IR Interview: Haley Bennett & Thomas Napper For "Widow Clicquot" [Vertical]

The Inside Reel

Actress/Producer Haley Bennett & Director Thomas Napper talk to The Inaide Reel about approach, tone and location in regards to their period piece on the inception of Veuve Clicquot in the film "Widow Clicquot" from Vertical.

Transcript

00:00It is so that we might uncover the secrets of ourselves and that with any luck, 100 years

00:22from now, someone will know that we were here.

00:29Because we had talked about perspective and perception with your previous character, but

00:33with this character, it's multi-tiered in so many ways.

00:37Can you talk about approaching her psyche both with Francois and then as she creates

00:43this whole dynasty?

00:45I mean, one of the things I love about the film isn't the fact that it is a story.

00:55It's a feminist story.

00:57It's one of the themes, and female empowerment is one of the themes of the film, and it is

01:02about the rise of an icon and an entrepreneur and the grand dame of champagne.

01:12I feel that what I loved about, and I developed the film, so what I really wanted to hone

01:20in on was this kind of intimate story about a young woman, Barb Nicole, and her heartbreak

01:29and her abandonment and her grief and her failures and her need to bottle time in order

01:36to examine it and to tend to her vines.

01:42Welcome to the vineyards of Versailles, the most beautiful in all of Champagne.

01:50My darling, I think we might have found the secret to perfect happiness.

01:55I am hopelessly, unequivocally yours.

02:02Francois willed the vines to me because he knew I would never sell.

02:06I will be continuing to care for them myself.

02:09Wine is a very difficult vocation, my dear.

02:11You underestimate what it will require of you.

02:13I know what it requires.

02:14I've been in the fields for years.

02:16You have one chance.

02:17One.

02:18And the story is really about love and how when we shine a light and when we shine love

02:24onto something, it grows, and the film is really about, for me at least, is about nurturing

02:36and how the creative process has the ability to heal us and to transform us.

02:43And so, I mean, those are a lot deeper concepts than a glass of champagne.

02:51However, I love to drink champagne, but I guess what you would expect from a historical

03:00biopic like this, and those are parts of this, you know, that's very much a part of

03:04her journey is her inventions, her interest in viticulture, her obsession.

03:14I think I really like stories about people that are obsessed with things.

03:18I'm quite an obsessive person myself, so I was able to infuse that into this character.

03:25But yeah, there was a lot to explore, and she is a very multifaceted character.

03:33There's something I want to show you.

03:38Amsterdam, St. Petersburg, Moscow.

03:41If Napoleon's embargoes are still a problem, I want to stay ahead of him.

03:46Of Napoleon?

03:47Mm-hmm.

03:50So you're a criminal at heart?

03:52These borders are arbitrary, and they could keep changing.

03:55Why not begin a trade that ignores unrest, wars, that exists on its own, stateless, around the globe?

04:08If you choose not to distribute for me...

04:10My dear, if I choose not to distribute for you, you won't find anyone who will.

04:15And if I decline your offer, you must never tell anyone of this plan, not a soul.

04:23Thomas, what Hayley was saying about bottling time, making films, and Hayley knows this,

04:30and Joe obviously knows this too, is it's about bottling time.

04:33How do you capture lightning in a bottle?

04:35How do you know the performance is exactly what you want versus the visual behind it?

04:40Could you talk about that and finding that balance?

04:43You've obviously done it both in your feature films, but also in your second unit work.

04:47Could you talk about that and that approach?

04:50Yeah, I mean, following on, I thought Hayley's answer there was fantastic,

04:54the, you know, how she moved through that answer.

05:01Widowclicko is fundamentally about time.

05:05It's a kind of, almost a study of how a person changes through time,

05:11how their life changes as they move from being a young person to being,

05:17in her case, a middle-aged person.

05:19And the film itself is really about, for me, when I was making it,

05:25I kept feeling like it was a ghost story.

05:30It isn't necessarily a ghost story, but it was the idea that

05:34someone's experience could be encapsulated in a place.

05:40And when you were talking right at the beginning,

05:41you said about locations and being in fabulous locations.

05:45We were given this absolute gift of a place to make the film,

05:49which is Chateau Beyrou in Chablis.

05:52And the house was incredibly atmospheric.

05:54It had these incredible kind of spaces that led onto other spaces

05:59and long corridors and wooden rooms.

06:01And it had a real atmosphere.

06:04And whenever you moved around the house,

06:05it creaked and kind of groaned and had all these noises.

06:08When anyone was moving in the house,

06:10it sort of was a bit like a movie, a place you would shoot a ghost story.

06:16These fields do not need replanting or starting over again.

06:20I disagree. They need to struggle to survive.

06:25I want our champagne to have structure, depth.

06:31I do admire you trying to run things as you want, as a woman would.

06:35If we lose these first shoots to frost, we lose the harvest.

06:40No one can force me.

06:43A woman is not capable of running this vineyard.

06:47When I have proceeds, I will send them to you.

06:50A woman is forbidden to run a business under the law.

06:52Her vineyard should be placed in the hands of an experienced executor.

06:56Is this the plan all along?

06:58No, madame. It never occurred to them you would succeed.

07:02And it felt to me as we were making it,

07:04that it was a journey into someone's remembrance of things past.

07:12So like a Proustian, almost like a Proustian story,

07:15where the past is being re-examined and looked at through the film.

07:21And we're able to understand and build the character

07:24from their memories of their own life.

07:26And so that was really what we were constantly battling and engaging with

07:32when we were making the films.

07:33How do we link these elements together?

07:35How do we link these things together to edit the film in the scenes?

07:41So the film moves between the past and the present.

07:44And there's one moment where Hayley is playing Barb as a woman,

07:50and she's walking next to a sheet.

07:52And then she hears her husband praying and then passes through the sheet

07:59and then moves into the past.

08:02And I think that's a very good illustration of what the film is trying to do.

08:07It's trying to understand a person through this kind of dialogue

08:10between the past and the present.

08:12And they're feeding each other and making the story move forward and evolve.

08:17So you're getting this kind of picture, a multifaceted, as Hayley said,

08:20a multifaceted picture of lightning in a bottle.

08:24So many obstacles ahead, so much at stake.

08:27But there is hope, however unpredictable.

08:31Your instincts have always been so good.

08:33Why won't you listen to yourself now?

08:36I don't want to.

08:39No one can sell abroad due to Napoleon's embargoes against his enemies.

08:43I want to stay ahead of him.

08:44Of Napoleon?

08:46So you're a criminal at heart?

08:47Human beings are compelled to create, to lay down our lives however best we can.

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