Why Do They Hate Each Other So Much?: ‘Brother And Sister’s Marion Cotillard, Melvil Poupaud & Arnaud Desplechin On Pic’s Sibling Rivalry – Cannes Studio

In Arnaud Desplechin’s Brother and Sister, Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud play sister and brother, Alice and Louis, and, boy, they can’t stand each other.

Some of the vocal barbs bring to mind John Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence, but alas, as Desplechin and the actors explain here, there’s only a bit of improvisation going on here (the late Cassavetes known for building gravitas though improv).

Still many critics have wondered about Alice and Louis, why so mad? She’s a famous stage star who is performing in James Joyce’s The Dead, and he’s noteworthy, conceited author. Some have pointed out it’s in the duo’s jealously of each other. However, there’s also a whiff of (gulp) incest in there; or something to give those who’ve seen the movie this week at Cannes some pause.

“Marion was asking me ‘Why this hate between the brother and the sister?’ I said I’m just the director I don’t know why, but you will know why at some point. You will give me the answer. So that’s what I’m asking to the actors,” explains Desplechin.

“We call it hors-champs, it’s a notion in cinema, very important: It’s there, it happened, but we don’t know ourselves or the spectator, or (no one) doesn’t want to know,” explains Poupaud.

“Like some ancient tragedy where gods put feelings in some heroes or characters and they have to deal with that; it’s fate,” the actor continues.

“When I read the script, I saw it as a love story,” explains Cotillard.

Continues the Best Actress Oscar winner, “And the love that I felt between (the) two people were very strong, and maybe too strong. And not allowed to have this kind of love. They have to put a distance between them, but they’re obsessed with one another. They found in hatred that kind of same energy that you have with love and this very strong connection while being disconnect, but they need to have this distance to live.”