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 Christian Fechner, the producer of “Half a Chance” said, “It was a kind of fantasy in the film world to imagine Belmondo and Delon starring together again.” Especially since the idea seemed impossible to realize. Yet, somehow, today, the film has been made!
[Patrice Leconte] Christian Fechner, with whom I’ve made several films, said to me one day, “I have an idea going around in my head. What if we could get Delon and Belmondo together again? Are you tempted?” Never would so startling an idea have occurred to me. That’s why we need producers. I’m not saying we are walking firecrackers, but producers are there to light the fuse. Once the actors evinced enthusiasm, I asked Fechner, “So who will write the screenplay?” He answered, “Why, you, of course, my friend.” So I called my friend Patrick Dewolf to the rescue and we found ourselves in front of the blank page inventing a story bit by bit. That was more than three years ago, before
Le Grands Ducs, before Ridicule. It takes time to write this kind of screenplay.
What sort of challenge does one face when preparing to direct Belmondo and Delon? These two are legendary giants, each with their long career and their larger-than-life images.
The personalities of Belmondo and Delon are so imposing that the real risk is making a “Belmondo-Delon” movie. The challenge is to sing one’s own tune, in spite of their personalities and their cinematic history. The point is not to be overwhelmed by the event, that is, by the act of bringing them back together twenty seven years after “Borsalino.” While making this film, day after day, I tried to forget that this was Belmondo, Delon and Vanessa Paradis, which was, in my opinion, the best possible approach. I think I managed to make a purely delightful film, and not just simply yet another film to add to our respective repertories. And it is certainly not a film which looks back on the past. It is very much in the present. I wanted to lead the actors to a lighter, more playful realm, a plane of comedy as well as adventure and self-mockery.
Did your actors participate in writing the screenplay?
No. The various versions were co-authored entirely by Patrick Dewolf and myself; we were always improving it. After working for months and months, we decided to ask the three actors to read it. Their response was, “When do we start?”
Les Bronzés, Les Spécialistes, Tandem, Monsier
Hire, Ridicule...you have made many successful films in so many different genres – comedies, adventure films, psychological thrillers, costume dramas. How would you describe “Half a Chance?”
I wanted to make a film that would be pure entertainment. Really, deliberately. A mass audience, popular film. Entertaining films grab you in a basic way, because of the sheer pleasure they offer. I wanted
the actors to enjoy their roles, even if the filming was sometimes difficult and complicated. I hoped the film would be like an enormous electric train. Belmondo, Delon and Vanessa threw themselves into it like kids in a playground.
Half a Chance is also a family comedy.
My goal was to make an adventure film, but with the basic premise that it would be richer than a simple action film. The film tells the story of a young woman, Alice (played by Vanessa Paradis) who, at the time of her mother’s death, learns that her mother was passionately involved with two men at the same time. Alice is the fruit of one of those loves, but her mother never wanted her to know which one. In the film’s present, Alice is 20 years old. She intrudes on the lives of these two “daddies” in order to find out which one is hers. Businessmen in quiet retirement, they both live in the south of France where they ask nothing more of life than peace and quiet. Alice is the spark that blows up the powder keg. She has a few problems that these two are going to have to address.
When defining their characters in the film, Belmondo put it this way, “These are two retired adventurers who have to get back in the saddle.”
That’s right. Belmondo and Delon play two guys who had tumultuous lives – reminiscent of the roles they’ve played. They were adventurers, brawlers, thieves, and now, in the film’s present, they have bought themselves some respectability. They have cashed in their chips and become “bourgeois,” but Vanessa Paradis’ intrusion in their lives forces them back into action. They have to ask themselves whether they are up to it, whether or not they can do now what they did twenty years ago. Obviously, the answer is yes.
Belmondo and Delon make a kind of ideal father.
Sure, Belmondo and Delon put together make one hell of a dad! They are complementary and in no way interchangeable. The idea actually was that in superimposing both of them we would make a sort of ideal father.
Belmondo and Delon clearly both have a great sense of humor and self-mockery. Through their characters, they laugh at themselves. “Come on, old man,” Jean Paul says to Alain who bristles. And when Belmondo asks him, “Do you think we’ve passed the age limit for employment?” Delon replies, “I’m alright, it’s you I’m worried about.”
It’s very funny to play off their legendary rivalry. Belmondo and Delon walking hand in hand would not make for a very exciting film. Then again, and this is a basic screenwriting device, it is much funnier to imagine the two of them one-upping each other, competing in risk-taking. Don’t forget, in this film, Belmondo and Delon were once lovers of the same woman; they were natural rivals, each one was cuckolded by the other. When Serge Frydman wrote the dialogue, he poured on the insults, slinging them back and forth like ping-pong balls. Sometimes I thought, “this won’t work,” but, happily, they played along. Alain Delon and Jean Paul Belmondo actually have limitless humor about themselves and they don’t mind making jokes about their images.
The film played with the mythic, likable and popular images of Belmondo and Delon who have very physical presences, and are also great seducers.
It’s pointless to direct an actor against his natural inclination. It’s better to work with their innate talent and temperament and bring them out naturally. Their characters had to be at the top of their form to “seduce” their daughter. They are fathers but also legendary seducers. Alain and Jean Paul wanted to rise to the occasion for Vanessa, to show her that they were really great guys in life and ideal fathers on film!
Stars are often protected by a thick shell. How did you work with these two super stars and their stunning partner? Did you adopt a special method for each one?
Belmondo, Delon and Vanessa Paradis are three very different personalities. All three of them impressed me with their immense talent. They are willing to listen, they do not rest on their laurels. This old idea that Belmondo and Delon are actors one doesn’t direct couldn’t be more false. Belmondo only needed a few days to get in tune with the mood I wanted for the film. Delon is a bit more stand-offish. At the beginning, he stood on the side observing, leaving the set as soon as his scenes were filmed. Then, with every passing day, we all saw him relax. Delon stayed on the set after the takes, he even came to see us on days when he was not filming. He joked, he held the clapboard. Was that intentional, to show us he was a nice guy while he has a reputation for being touchy? I don’t think so. He was genuinely happy to make this film. Vanessa loves to laugh, she’s very warm and friendly. We played a game with her: We’d throw out brand names and she had to sing the advertising jingle. Vanessa was unbeatable! With Delon and Belmondo, we had long talks about the cinema. Belmondo adores the great classic actors of French cinema, from the age of Duvivier, Renoir, Gremillon…with Delon we talked about Visconti, Losey, Clement, Melville…
No caprices or fits?
They never interfered in any way, never asked, for example, to add a close-up. And they weren’t measuring the size of the shots either. Their only suggestions had to do with acting. Delon would remark to me, laughing, “They always say it’s me who positions the camera. You can see very well that’s not true, go tell them.”
I have the impression Belmondo and Delon were trying to surprise and outdo one another.
Actually, they have a lot of respect and admiration for each other. In the press, they prefer to make it seem as if they’ve always been enemies, while in real life, they see one another often and are quite friendly. I never had to referee a jealousy scene between them even if secretly they each wanted to be better than the other in the film.
“Half a Chance” allowed Belmondo and Delon to show new emotions and play on their paternal strings. Alain Delon admits, “In this film, people will discover that there are other strings on our bows which Jean Paul and I have not often sounded in our careers. In addition to the action, there is a lot of emotion in this
film.”
They really did have a chance to play in paternal roles, even if they started out a little hesitantly. In a scene where they were supposed to be worried because their onscreen daughter wasn’t there or had done something foolish, I wondered to what extent they were thinking about their own children. The first take was good. These were not actors’ wiles. Their emotions were always contained but profoundly sincere. I had conversations with Alain about his young children’s education. It’s very moving to have this sort of exchange with a man who can seem intimidating and who hides his feelings. Belmondo and Delon really gave of themselves as actors. They also gave of themselves as people and that is a great pleasure for a director.
Jean Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon were full of praise for their young partner. “Vanessa is, and will be, the star of the year 2000,” says Alain Delon. Vanessa has something rare. She devours the screen with her physical presence. “She really delivers,” says Jean Paul Belmondo. Vanessa is amazing, she rises to all challenges in this film. She drives hot rods, she sings in Russian, she fires shots with a Magnum 357…
Vanessa passionately loves whatever she undertakes. I have rarely met a young woman of her age who works so hard. She’s a perfectionist. We were still writing the screenplay when I learned that Vanessa didn’t have a driver’s license. She had never handled a steering wheel in her life and here she would be driving a race car! “Don’t worry,” is all Christian Fechner said. In fact, not only did Vanessa get her driver’s license, but she took some flying lessons to learn how to skid and do other acrobatics. Like Jean Paul and Alain, she would not hear of using a stand-in. “I learned how, I’ll do it,” she’d say. Vanessa had several scenes flying in a helicopter. When we finished filming those scenes, Vanessa confessed to me that she hated helicopters. Each time she’d take off she was shaking with fear, but she never let it show. This girl will never be caught being scared or turning back. The first day of filming she already pointedly knew the script. Even if we changed the shooting schedule, she was ready and she knew her lines. Vanessa is exceptionally gifted. She knows how to get everyone to like her, without being artificial. All she has to do is be how who she is – a 25-year-old woman who is happy to be alive.
Every film has its own setting and style. What was the guiding principle for directing “Half a Chance?”
It was a cumbersome, complicated film with a crew of over 100 people who had to be motivated and kept enthusiastic every day, constantly, for four months. As for the rest, I did the frames myself but I didn’t have any particular approach to the direction. My only idea was to play with jump cuts and breaks, breaking up rhythms, sounds, close-ups, etc. I had to keep it hopping, like a film that couldn’t stop moving. There are less than 10% freeze shots in the entire movie.
There are terrifying stunts. It’s an explosive film!
Yeah, it erupts quite a bit. The rare freeze frame shots are the explosions filmed without a frame because the camera is too close to the action! Remy Julienne and his team were wonderful allies. At first, I wondered how I would astonish this old pro? In fact Remy is a kid, the youngest of us all, like Belmondo and Delon.
You really wanted to delight the viewers with these spectacular effects!
Yes, but I wanted it to seem as natural as possible. These days, nothing is impossible in the cinema. A screenwriter can go ahead and write, “and now we blow up the planet” and with digital special effects in post-production, anything is possible. We wanted to give a more human and realistic aspect to the action scenes. We imagined a series of stunts, chases or explosions which each time would entail a real, human situation with genuine stakes. We wanted all the stunts to be done in “direct live.” That way it’s filmed as real experience and viewers are involved in the action as though it’s for real. I also wanted there to be humor when everything is exploding so the spectators enjoy the scenes’ fantastic side. It’s impressive to film the only take of a particularly spectacular scene. Six cameras are lined up in a row, we say “action,” praying nothing will explode and no one will get hurt. I think the relief and joy we felt while filming comes across on the screen. We did a film which has real flesh, with real people who blow up real things and who have a good time doing it.
Of all your films, “Half a Chance” is without a doubt the one where it makes sense to say “action!”
No doubt. Having said that, I prefer “let’s go” to “action.” I find it a bit strange, even a bit pretentious, to always say “action.” Imagine a very intimate film where the actor goes into a bakery to buy a baguette and you have the director screaming, “action!” The actor says in a shy voice, “I’d like a baguette please…” “Cut! that was great!” You can’t say the term “Action” is particularly appropriate in this case. “Let’s go” is better adapted to all situations.
What will you keep as your fondest memory of this production?
It would be impossible to sum up the great adventures of this film by talking of any particular day, or single event. It would be unduly simplified compared to the exuberance that reigned for four months of filming. There is perhaps an anecdote which can illustrate our daily fun. In the screenplay, Alice brings her two fathers to a McDonalds. When you write this sort of scene and you imagine that one day you’re going to find yourself in a McDonalds with Belmondo, Delon and Vanessa Paradis, it makes you laugh! I quivered at the idea of bringing the three of them there, thinking that Delon had never set foot in one in his life, Belmondo had hardly ever and Vanessa probably hadn’t been there in quite some time. These are people who are not accustomed to this type of place and who do not particularly like that kind of food. But they were asked to shoot and re-shoot for an entire day and not necessarily at times when they would ordinarily eat. But, they still didn’t fake it, which might have looked silly. I think the three of them ate enough hamburgers to last them the rest of their lives.
I wonder if certain films are not a little kid’s dream coming true. The cinema affords us the joy of playing “make-believe” just like kids. You can make up anything, do anything in film. That’s what makes it so marvelous.
-Source: “Half a Chance” press guide
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