and children have left him, deciding to take his new-found friend back home.
After initially not being able to get rid of Georges, Harry begins to grow fond of him. "It's about the clash between order and anarchy, between reason and madness, between the whitefaced clown and the sidekick," elaborates the director. "Harry is part of a society that Georges isn't allowed into. And in the end, it's Georges who comes to help Harry. Georges loves without caution, without limits. Harry remains on his guard. He lives alone. He knows the art of selling and how to take, but he hasn't learnt to give. He is blind to everything that is not part of his world. Over the seven days of the week, he falls into a hellish routine."
"Then comes this 'eighth day', that doesn't figure on any calendar, that infinite day when he meets Georges," van Dormael continues. "At last, Harry learns to take care of someone, to give. He becomes a free man: once again he is able to lie down in the grass, to feel the air fill his lungs, to feel the wind caress his cheeks, to look at a butterfly... He rediscovers the joys of being alive."
What happens to the character of Harry, the sea-change of emotions and the breakdown of misconceptions, is, in a way, also what van Dormael is hoping to achieve with the film's audience: "I try to make them feel good when the film is over, to be happy to be alive, to take an interest in other human beings. I'd be happy if, on leaving the film, audiences were to board a bus, see a mongol there and say, 'Great, a mongol.' On the set, their presence was a joy." Le huitième jour also marks the reunion of van Dormael with Pascal Duquenne, the mongol actor who gave a sterling cameo in Toto-le-héros. "We got on well and he also loves performing," says van Dormael of his leading man. "Pascal is a true actor. He acts his part in a way, I think no 'normal' actor could have done it, with a power and a truth that are his alone."
"He has one fundamental desire: to enjoy himself. In order to perform well, he has to enjoy performing, and he's right. It's his vision of life: either what he does is 'fun' or it's 'no fun'. If it's 'no fun', it's best not to do it," says the director. "With my mania for wanting to decide everything in advance, preparing everything in detail, drawing each shot of the film and leaving nothing to chance, people like Pascal are a gift. It's luck slipping in through the window, causing turmoil, a turmoil that I need."
As for French actor Daniel Auteuil, who also stars in the other competition entry, André Téchiné's Les voleurs, "I simply wanted to work with him and he wanted to work with me," says van Dormael. "He seemed to fit the character of Harry whose rift is already visible and who, little by little, turns out to be deeply human. Daniel doesn't cheat, he's a generous actor."
A strong bond was quickly forged between both male leads. "One of Daniel's great qualities is his skill at performing with his partners and reacting to the unexpected. This is why there was a harmonious and perfect understanding between Daniel and Pascal. I think that one of the successful things about the film is that neither of the characters is shown to more advantage than the other - a 'Laurel & Hardy' style couple. They are most interesting when they are together," concludes Belgium's greatest living director.
Christian De Schutter
Prod co: Pan Europeenne Production
Prod: Philippe Godeau
Dir/Scr: Jaco van Dormael
Scr cons: Laurette Vankeerberghen, Didier de Neck
Ph: Walther Vanden Ende
Art dir: Hubert Pouille
Mus: Pierre van Dormael
Ed: Susanna Rossberg
Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Pascal Duquenne, Miou-Miou, Isabelle Sadoyan, Henri Garcin
Running time: 118mins
Int Sales: PolyGram Film International
