Emmanuelle Bercot Stands Tall as Actress, Writer and Director

Emmanuelle Bercot is achieving what few American filmmakers, male or female, have been able to do: She's forging a successful acting career while simultaneously (and often separately) establishing herself as a directorial talent to be reckoned with. And she's also co-writing many of the films she's both directing and acting in. Take that, George Clooney!

This year's 21st edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and UniFrance, boasted two Bercot achievements, one she starred in and one she co-penned and helmed.

"My King (Mon roi)," directed by Ma�wenn, features Bercot and Vincent Cassel and examines a tumultuous 10-year relationship between two alarmingly different individuals.

Meanwhile, her latest directorial effort (which she co-wrote with Marcia Romano), "Standing Tall (La T�te haute)," is a searing and uncompromising portrait of a violent juvenile and the magistrate who refuses to give up on him. The film spans ten years in the life of Maloney (Rod Paradot and Enzo Trouillet at 6), a delinquent who slowly learns to respect himself after spending most of his time in institutions. One judge (the great Catherine Deneuve) refuses to give up on the boy, giving him the courage to transcend his seemingly ill-fated beginnings.

Spurred by a Childhood Memory

Last May, Bercot attended the Cannes Film Festival on behalf of both films. "Standing Tall" opened the Festival and "My King" won her the Best Actress Award (which she shared with Rooney Mara for "Carol.")

"Standing Tall" is Bercot's best and most powerful cinematic effort yet. The idea for the movie had been ruminating with the filmmaker for a number of years, buoyed by a childhood memory.

"I remembered that when I was eight years old I spent a whole day with my uncle who worked as a youth counselor," Bercot recounts. "That really was a very strong memory for me and was where the script really came from."

She elaborates: "My idea was to make a film about the support system that revolves around a child, but when the idea came to me I knew little about such work. It was the years of research I did before shooting the film that enabled me to realize how committed these workers were."

Bercot came from a "proper and supportive background" but was fascinated by the way these wayward teens behaved. "I was, intrigued by their insolence, their rebellion against authority and social conventions. At the same time I was in awe of the work undertaken by my uncle and other counselors to get them back on the right track, as we say, educate them, to teach them to love themselves and love others, to show respect for others but first of all to have respect for themselves."

Working with Catherine Deneuve

Once she was committed to making the film, she reached out to her uncle. "(He) told me about his relationship, years ago, with one of the kids. It was a relationship that spanned a period of about 10 years and there was a woman judge who was getting ready to retire who was also involved. And it was on this that I based the trio, the adolescent boy, the counselor and the judge. That gave me the real trigger to make the film."

The auteur was still shooting a feature with Catherine Deneuve when she started preparing for "Standing Tall," and there was never a doubt in her mind who she wanted for the female lead. "I actually wrote the role of the judge for Catherine Deneuve. I already had it in my mind when I was working with her in "On My Way." I really wanted to work with her again as soon as possible."

In "On My Way," Bercot has a way of capturing Deneuve's radiance, which wholly transcends the actresses' age (72). She also provided the celebrated actress with one of her meatiest roles to date.

"Standing Tall" continues in that vein and, if there is justice in the film world, Deneuve will be in Awards contention later this year.

Casting Rod Paradot

Casting Maloney proved slightly less seamless. The character is maddeningly real and explosive, but you always root for him. That's a tribute to the talents of brilliant newcomer Rod Paradot, who had never acted before.

"We were doing street casting and we found him in a trade school studying to become a carpenter... after a long search," Bercot shares. "I didn't want the boy to be too stereotyped, not a junkie, not a dealer or a kid from an immigrant family. Or a boy who ran with a gang."

Maloney needed to be credible at 13 and 17. "Although he was 18, Rod had such a pure face that is still childlike. He also had the intonation of a 'common man' accent that I felt was essential."

As director, Bercot knows all about the necessity to bend to the requirements of different actors on a shoot. "I think that any time you are shooting a film, you always have to change the way you work with each actor because every actor has different needs, they have different ways of working. So you really have to adapt to a way of working based on who they are and how they operate."

She adds: "The scenes in which both Catherine and Rod are filmed together were really very difficult because there were only two cameras. For Catherine, one or two takes was all I needed to shoot. But with Rod we needed to do a lot of shooting and retakes. So it became difficult for Catherine because she was used to doing one or two takes and here we were doing repetitive takes. They both had very different needs... And with Catherine, I have to give her very little instruction in terms of direction. I would just focus more on small details... But with Rod it was the actual opposite story because he really needed direction with everything... So it was two opposing ways of working."

Making the Connection

The film isn't afraid to delve into the French juvenile criminal justice system, which Bercot sees as "exceptional." She explains, "I think we are really very fortunate in France... Of course, it's not without its faults and it is underfunded. But it's really very special for us, and it dates back to an order that was promulgated back in 1945 and it stipulates that for a child, nothing is lost, that you really have to promote education over repression... And it also focuses on the fact that education is a fundamental right for children. And if education isn't provided by the family or cannot be provided by the family, then it's society's responsibility to do so."

What anchors "Standing Tall," more than anything else, is the deep and fascinating bond between Maloney and the Judge. It's one step removed from mother and son (although she is a much better matriarchal figure than his mess of a biological mom), nor does it veer into "Harold and Maude" territory (although you get the feeling it could have). When developing the script, Bercot was well aware of the importance of this connection.

"If you think about school, for a teacher there are always students who mean more and are more special than others," she shares. "The same thing with these institutions. You can't eliminate that human quality. And the judges I spoke with all told me they had their favorites. And when it came to their favorites, they were all willing to go that extra step, to apply that extra energy, doing more for them so that they could succeed in the system, so that's what I wanted to show in the film as well."

She continues: "And I think Maloney has an attachment to the judge because she really is the only adult to protect him besides the educator and counselor that work with him. And in his case, he does have a mother, his mother loves him, but his mother hasn't been able to grow up in the right way. He is helped by his judge who replaces the mother in fulfilling that role."

A Much Different Experience

On the Cannes reception, Bercot was pleased by how the audience was moved by her film, "and what was also a pleasure for me that it was an opening night film that was dealing with real social and political issues rather than the usual entertainment film that traditionally opens the festival. So it was almost a signal that it was a bit of a change."

The role of the frustrated yet devoted wife, Tony, in "My King," came to Bercot via a previous collaborator. "I've know (director) Ma�wenn for a long time and I was in her previous film, "Polisse," which won the Jury Prize at Cannes a few years ago. I also co-wrote it with her. We've been friends for a very long time, so she just came to me and said I have this script and she wanted me to play the role."

Working with Ma�wenn on "My King" differed quite a bit from Bercot's approach on "Standing Tall." "Ma�wenn expects her actors to play a role in the formation of the characters," Bercot reveals. "She's not cerebral... She really wants the actors to be present and 100 percent in the moment. In this film, none of the dialogue was written, and so a lot depends on the actors and, of course, she has great trust in her actors to be able to do this."

Chemistry with Vincent Cassel

Part of the reason the film works as well as it does has to do with the chemistry that Bercot has with Vincent Cassel. "I was really very lucky to have him as my partner on this film," the actress enthuses. "He's an absolutely delightful person. And he's an absolute genius when it comes to improvising. So many times he took the lead and my role was to follow him. He was the locomotive and I was following behind him... he's a tremendous talent."

Bercot's foray into writing and directing for film was not something she ever planned. "My path was a very accidental one," she imparts. "I began my career as an actress, primarily as a theater actress. But I wasn't earning my living doing that and so, one day, I woke up and thought that perhaps what I would try to do was see if I could be admitted to film school. So I applied for admission. I was accepted. And I entered the program at 26. And that really put me on the path towards directing and filmmaking, but it wasn't something I had planned and I didn't know that I had this vocation in me right from the start."

Both "Standing Tall" and "My King" were featured in Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and UniFrance.

"Standing Tall" opens in New York on Friday, April 1 at Lincoln Plaza Cinema.

"My King" will open theatrically this summer.

Watch the trailer to Standing Tall:

Watch the trailer to My King: