Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Words by JANE CROWTHER
It’s every filmmaker and actor’s worst nightmare when a project looks like it might stall just before principal photography begins. For cinematographer Benoît Delhomme the exit of his director from period thriller Mothers’ Instinct four days before a tight 24-day shoot became an opportunity. When Olivier Masset-Depasse had to leave the film for personal reasons, producers and leads Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway asked Delhomme if he would be prepared to step up and make his directorial debut.
‘Four days before the shoot started – I was given it on a tray, like a beautiful gift, with two great actresses, a good script, and everything set up,’ Benoît tells Hollywood Authentic. ‘We had the location, the costumes, all the cast. I was already the DoP. Jessica and I had breakfast together because it was a crisis moment. Jessica said, ‘What about you also directing it?’ I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to do it.’’
Four days before the shoot started – I was given it on a tray, like a beautiful gift, with two great actresses, a good script, and everything set up
Adapted from Barbara Abel’s novel “Derrière la haine” into a French film, Duelles, directed by Masset-Depasse in 2018, the film caught the eye of manager and producer Paul Nelson who suggested a remake to Jessica Chastain. Masset-Depasse’s original film had won a record-breaking nine Magritte Awards and Chastain’s Freckle Films, invited him to helm an English language remake transposed to 60s New Jersey. Focusing on the relationship between two neighbours and friends, Alice (Chastain) and Celeste (Anne Hathaway), whose same-age sons play together, the movie charts the emotional fallout when one of the women’s sons dies in an accident. The friends become estranged as grief, suspicion and mental breaks force them apart. As both women unravel, their husbands (Josh Charles and Anders Danielsen Lie) don’t know who to believe as each is convinced the other is working against her.
A veteran DoP of 67 films, Benoît admits to feeling terror immediately after agreeing to take on the project. ‘The next hour I was scared. I said, ‘OK, I have enough experience. If I was the DoP arriving today on this movie, I could do it without any prep. So let’s pretend.’’ With the film hanging on the Parisian’s ability to swap hats, Benoît created a psychological system to pick his way through the task. ‘I had so many directors in my life. So many times, you arrive on set, and the director is like, ‘Benoît, help me’. I’ve been helping directors all my life, and I love to do that – I’m a creative partner. So I said to myself, ‘Let’s pretend the director is sick, and I have to replace him for one day. And maybe after 24 days I’ll have a film.’” With only days to prep before shooting Benoît tried watching the master of suspense for inspiration. “I did watch films like Marnie and Vertigo. But when you see a Hitchcock movie immediately it’s like, ‘I can’t make a film, I can’t be a director’. It’s too beautifully made. So I didn’t want to make it like a Hitchcock film. I thought Jessica and Annie could make the tension without trying to make the shots look like Hitchcock. I thought maybe my strength is how I can shoot actresses. I’m really good at connecting with them through the camera. On this film it’s more precious to capture what they do, rather than trying to be obsessed with the genre. You want to say, ‘Listen, I’m going to give you the frame.’’
Benoît had connected as a cinematographer with both leads on previous projects; On Salome and Lawless with Chastain and on One Day with Hathaway. And he knew that they could trust each other and work well together. ‘I think they have great instincts. I knew they’ve wanted to play together for a long time. I wanted to be like a small mouse on set, trying to film them. I observed them more than I directed. But I thought: when the camera is starting, I want to be the best cameraman, also, to capture them.’
With such a short shoot, the team had to work fast. So Benoît made a rule of only two takes before moving on. The discipline helped focus the actors’ choices. ‘It gave such pressure for everyone to be good. Not to experiment and try things. I had to go straight to the point. And I love this idea. I think maybe it’s great to have the time to shoot all of the possibilities, but you have to choose two.’ And when in doubt, the director thought about his previous mentors and how they might have handled the project. ‘I remember working with Anthony Minghella [on The Talented Mr Ripley and Play], and realised that every morning he was terrified to make the day. Many times, I would think about Anthony when I was making this film. Sadly, he’s not with us anymore, but I would have loved to call him and say, ‘Anthony, how can I make this film?’ I was calling him in my imagination. He would say, ‘Forget the story. Just see the two characters. See how these two women interact, and just be there.’’
Using the camera as a friend and not as a ‘dangerous stranger’, Benoît leaned on the fact that Chastain and Hathaway were close in real-life (‘even if the script is pushing them against each other, it’s not going to damage them,’) and active collaborators on the project. ‘When you make a film with two movie stars in 24 days – if they’re not producing, they can say, ‘What’s going on? Why don’t we have 48 days?’ But they knew where the money was going, they knew the rules, they wanted the film to exist. And I think when you make a thriller, it’s good to have rules, you keep your direction. We couldn’t drift. It’s super-controlled.’
During the swift shoot, Hollywood Authentic’s founder Greg Williams was on set in Cranford, New Jersey, to capture Anne and Jessica at work in the two mirroring period properties that played their characters’ homes. Each home was decorated by production designer Russell Barnes to reflect the early 60s but also each character’s personality.
The experience of directing under such circumstances was a learning one for Benoît. ‘When you have worked with 20 directors, you think you know it all. And you start to become a little bit pretentious because you’re a good technician, you know? And you start to judge directors, but then I was there in the director’s seat, thinking, ‘How can I judge anyone? It’s so difficult!’’ Making the movie may have been a trial by fire but it’s an experience Benoît is ultimately grateful for.
‘Listen, I always thought that one day I would do a movie. But I was successful as a DoP, directors liked me, I always had great projects. So I always postponed this idea. But with this we had to be like, ‘OK, it’s an emergency! Let’s get it!” And I think we all loved it. We had to rush. But I think this gave something to this movie. I feel I made it in a very special way.”
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Words by JANE CROWTHER
Mothers’ Instinct is in UK cinemas now
