Director Daniéle Thompson Opens up About ‘Cézanne et Moi’ and Diving Into the Past

Sandra Miska

The French biopic “Cézanne et Moi” focuses on the lifelong friendship between two luminaries of the nineteenth-century French art scene: Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne (Guillaume Gallienne) and novelist Emile Zola (Guillaume Canet). The film follows the two men from their (humble, at least in the case of Zola) beginnings as schoolboys in a small town to their creative days in Paris to the inevitable breakdown of their relationship in their later years. Writer-director Daniéle Thompson discussed with Entertainment Voice how she became attracted to the story of these particular men, her creative process, and what she learned while making “Cézanne et Moi.”

Thompson became intrigued about the relationship between Cézanne and Zola after reading in a magazine a number of years ago that not only were the two friends – not surprising considering that they were contemporaries – but that they had known each other since boyhood, having gone to school together in a small town in the South of France. “And they became, each of them in their own trade, such extraordinary figures of the nineteenth century, and known all over the world. I suppose Cézanne even more than Zola. In France, actually, they’re probably both equally famous,” said Thompson. “I started digging into the relationship and discovered an enormous amount of letters, these fascinating letters, very, very emotional and beautiful letters that they wrote each other for years and years…”

Thompson does an excellent job of showing not only the parallels between Cézanne and Zola but also the stark contrasts. It was their differences that are partly to blame for their being driven apart, as Thompson learned in her quest to discover what went wrong between two people who were so close for so many years. “What happened?” she asked. “Women, choices of way of life; choices, of course, of writing and painting –  everything was always in opposition. One was poor [Zola] and wanted to very much not become rich, but became successful enough that he could afford a comfortable wife for himself and his wife and his mother. The other one [Cézanne], who was brought up with the rich bourgeoisie, became a bum, became someone who really did not wash, did not care about smelling bad, did not care about being obnoxious to people, and felt very ignored and abandoned by the people he admired.”

At the center of Cézanne and Zola’s rivalry is Gabrielle (Alice Pol), later known as Alexandrine, who is first introduced as a lover of Cézanne’s, but later becomes Zola’s wife. Like her husband, Alexandrine comes from meager beginnings but easily takes to the life of a well-off country lady after Emile’s success allows them to climb the social ladder. The only thing left reminding her of her past life as a laundry maid is the still-bitter Cézanne, who never misses an opportunity to take pot shots at her, jealous because she picked his friend over him. As for the painter, he has a long-term relationship with his muse Hortense (Deborah Francois), refusing to marry her for many years, even after she bears his son. This move may serve as an act of rebellion against his conservative upbringing. Zola rebels by living vicariously through Cézanne, spying on him and Hortense during an explosive scene – one that turns into what Thompson describes as a “beautiful piece of literature,” much to his friend’s despair.

As Thompson points out, the differences between Cézanne and Zola make it even more incredible that they stayed close as long as they did. “It’s a dream to actually protect your [childhood] friendships, but it’s very hard. We all go through this. People [with whom] you really share every secret, everything in your teens, you cannot imagine one day you won’t even know who [or] where they are, these people. This is something that is very hard to keep alive, and they did manage to keep it alive for a long, long time. The more you read about them, the more you think, ‘Oh, my God, they really were not made to like each other.’ They really chose such different ways and attitudes. Zola was a humanist, and he was always, of course, very much into the lives of others. This was very much the inspiration for all of his books…I knew nothing about Cézanne. I was very surprised to find out how difficult he was, how totally withdrawn from society he became, and how obsessed with his painting and obsessed with the fact that he was despised by everybody else. His friends, his fellow artists, the establishment, everybody was totally indifferent.”

Unlike Zola, fame and recognition of his talent eluded Cézanne for most of his life. However, Thompson does not believe that his friend’s success kept Cézanne up at night. “He was not jealous of Zola’s success,” she explained. “He actually admired him a lot, but somehow Zola’s success and the impact it had on his way of life, that was something that separated them more than [his success itself]. He had felt that his friend had changed. And he had. They really could not recognize each other after a while because they had each gone into extremes that the other one could not really appreciate.”

“Cézanne et Moi” is a vibrant film, filled with lush landscapes and beautiful interiors. If the setting seems authentic, that’s because Thompson was fortunate enough to film in Zola’s actual home, which is soon to be turned into a museum by his great-granddaughter. She was also able to capture the surrounding countryside, which has been largely untouched since the writer’s time. “There’s not a wire; there’s not a TV antenna. There’s nothing,” said the director. She was also able to shoot in front of the cabana that Cézanne rented for many, many years. “He slept on this little bed that’s still there. He could have the sunsets and [sunrises] and different lights to paint his landscapes. It was an absolutely fascinating trip into these two guys’ lives.”

While Thompson found much material in the letters of Cézanne, she had to use her imagination to fill in certain gaps, such as the final meeting between the two. The film is framed by this emotional last visit, during which Zola calls on Mr. and Mrs. Cézanne at their home, and some shocking truths come out. “This of course was invented. I don’t think it ever happened,” she revealed. “Maybe it did, maybe not. This was really my job as a screenwriter, to imagine what could they have said to each other to decide at the end that they would not see each other again. It is definitely true that after 1888 there was no trace of them meeting again.”

In “Cézanne et Moi,” the final breaking point occurs after Cézanne confronts Zola for using his personal life as material in one of his novels, particularly the aforementioned intimate scene between Hortense and himself. Has Thompson ever found herself in a similar situation in which she got in trouble after being inspired to write about a friend? “Oh, yeah, this is a theme that I think is a very important theme in the film – which is, of course, something that writers in general are concerned with because we are vampires. We [take from] the people we know, and sometimes they can recognize themselves, but that is something that we can’t help doing. It can be very upsetting and painful for everybody else, but in a way, this is also our freedom as writers. It’s a theme that still exists; you have Norman Mailer and Truman Capote and all these people who have used blood and flesh for their work, and that is a theme that is very interesting. One of the things I wanted to talk about in the film is that writers are allowed, and their freedom is, to transform real things and real people into their own imagination.”

Most of Thompson’s films have been set in modern times, a memorable exception being “Queen Margot,” her biopic of the tragic French ruler. The director opened up about how she becomes transported while making historical films. “It is quite extraordinary that when you start working on something like this or ‘Queen Margot,’ you have a feeling that you really don’t live today anymore. You really are totally in another century or another way of life. It’s quite fascinating. For a couple of years, I was not in today’s world, which is actually not so bad right now [laughs].” Thompson would like to do more period films in the future, possibly focusing on other French artists of the 1800s. “There are so many stories that can be told about that group of young people, for instance, that were 20 in 1860 – Renoir and Monet and Manet and all these people. We all know them today because we see pictures of old bearded men that look like statues, but they were young, and they were having fun and starving and having affairs with their models and swapping women and being jealous of each other and admiring each other. It really was an extraordinary atmosphere to be in Paris at the time.”

“Cézanne et Moi” opens April 7 in select theaters.