François Berléand, Philippe Noiret, Laurent Bateau, Marion Cotillard, Cyrille Thouvenin

Plot Outline

Edy is one of the best insurance salesmen around – especially when it comes to helping some of his clients get their hands on the life insurance of their spouses. But, it’s been a while now that Edy has lost his desire to live. When he tries to put an end to it, fate plays a strange trick on him. Not only does he survive, but he finds himself with a corpse on his hands. Edy has only one solution – but yet again, fate makes fun of him.

Marion's Role

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Trivia

• Filming Locations: Paris (France)

• French working title: Requims

Quotes from Marion

For me, it’s a girl who while meeting Edy, played by François Berléand, finds a double being. There’s a link between him and her from before they’ve known each other. It’s like evident. And then this evidence will cause unexpected reactions. This is what happens by the way for all the characters – primary or secondary – in this film, and what gives it such a dimension.

That period was special for me because I was filming four films simultaneously, with completely different roles in each of them. I had about 10 days of work on the other three films and two days on this film by Stephan. Passing like that from one shoot to another was an incredible experience. Overnight, I was changing into radically different universes, different ways of working. And it’s obviously these differences and the fact of having everything prepared in advance which allowed me to juggle it all as well. Even a bit better in the case of Edy: I was so proud of Stephan making his film that filming with him, seeing him direct a feature film and observing the people working for him was to me permanent happiness. It was both exciting and moving!

Quotes from Others

For me, she’s the most remarkable actress of her generation. She’s as rare as Romy Schneider could be. They share the same weakness, these moments of total abandonment. You can’t help falling in love with her as with Romy Schneider.
I could not imagine anyone else in that role. Both scenes are short but complicated because, in the end, she embodies a kind of icon, the feminine ideal in some way.
She had to integrate herself alternately in the dream and in reality, all without losing an aspect of fantasy. Marion has these two dimensions both in her acting and in her presence. She can be this devastating beauty, very “femme fatale”, then become again completely natural without artifice all the while maintaining her magic. The scene between François and her resulted in a moment of grace on set. Like a thunderbolt between two people.
• Stéphan Guérin-Tillié (Director)

Marion Cotillard – who I worked with on ‘Une Affaire Privée’ – called me on a Saturday morning: “Tell me, I have this friend who’s written a script I think is really good, can I tell him to send it to you?” Three weeks later, Stephan Guérin-Tillié comes into my office. From the way he talks about the script I liked I knew we would work together.
• Frédéric Bourboulon (Producer)