Chinese Puzzle is the new film by director Cédric Klapisch, staring Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou and Kelly Reilly. We caught up with Klapisch on the day of the film’s UK release to ask him about the film, its possible sequel and what it means to be forty.
Chinese Puzzle is the third film of a trilogy. How have you changed as a director since the first film, L’Auberge Espagnole?
I think the first one,L’Auberge Espagnole, was a lot more spontaneous, and we were working with the idea of the actors being spontaneous. So in (Chinese Puzzle), it’s a lot more about thinking things over, about preparing things, and it’s not about improvisation any more. I think it went along with the subject of the movie, because this one is about someone being forty years old, and the first one was about being twenty five years old and really improvising your life. I think that is what changed for me and what changed for Xavier (played by Romain Duris).
What’s the significance of being 40?

I think it’s about admitting that you have to take responsibility for your life, you know? You have to accept that you can’t really be a teenager forever, or have fun all the time, so you have to choose your way and accept that. I think that being forty is really about that.

Forty years old, for me, is the end of youth, but you’re not old either, so it’s an age that is interesting because of that. You can really enjoy life, because you don’t have the problems of being old: problems with your health or with your body, and yet you don’t have the excitement of the first times. When you’re twenty, you’re in love for the first time, you have a job for the first time, you’re going to new countries for the first time. When you are forty, you don’t have first times like that, so it’s not about that excitement, it’s about trying to find the enthusiasm without that kind of first time experience enthusiasm.

When I watched the film, there were some scenes that stood out for me, especially the scenes with his arrogant lawyer (Played by Jason Kravits). Which scene was was your favourite?

I really liked this scene because, as you said, I really like that character. For me it’s really about America. He says you have to follow the rules, and then at the end he says you can manage without the rules. For me America is really about that, that maybe you can improvise, but you have to follow the rules first, so I think it’s really about America for me.

I like the scene with the father, because this movie is a lot about being a father yourself. You have children and you have to experience what it is to be a father, but you also have to revisit the relationship that you have with your own dad. I really like what happens with Xavier because in order to be a father himself he has to set things straight with his own father. I really liked that.

You’ve described L’Auberge Espagnole, Russian Dolls and Chinese puzzle as a trilogy, but at the end of Chinese Puzzle, I couldn’t help but think I’d love to see these characters in another ten years. Is there any possibility that there could be a fourth film?

I have no Idea. I think that the two possibilities exist and it depends on whether in ten years I want to do a fourth one, and especially if the actors want to do a fourth one. In a sense I really can’t answer that question now.

Also about the story itself, I think that if there is a major event, if Europe doesn’t exist anymore, if there is a war, if Africa becomes what China is today or something like that, then yes, it would be really interesting to do a fourth one. It will tell a story about that, about how time changes, and about how far it can change. I think if there is a fourth one, it will be also be about change in the world and how the world can change with the characters.

The three films are set in different cities around the world, but a lot of Chinese Puzzle is set not only in New York, but in Chinatown. What elements of Chinese culture were important for you to include in the film?

The idea of the French sentence Casse-tête Chinois (the original french title), is not exactly the same as “Chinese Puzzle”. The idea is that it’s a puzzle that’s hard to solve, that’s what it means in French. It means something complicated, that we don’t understand because that’s what we think about the Chinese language, it’s hard to understand because it doesn’t have an alphabet, it has ideograms. It feels like the culture which is the furthest away.

I think what I wanted to say with that, is what Xavier always says about things being complicated to understand. It’s really about dealing with a culture that you don’t understand at the beginning, that then becomes simple. If you spend ten years in China then it becomes your culture. I think that I wanted to get across the idea that everything that seems impossible to understand and far away from yourself, it can be close, and it can be understandable at some point.

Not all the characters have made a return for this movie. Wendy’s brother, William (played by Kevin Bishop), is absent. What do you think he’s doing now?

Well, for a long time he was in the script but unfortunately there was a planning problem, (Kevin) was the main character in a TV series, so we forgot about his presence, although I really wanted him to be there. For me William’s presence – and it will happen in the next episode if it exists – is what Xavier can’t be. I think it’s funny that at the beginning of L’Auberge Espagnole he’s someone who is really unimportant and annoying, and then he becomes someone a lot more mature and a lot more trustworthy than Xavier so I think that’s what he should mean.

所有的青春都會(huì)老，只是沒(méi)想到他們兜兜轉(zhuǎn)轉(zhuǎn)，還在原地。

上周某個(gè)臺(tái)在放l'auberge espagnole, 看到開(kāi)頭那個(gè)到處找房子的情節(jié)，10年前剛到巴黎的點(diǎn)滴都在眼前了。

導(dǎo)演想說(shuō)的太多，其實(shí)Casse-tête也算不上，最多就是一個(gè)拼盤(pán)，來(lái)不及深究。

如果說(shuō)before sunrise\sunset\midnight系列里有太多的感情映射，那這個(gè)系列里就滿是青春的回想。

能有與自己生活平行的兩個(gè)系列，看著自己的青春變老，也是另一種的幸福。

===================本文嚴(yán)重劇透==================

在BnF學(xué)習(xí)完順便一個(gè)人就進(jìn)了MK2看了這部電影。
大媽健身舞開(kāi)頭，延續(xù)了題頭四個(gè)中文大字“益智游戲”的穿越感。不過(guò)出現(xiàn)了好幾次的大媽健身舞真的很有親切感。

說(shuō)走就走的旅行和與黑格爾的靈魂對(duì)話我很喜歡。懂事的大兒子真是莫大的安慰。
只是結(jié)尾落入了俗套。什么男主在孩子慫恿下阻止愛(ài)人去機(jī)場(chǎng)之類(lèi)的。“給你找個(gè)美國(guó)男人假結(jié)婚”，這竟然是最后的解決方案，讓我覺(jué)得你要是相信法國(guó)人現(xiàn)實(shí)中也是那么無(wú)厘頭/浪漫/隨性（隨便你說(shuō)），那就要被坑慘了。決不可相信法國(guó)電影雞血的煽動(dòng)。退一萬(wàn)步講，他們真的能夠這樣做，是因?yàn)槟玫姆▏?guó)護(hù)照。
奧黛麗塔圖飾演的瑪?shù)倌龋从沉?0歲女人的現(xiàn)實(shí)也點(diǎn)亮了她們的希望。單身、帶兩個(gè)孩子、曾經(jīng)的情人、身體的需要，有什么豁不出去的。于是她說(shuō)：你有兩個(gè)孩子，我也有兩個(gè)孩子，他們相處超好，我們搭伙過(guò)日子吧?，F(xiàn)實(shí)部分是：男人沒(méi)想好。但是切不可相信電影結(jié)局的反轉(zhuǎn)也會(huì)發(fā)生在生活中。他只是人在異鄉(xiāng)寂寞。你知道雄性動(dòng)物不在自己領(lǐng)地的痛苦嗎？不過(guò)也許給“搞定墨跡男”出了個(gè)主意：把他帶到人生地不熟的地方，讓他更需要你。
總之這部電影很多笑點(diǎn)，延續(xù)了輕松幽默的氣氛。只是糾結(jié)的我每次看完此類(lèi)地域與戀人相處及新城市的文化碰撞主題電影（包括Before midnight）就更糾結(jié)。不去想太多可能依然會(huì)覺(jué)得這是一部不錯(cuò)的電影，但是太無(wú)厘頭沒(méi)有指導(dǎo)意義的情節(jié)忍不住讓我怒吼：“玩夠了沒(méi)有！人生是腳踩西瓜皮嗎！（包括Isabelle和比利時(shí)小保姆出軌，她們不用想結(jié)果是不是？40不惑了啊還這么亂來(lái)）”


題外話：

奧黛麗塔圖的中文商務(wù)談判整個(gè)沒(méi)有字幕，電影院里除了我是認(rèn)真在笑，其他法國(guó)人竟然也有笑的，是因?yàn)楹眯?？為了在Xavier面前不丟面子而突然背誦起王之渙的《登鸛雀樓》這個(gè)橋段，整個(gè)就是為了討好中國(guó)觀眾吧？
我覺(jué)得全劇最經(jīng)典的一句話是：我已經(jīng)和兩個(gè)女同有了孩子，還要和一個(gè)中國(guó)人結(jié)婚為了變成美國(guó)人。中國(guó)人太威武了。女演員的選擇我也很滿意，大臉盤(pán)細(xì)眼睛姑娘，脾氣耿直又善良，該挺身而出時(shí)絕不退縮~相比之下羅曼杜里斯怎么越看越屌絲了。

估計(jì)又要掀起一陣說(shuō)“NI HAO”的風(fēng)潮了。哎，我頭暈~~

請(qǐng)?jiān)忂@篇文章是一個(gè)極度糾結(jié)想解放自我又不斷提醒自己現(xiàn)實(shí)的日射月摩羯所寫(xiě)。