Playback: How do you choose your scripts?

Denise Robert: Very, very slowly – making a film is three to four years out of your life.

There’s two things. Number one, the subject matter has to resonate. And number two, would you want to have dinner with that person in the evening? Because it’s like a marriage. The Les amants du Pont-Neuf experience taught me that (see story p. 17). You have to ask yourself: ‘If things go wrong, are we going to be able to solve things in a smooth way, or is it going to be a hard divorce?’ So I ask myself if I’d want to have dinner with these people and have a good time with them, because the work is too hard to not to also enjoy it.

So you don’t look at scripts and ask if they are going to make money?

No. Never. Never. Never. I develop scripts. I don’t take scripts that are already done. Either I’ll have an idea and give it to somebody, like I did with Romeo and Juliette, or somebody will come to me and say ‘I have an idea and I’d like to write this film,’ and we’ll talk about it.

If it’s a comedy, is it funny? There’s nothing worse than a comedy that doesn’t make you laugh. If it’s a drama, is it good enough?

How do you see your role as producer during the production?

Doing a film is a long process, and I’m there to accompany the filmmaker on how he sees it. First we agree on the kind of film we want to make, and I accompany him as a privileged audience member. There’s no scientific formula that says what kind of film will work, so you have to go with your instincts. I think the only real tool I have is my instincts. It’s not my education; it’s not my knowledge but my instincts. And I’m not there to do the film I want to do; I’m there to do the film that the director and writer want to do.

Like with De père en flic [writer/director] Émile [Gaudreault] said: ‘I want to do this comedy. I want to have some touching moments.’ So I say ‘Okay that’s what you want to do.’ Then I make sure that he doesn’t get lost on the way.

So you’re like a guide?

I’m not a guide, I accompany. And sometimes they have to get inside a door and they’re afraid, and I encourage them to get inside that door, even if it’s the unknown on the other side. I try to be many things. I try to be a friend and a sounding board. I try to help them go as far as they can, even to put aside their fears. And it’s okay to make mistakes because we’ll learn from it. So I accompany.

How militant are you on set?

I religiously watch the rushes every day and it has to be first thing in the morning. If they’re late, I call the lab because I have to see it. If there are adjustments to be done, that’s where I see it. So I make it a duty to be there for the creator every aspect along the way. It’s a huge commitment. But I’m very happy doing that.

Do you have any tips for our readers about watching rushes?

I ask questions. What is the scene? If I’m supposed to laugh and I’m not laughing, I ask questions. I’m a very average audience because I watch. I try to see every film that’s made. I watch how audiences react. I watch a lot of television shows to see what is popular. And I find myself reacting like a ‘normal audience member,’ so when it’s funny, I can laugh and laugh and laugh and see it 100 times because it’s funny. If it’s a sad scene, and even if I know it’s coming, I’ll still cry because it’s sad.

Even as a producer you don’t get jaded?

Even if I have the pressure of making notes [watching rushes], I just see it as an audience member. I let myself feel it as an audience member. And every film is different, so you have to open yourself and see what’s on screen. And that’s what David Puttnam taught me [during production of Le Confessional].

I remember we were in the editing room and he would say ‘Okay, now this is what I’m getting from this scene here.’ And I would say ‘This is what we’re trying to say.’ And he’d say, ‘Yes, but that’s not what you’re saying. You have to look at what you’ve got. Because once you’ve shot it, your intentions might have been X, but what you’ve got is Y, so you have to adjust.’

The writer might say ‘This is what the script says,’ but the script is gone and what you have is on screen. And you’re not going to be standing next to an audience member explaining your intentions. You have to ask what is on screen; what is that telling you? And you have to be ready to adjust because we don’t make the films that we want to make; we make the films that we can make. That’s a huge difference. And if the filmmaker tells me he made the film he wanted to make, that’s the ultimate compliment.