Edinburgh International FILM FESTIVAL Matching up diminutive Gallic songstress Vanessa Paradis with hunky acting heavyweight Romain Duris may not have been an obvious fit, but the combination has proved electric. Richard Mowe talks to both actors ahead of the EIFF screening of their film, Heartbreaker

‘EVEN WITHOUT KNOWING HER I IMAGINED THAT WE WOULD GET ALONG’

there are a million ways of doing that scene and we’ve only tried five.” Doubt is there constantly the main thing is not to let it eat you up.’ Doubt also overshadowed his first reading of the Heartbreaker script. ‘Not everyone has the same sense of humour but I became reassured in talking to Pascal Chaumeil. He chatted about the work of Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Ernst Lubitsch and Joseph Mankiewicz, who made all those classic and sophisticated American thrillers and comedies that I loved. And then there was the fact that Vanessa was part of it all. I had wanted to make a film with her for a long time. Even without knowing her I imagined that we would get along.’

Paradis, at 37, is a year older than Duris and has more strings to her bow as a singer, actress and model. Having grown up in a suburb of Paris, she now divides her life between a château in southwest France, a country home in Somerset, a house in Hollywood and a private 45-acre island in the Caribbean. Out of a need to keep her singing career and family commitments (she has two children with husband Johnny Depp) in check, Paradis rarely steps onto a film set; Heartbreaker is her first film in six years. It was an opportunity she felt she couldn’t turn down.

‘I was in the middle of genius actors, including Romain and Julie Ferrier. They made me laugh so much. What’s good is that I play the straight character in this. I love to laugh but I can’t say I am good at making other people laugh. I’m very picky about films; I only do the ones I really like. But when I’ve spent a lot of time on an album or been on tour, I often want to go back to a film set.’ Duris and Paradis both agree they would like to repeat the experience of working together. Intriguingly, they share a longing to make a musical. ‘We just need someone to come up with a proposal,’ says Duris.

RoHeartbreaker, Cineworld, Edinburgh, Fri 25 Jun, 8.35pm & Sat 26 Jun, 4.45pm. General release from Fri 2 Jul.

W hen the Americans buy a French rom-com for a remake, it proves two things: that the film has that idiosyncratic european originality that Hollywood struggles to produce for itself, and that it has solid box office potential. Factor in the involvement of UK rom-com powerhouse production company Working Title and the presence of stellar leads Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis, and Heartbreaker, from a little-known French TV director, Pascal Chaumeil, has a bright looking future.

Romain Duris is the Heartbreaker of the title; an amiable conman who makes a living breaking up mismatched relationships for gutless boyfriends. When he is paid to split a harmonious pairing between Paradis and Andrew Lincoln, he promptly falls head over heels for Paradis. What follows is frothy and inconsequential, but is lifted by an endearingly quirky tone and the strong acting of the leads.

Duris, now 36, spent his youth painting and playing drums in a rock band before being spotted on the street by a casting director. He was brought to the attention of director Cédric Klapisch for the 1994 film Le Péril Jeune. Klapisch and Duris have since made six features together. ‘Working with him is when I discovered I adored acting,’ Duris says of their relationship.

Duris’ highest profile film to reach UK audiences so far has been Jacques ‘A Prophet’ Audiard’s 2005 feature The Beat that my Heart Skipped, in which he played a piano-playing hood learning to grow into civilised life. The role echoed his maturation as an actor who was moving on from playing mixed-up youths. As Audiard has remarked of him: ‘Romain is entering adulthood after a prolonged post-adolescence.’ Duris himself does not demur from this impression. ‘I play characters who ask themselves questions, are seeking something, are somehow unfinished or immature. To me it’s clear, I’m getting older and so are my roles . . . Maybe I take emotions too much to heart. I’m never happy with what I do. When I watch myself on screen I say, “It’s horrible; Paradis regained

24 THE LIST 24 Jun–8 Jul 2010