One of the most moving films I’ve seen this year has been selected by Belgium as its official entry in next year’s Oscar race for Best Foreign Language Film. The Broken Circle Breakdown is a funny, tragic, sexy, bluegrass-infused portrait of an intense but very loving relationship. Elise (Veerle Baetens, who won the Best Actress award at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival) and Didier (Johan Heldenbergh, who wrote the popular stage play on which this film is based) fall in love at first sight. She has her own tattoo shop and he plays the banjo in a bluegrass band. They bond over their shared enthusiasm for American music and plunge headfirst into a sweeping romance that plays out on stage and off. But when an unexpected tragedy strikes their new family, everything they know and love is tested. This film was a huge hit across Europe and won 9 Ensor Awards of Flemish Cinema including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Music. It also won the audience award at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival. Director and co-screenwriter Felix Van Groeningen was recently selected by Variety as one of “10 European Directors to Watch.” I sat down with Van Groeningen in Los Angeles.
Danny Miller: Apart from this beautiful love story, I fell in love with the amazing music in this film. Is there really a big American bluegrass culture in Belgium? Who knew?
Felix von Groeningen: You know, it does exist, but I have to say that it’s not as big as the impression you get from the movie! Johan Heldenbergh had the bluegrass music as a big part of his play which worked really well but I worried at first how I was going to make that seem realistic in the film. I went to see some great bluegrass bands in Belgium and what really helped is that I met Bjorn Eriksson who is an incredibly gifted musician. He has a real passion for bluegrass and he rearranged all of the music and led the band in the film. He’s such a cool guy — he’s been playing bluegrass since he was 16 and he always dresses like a cowboy. He helped make the bluegrass culture seem very real for me.
I’ve already downloaded the soundtrack from the film — and I understand the band is now on a sold-out tour all over Europe?
The music from this movie has become the best-selling soundtrack of all time in Belgium. And the band recently played at a festival in Belgium in front of 10,000 people!
Is it the actual band from the film including stars Johan Heldenbergh and Veerle Baetens?
Yes! What’s really funny about that is that Johan always wanted to be a musician but he wasn’t one at all before this. He became a real musician by playing one!
How close is the film to Johan’s original stage play?
You know, I think when you’re adapting something like this, you have to let the screenplay find its own voice. There’s a weird circle that happens — in your first draft you keep it pretty close to the play, then in the next draft you realize you have to make major changes and you turn it into something else, and then, in the final version, you end up bringing back more of the feeling of the play.
The chemistry between Johan Heidenbergh and Veerle Baetens is extraordinary. How did you find Veerle — I understand another actress played that part on stage?
Yes. Veerle is well known in Belgium but I had never worked with her. The minute I met her I knew she had to play Elise, she was perfect and brought so much to that role that wasn’t in the play. And she was a terrific singer so we knew we wouldn’t have to worry about that.
Was it a difficult decision not to use the original stage actress?
Oh God, yes! It actually took me several months to even say it out loud. It was really painful but it was the right decision for the movie. I feel like I had to make a lot of difficult choices during this film but I learned that it’s the only option for me. All I can do is make every decision with my full heart and conscience. Working on a film is a big chunk out of your life, at least two or three years. Some of the decisions you make can be hard on a personal level, but you have to do what’s right for the film. And in the end people forgive you!
I love the non-linear way that we see the relationship between Didier and Elise. It reminded me of the great Stanley Donen movie Two for the Road with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney.
I haven’t seen that one. Do I need to?
Absolutely, it’s a great film! And like this, it keeps jumping around to different points in their relationship. You see the very hopeful, fun times juxtaposed with periods that were a lot more challenging.
We always planned to show the relationship between Didier and Elise in a non-linear way but we completely changed how we were going to do that once we were in the editing room.
There are some tragic moments that take place in the film that were agonizing to watch but beautifully done. I don’t want to give anything away, but I kept thinking that if this were an American studio movie, you might have been pressured to change some of that. Was that ever an issue?
Oh no, not at all. There are very difficult parts but it never even occurred to me to change anything because that’s just the story we were telling — although I will admit that during the writing of the screenplay we added a few things to maybe make it a little more bearable! I think most people relate to this story because it deals with what we all encounter in life — love and loss and how those two are so closely related.
You’ve never gotten feedback from critics who think it’s too depressing?
For me this story doesn’t work like a Lars von Trier film where at end of it you sometimes think, “Why did I need to see that?” I think this film sends you home with a kind of fulfillment and hope even though parts of the story are very harsh.
Did you get any flack about Didier’s anti-religion rants?
Well, if we received any criticism, it was usually focused on those scenes! Some people question whether this was just some add-on to espouse these views and not really part of the story but the truth is this was always an important part of the play and the film. For me it was very moving to see that many of Didier’s rants come from the fact that he’s in mourning and has no way to deal with that. I love that scene where he starts acting like some kind of bizarre atheist priest which seems like a big contradiction — and in doing that, he fucks up the only good thing he has left.
Were the scenes showing the tragic moments especially hard to film?
Yes, those scenes took an emotional toll on the actors and the whole crew, but, I think, not in a bad way. It was very emotionally draining for all of us, but really worth it. As filmmakers and actors, we live for such moments of real emotion. And in the end, the tragic moments are not really what the movie is about — it’s a love story!
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The Broken Circle Breakdown, presented by Tribeca Film, is playing in select cities and will be opening in many more in the coming weeks.