What was the shooting like?

I shot this film in 23 days with a small crew: a sound engineer, a cameraman, a trainee make-up girl and a trainee costumer. As I don't like to hold the camera myself, and I didn't feel very comfortable with the DV, I sought one of the best cameramen in France, Jean Paul Meurisse, who held the camera for Lars Von Trier on Breaking the Waves. One may like or not like this film, but the look of it and the camerawork are superb. So I sent him the script and he said to me: "That's a crazy story you have here, I'll go for it!" And he has since become my cameraman, we've just made another movie together.

What were some of your biggest challenges?

I wanted the spectator to have the same kind of experience that I had. When you meet one handicapped person, it's OK. But when I first found myself at my sister's home facing 50 patients who trembled and dribbled eating, well I started to wonder: "Where on earth am I?" I pretended to have lunch with them, but I just couldn't. That was a very brutal experience for me. Then, one of them tried to tell me something. But however hard he tried, I just couldn't understand him. So I told it to my sister, and she told me: "Well, just tell him that you don't understand! Then, he will find a way to communicate with you." So I told the guy that I didn't understand him, and trying harder, he found a way to make me understand what he meant. From that moment on, I never looked at him the same way since I could communicate with him. And I very quickly forgot the wheelchair. In Nationale 7, the first part is rather "hard", and quite a lot of people have told me: "Jean Pierre, we don't understand what you want to show in the first 10 minutes, we just felt like leaving..."

Julie is both a very naïve and determined character...

Julie is a woman who has just begun working in the home, she doesn't have much experience, and she's been stuck with the sole patient no one's willing to care for, the big René, who, at the beginning, seems to be a real jerk. Julie is very naïve, but so is my sister. She is deeply naïve, but at the same time, when she makes up her mind about something, she goes all the way. I think you do need some resolve to talk a prostitute into making love with a handicapped person.

How do you consider René's character?

I think he's like a metaphor for men. He's stuck in a wheelchair, he's got his head full of love dreams but he can't act them out. Handicapped people fantasize a lot, you know, they watch porno films, they stick posters of naked women on the walls of their bedrooms, because all they're left thinking of is sex. By the way, I can tell you that for the very first time, at my sister's home, a handicapped girl was taken to visit a male prostitute... All this doesn't mean that handicapped persons have no love stories. One of the characters of the film, the one who says "Hello, René, good bye, René," has a wife and has just had a child with a handicapped woman, who hid her pregnancy from the administration so they wouldn't abort her. You know, for the film, I chose a home for people with mild disability. But if you actually saw the guy my sister took to see a prostitute, you would be amazed. He's skeleton-like, his legs are supported by splints...

The character of Rabah might appear to be a caricature...

I wouldn't have imagined such a character had he not existed! (laughs) My dear Rabah... (laughs)

Your film was awarded the Audience Prize both in Berlin and San Sebastian. How do you account for such a popular success?

I think people can recognize themselves in the film. We just forget the wheelchairs and we identify with René's character, with his yearning for love. I think that people can also relate to the gap that exists between fantasy and reality and which, is René's case, is materialized by a wheelchair. I think we all live with this gap. Also, it's difficult to talk about your sexuality, to live your sexuality, it's never easy; neither heterosexual nor homosexual relationships are easy. With René, these things of life are clear, simple, we can all relate to them. What really surprised me was that the San Sebastian audience reacted the same way as the Berlin one. People were really laughing and cheering. That was amazing. So I think there is something universal about this story. Something simply human...

Interview by Robin Gatto & Yannis Polinacci

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