Laetitia Colombani Interview

Call her the woman who took the "Amélie" out of Audrey Tautou.

27-year-old writer-director Laetitia Colombani cast the angelic French actress -- best known for her irresistibly wide-eyed performance in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's ingenious romantic confection from 2001 -- in her twisty new thriller "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not," taking full advantage of Tautou's sweetheart public image before turning the tables on her audience.

Tautou's character, a pretty young art student in love with a handsome but married cardiologist (Samuel Le Bihan), begins the film looking every inch the blushing innocent in an ill-advised relationship. But as the plot unfolds, it becomes apparent that her concept of the affair might not be based in reality -- to a dangerous degree.

Colombani -- a willowy young woman with a cute, confident-but-reserved college-student character, a matching, moppish, bob-cut hairstyle, and wide eyes that match Tautou's in their limpid gaze -- visited in San Francisco a few days before her film opened here to talk about the origins of the story and the casting of her star.

A: It would be "Madly...and Not At All," because you know, in France we have a game with the flower, you pull the little petal and it's not "he loves me...he loves me not," it's [plucking at an invisible flower] "he loves me...just a little...a lot...passionately...madly..." and "not at all." So the title is "Madly...and Not At All" -- the opposites.

A: [Smiling] Exactly!

A: Actually, yes. I was in the national movie school in Paris, I had to write a thesis, and I chose to write it about madness in movies. I had one year to write a thesis about madness in movies, and the practical thought was to do a screenplay about madness. But first of all it was a short film screenplay -- it was about 40 minutes. That's what I gave to my school. Then I decided to add many things, and it became a long feature movie.

A: Ah, after that I spent many years re-writing the project and changing the structure, because in my thesis it was a very linear structure. I decided to add things and change the structure, and after four years of working on this project, I decided to send it to a producer -- Charles Cassot, he's a very famous producer in my country. And he received the project by post, with a letter from me, and he decided to produce it.

A: Actually, I had met him once before -- seven years before.

A: He was the producer of a huge movie called the "Beaumarchais, l'insolent." It was on the Beaumarchais' life, and I was a trainee. I was part of a camera crew and I saw him on the set one or twice, and I could talk with him just a little. So seven years after that I decided to send him the script, but I didn't think he would remember me.

A: Yeah, exactly.

A: I didn't know her before, but I decided to send her the script, too. It was just during the opening of "Amélie" in France, so it was not such a huge success it is now. So I sent her the script, and she read it, and at the first sight she phoned me and said, "I really like the project, but I won't do it because this part is too far away from everything I have done before and I'm afraid maybe I'm not able to play such a difficult part." But two days later she phoned me back and said, "I cannot stop thinking about that. I'm really afraid of doing it, but I have to do it."

A: Before I met her, I did not see "Amélie." My choice of Audrey was not because of "Amélie." I had seen her in "Vénus beauté." It was her first movie.

A: Yeah, she was great.

A: Mmm, mmm, mmm, yes. Sure.

A: Ummm, it was not because of "Amélie," but because of all the films she made before. She was always very lovely, very kind, very nice. So yes, I thought that people would not guess that she was the mad person in my movie. It's about manipulation -- my movie is about manipulation -- so it was a very good thing for the movie. I needed an actress who could seem very lovely and very nice, who could actually be also violent and strong.