From the intimacy of The Station Agent to the militant commitment of Spotlight, Tom McCarthy has often appeared where we least expected him. With Stillwater, he arrives in Marseille in the footsteps of Bill Baker (Matt Damon), a proletarian from Oklahoma who came to visit his imprisoned daughter. The American director went to seek the screenwriters Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré who worked, in particular, with Jacques Audiard. Met in Cannes in July, the day after the film’s world premiere, the trio tells about their joint work.
What triggered the writing of the screenplay? The Amanda Knox case, which saw the conviction for murder of an American student by the Italian justice?
Tom McCarthy: It was about ten years ago. This story fascinated me, but I did not want to make it the relation of a real fact. I was interested in the relationships that had developed around this case where ordinary people see their daughter in a terrible situation, without having the means to deal with it.
You have located this story on the shores of the Mediterranean. Why ?
T. M. : I wondered how far a young girl would go to get away from her father. Oklahoma is a landlocked, flat, white state. Marseille is by the sea, with its diversity, its energy. At that time, I was reading Jean-Claude Izzo’s detective novels – his Marseille trilogy is fantastic. It made me want to see the places where the novels were located.
You abandoned this scenario because something was missing …
T. M.: The first job with another screenwriter had resulted in a shallow thriller that I didn’t want to direct. Six or seven years later, I took it up by telling myself that I liked this movement of the father who goes to see his daughter in prison in Marseille. But, as I was an American director who was about to shoot in France, you had to ask a French screenwriter. I really like Jacques Audiard’s films, what Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré wrote with him. I sent an email to their agents asking if they would have time to read this scenario, and give me their comments. Their criticism and diagnosis were very explicit and very brilliant.
How did you react to this proposal and this material?
Thomas Bidegain: For a Frenchman, it is rare to receive a proposal from an American director. We wonder what the film is going to say about the world, and it’s an opportunity to say something about the United States. Four years ago, when talking to American friends, the country seemed so divided, no one understood anything about Trump.
You have 56.05% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.