Midway
between Patricia Highsmith and the Coen brothers, says director-writer
Dominik Moll, you'll find his latest film, Harry, Un Ami Qui
Vous Veut Du Bien his first since his successful debut,
Intimite, in 1994. Described by Moll as "part cliffhanger, part
black comedy", it stars Laurent Lucas and Mathilde Seigneur
as Michel and Claire, a young couple getting ready for a vacation
with their three small, screaming daughters. But their plans
are interrupted when Harry (Sergi Lopez), a figure from Michel's
past, unexpectedly arrives with his wife, Plum (Sophie Guillemin).
A do-gooder who seems to have everyone's best interests at heart,
Harry won't let anything get in his way.
Moll
says the idea for the film came to him while he and his girlfriend
were in the throes of young parenthood. "There always comes
a time when you can't take anymore and you wonder aloud, 'How
the hell did I get myself into this mess?' I wondered what would
happen if a character suddenly came into my life who externalised
all my doubts and frustrations and pursued them to their logical
conclusion."
The
film offers its audience a domestic black comedy with Hitchcockian
suspense thrown in for good measure, as Moll uncovers the smattering
of buried intentions behind Harry's good-hearted openness. "Through
Harry, Michel's teenage ambitions come back to haunt him," Moll
explains. "As teenagers, we have
all sorts of dreams that we hope will come true, and then they
shrink and disappear as the realities of life take over." But
Harry might also be a manifestation of the id that Michel is desperately
trying to suppress by concealing his desire to write. "Harry acts
as a catalyst on Michel's doubts and desires," says Moll. "You
can also imagine that Harry is a 'projection' or an invention
of Michel's because he needed him just at that moment. There's
a Jekyll and Hyde side there."
Central to all this is Sergi Lopez, for whom this role is a
chance to stretch out a little from his repertoire of good-hearted
sorts without any psychological kinks. "I wanted Harry to be
really likeable," says Moll, "and it's hard to find anyone more
likeable than Sergi Lopez. Up until now he has practically only
played nice guys. I was glad to be able to offer him a role
that goes much further. Right from the first screen tests, I
could see he was going to be able to go all the way to madness
without losing the sincerity I wanted, which would make him
that much more disturbing."
So
what does the actor think about his character? "In the beginning,
he's a guy who arrives in a Mercedes with a slightly kooky girlfriend,"
says Lopez . "He seems like a regular nice guy." Yes, but...?
"Harry has no sense of guilt; no
feeling of right and wrong. He's like an animal. He lives on
his survival instinct. He's a very pragmatic person. For him,
money's no object. You need to fill in an old well? Hire a mechanical
digger! Your car's kaput? Get a new one! Somebody's a nuisance...?
At this point, he goes over the edge and into the realm of pathology."
Another
promising aspect of the film is its cast, which boasts some
excellent French acting talent: Laurent Lucas, who featured
in Pola X and Rien Sur Robert, Mathilde Seigneur (Cesar-winning
Venus Beauté Salon) and Sophie Guillemin (L'Ennui).
Moll
says his decision to cast Lucas came from having seen him in
supporting roles before, "but each time he made them into strong,
striking characters". Of the two, very different female characters,
he says that, to counterbalance the rather introverted character
of Michel, he needed an actress with "real temperament" to play
the part of Claire. "Mathilde Seigneur has exactly that energy
and pizzazz." And having found Sophie Guillemin to be "excellent"
in L'Ennui, he cast her as Plum, Harry's wife. "She's surprising,"
says Moll, "and she has that offbeat, fresh side to her that
perfectly fits the role."
If
Moll sounds confident now, putting the actors together in
the
first place was another story. "They each have different ways
of constructing their characters and going about a scene," he
recalls. "When I brought all four of them together for the first
time I was scared to death. I had no idea how the recipe would
turn out! I realised very soon that it worked like a charm." Chris
Darke
