BETH ACCOMANDO: Was an epic story like Jean Giorno's
The Horseman on the Roof a project that you had been thinking about bringing to the screen for a long time?
JEAN PAUL RAPPENEAU: I read Jean Giono's book in 1953, shortly after it came out. It was one of my favorite books when I was in my twenties but at that time I wasnt thinking that it was possible to make it into a film. And even later, throughout the years, when I was finding out that other people were trying to make a film out of it, I found the idea of adapting it to the screen rather absurd. The book is so beautiful in itself. I thought that great books should be left alone on a shelf and no one should touch them. In the meantime, I became a filmmaker and then twenty years after having read the book, I began thinking of possible subjects for a film and the idea of making Horseman came up as a question mark. Was it possible? The idea kept coming to me that maybe I would have to film the journey of these two people through cholera-ridden Provence. But the book frightened me, it was too vast, too beautiful. I kept asking was it possible to film? The same thing happened with Cyrano . Everyone said, 'No, no dont touch it.' Yet, finally I managed to do it. So after Cyrano , I felt well maybe something that I had judged impossible might be possible. Then Horseman very quickly became one of my working projects.
BA: So would you say that Cyrano gave you the courage to make Horseman ?
JPR: Yes, exactly. But we still had to wait for a couple of years because the rights to the film belonged to someone else. But he abandoned it.
BA: So it was fate.
JPR: Yes, I was destined to make it.
BA: Both Horseman and Cyrano have a grand romantic and historical sweep to them. Is there something about that that attracts you?
JPR: For me, the two films do not resemble each other but still there is some sort of underground link between those two stories. In both cases you have a hero who is full of courage and excitement. A hero who is ready to face everybody and all dangers but when it comes to things of love, they both back off. They withdraw and seem as if struck by paralysis.
BA: How did you originally get into filmmaking?
JPR: The desire came very early at about 16 years old. First, I wanted to be an actor, a theater actor. Then later, when I began seeing films, I saw Citizen Kane by Orson Welles, I felt, 'Ahh! Thats what I want to do.' I know a lot of filmmakers of my generation for whom Citizen Kane had the same impact.
BA: So did you actually go to film school?
JPR: I was making 16 mm films and at the same time I was going to law school. Because my father said, 'You can make films if you want to, but you have to have a profession.' When the 16mm films I was making were shown, people began asking, 'What are you doing in law school? You have to make films.' And some of those people talked to my father. They said you may not dare speak to him but we'll go speak to him.
BA: Is there anything that you see running through all of your films? Some reoccurring theme or idea? Do you see anything joining them together as a body of work?
JPR: I feel that all of my films resemble each other, but I feel that I am not the best analyst of my work. My first films were comedies and at a certain time I wanted to do more serious things, all the while trying to keep something funny or humorous in my films. My first film was called La Vie de Chateau and it took place during the war and I created it with what I knew during the war. It is true that the history of my country is present in Cyrano and it was also present in another film La Maries de LAn Deux with Jean-Paul Belmondo. It was a story that took place during the Revolution. And I see in The Horseman that it also tells something about our country. My films show the attitude of French people during historical times, moments when you suddenly have to take part, when you have to do something.
Companion viewing: Cyrano de Bergerac (1950 with Jose Ferrer), Roxanne (with Steve Martin), Cowboy Bebop (for East-West fusion anime style)
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