Can you tell me in more detail about your work with the actors ?

X.D. : When we went somewhere to set up a scene, Jeannot would tell me his story. I would then tell him how I imagined the scene and the reactions of the characters and he would say things like "No, that's not possible, he wouldn't react that way." Each time, we would explore the possibilities before coming back, always, to the actor and to his potential. For example, in the scene with the cows, Marc Chapiteau was screaming his head off and Jeannot didn't agree. But later when he saw the footage, he said to me, "It would have been a mistake not to let him do it," because suddenly, without anything being said, a character's entire past comes into focus. An actor's problem is not with the camera but in laying the groundwork.
Metaphorically speaking, there are a lot of similarities between pulling off a hit and being an actor : rehearsing, observing, picking out vital information, changing into character, disguising yourself, playing a part in a team, having only one take, feeding off this energy, hugging each other before the job, hugging when it's all over like at a premiere when everything's gone well, the anxiety before going "on" and after, this kind of decompression that takes place just after the hit or when you're coming offstage.
I would tell the actors : "If you're going to understand your character, be aware that, as actors before a scene, you are going to face the same emotions as a criminal before a hit." Being in a theatre company or in a gang, it's almost the same thing-you are always alone at the moment of action, even when you're in a group.
I reminded them that the emotions they were experiencing could be channelled to their characters in the very moment where they were tackling a situation. It wasn't acting so much as being and participating in the act.

What about the female character who, all of a sudden, brings a bit of light into this very dark world ? Where did she come from ?

X.D. : In the world of gangsters there are very few women, meaning there is no hope, no continuity, no life (the life expectancy in organised crime is not more than 40 years). We wanted, in contrast to this, a woman with a clear vision, someone who wouldn't let herself be pushed around, who would be capable of singing in night-clubs as well as working in a humanitarian organisation. She is also the Claire of Saint Francis. And the actress's name happens to be Claire. She fits in very naturally.

Why a humanitarian organisation ?

X.D. : It was above all a meeting with Claude Sicart, the director of Eco-Terre. For three years we went to see him regularly and, in getting to know us, the people from the organisation wanted to work with us. They actually went through what we see in the film. You can see it in their bodies, in their gaze. I wouldn't have been able to have an actor play the scene in the shower. And it's incredible that someone who is not an actor would accept to being filmed nude - he was part of the family. There were mini chain reactions like this that happened during the film and Jeannot was their protector : everyone came to him like sparrows to beg a bit of advice in helping them work. And everyone felt very concerned for one another. The "thugs" had a deep respect for the work of the actors and vice versa. It was up to me to find the balance, in the number of takes or rehearsals, to make sure there was a continuity between the non-professional and professional actors so that in the end we wouldn't be able to tell who was professional and who was amateur.

J.M. : That's very important in the film. It's the story of a clan. For example, we had been through a lot of things with Eco-Terre. We were like them.

How did you deal with the violence ?

X.D. : Here also we put in a lot of time with Jeannot to avoid clichés. Except for the stunt scene, there is not one drop of blood in the film. There are no special effects. When someone is killed in the street, he just falls down like a rag doll and the killer doesn't even have the time to see what he's done. It all goes very quickly. We don't linger--- we move on. I wanted to avoid complacency. I was looking for truth and above all I didn't want to fantasise the story like certain other people have done.

When one does a film noir, does one have specific references in mind ?

X.D. : You do have references, of course : I'm a TV freak. But they were useless in this case. What mattered was the reality described to me by Jeannot. It was a thousand times more engrossing than anything I'd seen. It's much more interesting to follow the thread of the story than to shock people with effects. What was important was to talk about Man.