French actress Julie Delpy began her film studies at an age when most children are busy watching the dramatic movements of their fingers and toes. Although both her parents, Marie Pillet and Albert Delpy, were stage actors (who later turned to the big screen), these lessons came courtesy of her dad.
“My father is a huge cinephile, so he basically brought me to see every possible movie you can imagine from the age of 5 on,” says the actress, stopping in the District to promote her new film, “2 Days in Paris.” “Movies are a huge deal in my family.”
Encouraged by her parents and clearly having learned a thing or two from her screening sessions, Miss Delpy burst into cinema with a bang at age 14 in the Jean-Luc Godard film “Detective.”
She subsequently has starred in works by master filmmakers, including Agnieszka Holland (“Europa Europa”) and Krzysztof Kieslowski (the “Three Colors” trilogy), and charmed her way into audiences’ and critics’ hearts as the ingenue in Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” and its sequel, “Before Sunset.”
Miss Delpy, 37, is pleased with her career so far yet admits that her true passion has remained largely hidden all these years.
“Originally,” she says, “I wanted more to be behind the camera. … I tried to be a director for many years, and it’s not always easy to get people to give you money.”
In fact, she adds, it’s not always easy to get people to give you the recognition you deserve. For instance, though she and Ethan Hawke are listed alongside Mr. Linklater as the screenwriters for 2004’s “Before Sunset” (for which they earned an Oscar nomination), their hefty contributions to its predecessor remain uncredited.
Miss Delpy says she’s “not bitter” but adds that “it’s weird to have someone else’s name on your writing.”
In 2002, the actress helmed her own film, “Looking for Jimmy,” although she doesn’t consider it a proper directorial debut. “It was filmed like this crazy kind of experiment rather than a film,” she says, noting that it never had a U.S. release.
Thus, “2 Days in Paris” is her baby. She wrote, directed, produced, edited and composed the music for the romantic comedy — and oh yeah, she co-stars in it.
The film follows Miss Delpy’s Marion, a French-born photographer, and her boyfriend, Jack (played by Adam Goldberg), an American interior designer, as they vacation in Marion’s hometown of Paris and find their relationship tested by Marion’s sexually free parents, her many ex-boyfriends, and Jack’s mounting jealously and suspicions of infidelity.
In addition to having a premise similar to those in Mr. Linklater’s “Before” movies, “2 Days” also maintains the same level of chattiness.
“That’s how I write,” Miss Delpy says. “I’m a very verbal person. I talk a lot in real life. … Sometimes I can be quiet, when I’m writing, but then I’m talking in my head, [where] there’s a constant dialogue going on.”
Luckily for audiences, most of the dialogue that found its way out of Miss Delpy’s brain and into “2 Days” is deftly written and quite witty.
Favorable reviews for the movie have been pouring in, and that’s made the helmer happy, but she’s realistic about its reception.
“It’s a certain kind of film,” she says. “It can make some people a little nervous.”
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