FRANCE: Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams bring their romantic drama 'Blue Valentine' to Cannes competition

Record ID: 508402

  • Title: FRANCE: Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams bring their romantic drama 'Blue Valentine' to Cannes competition
  • Date: 20th May 2010
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 19, 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR RYAN GOSLING SAYING: "Derek's great like that he, you know, he just set it up that way, he just lined it up for us to hit it you know. We spent tons of time together, we went fishing, we built a dog house together, we made birthday cakes and had birthday parties, fake Christmas." ACTRESS MICHELLE WILLIAMS SAYING: "We'd have to get in fights and then take our, take Faith out to an amusement park and pretend like everything was OK. (Laughs) I wonder what that felt like for her." ACTOR RYAN GOSLING SAYING: "Yeah, I like how we're doing this thing where like we're telling each other like we don't know. You remember that, right?" BOATS ON WATER (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS FAITH WLADIKA SAYING: Reporter: "Did this make you love making movies? Do you want to be an actress?" "I already am a actress. I booked a movie when I was ten months."
  • Embargoed: 4th June 2010 13:00
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  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVACQ1FIHU972AYZETWAPAT4X9PM
  • Story Text: Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in 'Blue Valentine', the intensely emotional story of a marriage in decline which is up for the 'Un Certain Regard' award in Cannes this year.
    The film directed by Derek Cianfrance first showed at the Sundance festival, where it won warm praise for its powerful performances and carefully structured narrative.
    The drama follows a couple over the course of a night, while they decide whether or not their marriage can be saved.
    Cianfrance flashes between the present and scenes from the past - allowing him to chart the highs and lows of the couple's relationship over a number of years.
    He said the contrast between the scenes showing the optimism of the marriage's early days, with the bleakness of its final throes is reflective of what all people go through when they face the demise of a relationship.
    "I just thought of that moment when you're breaking up with someone, that those last moments in any break up I've ever had, that in those last moments I've been remembering the first moments, you know what I mean? And maybe the first moments, in my long term memory have been more embellished, amplified, you know what I'm saying? And maybe it wasn't necessarily the way it really happened, but it's kind of the romantic version, so as it's falling apart I remember the romance, and conversely, sometimes if I fall in love with someone, you know if I'm falling in love, sometimes there's that hint of like 'oh, this is doomed' from the start, you know what I mean? So you project things into the future, so that's how I saw the movie, it's like you know, in the middle of your most passionate moments in life you know, it's like what is informing those moments and what are you trying to steer away from in those moments," he said.
    The film took 12 years to get off the ground -- partly because he was insistent that only Williams and Gosling should play the parts of Cindy and Dean.
    Their rich performances have already been touted as award-worthy, and are seen as possible nominations for next year's Oscars.
    "I think it's courageous performances by these two, and I don't think you see this coming from actors in American film, the kind of raw, emotional honesty that Ryan and Michelle put out there. It's, it's really you know, courageous of them to be so naked, not just physically, emotionally you know," he said.
    He said the film inspired polarised reactions -- with people either loving or hating its realistic portrayal of love gone sour.
    "I think it's like a cautionary tale," joked Williams.
    But Gosling said the movie still contained a message of hope for the love-worn.
    "But I think that you know, there's a lot of good stuff in it too, you know, I think because you don't see that stuff in movies very often that's what people are tending to focus on, but I do think that the film has balance, and that there's just as much hope and positivity as there is negative," he said.
    Six-year-old Faith Wladika played the couple's daughter, caught between the two.
    Gosling said Cianfrance worked hard to make sure the three of them felt like a real family.
    "Derek's great like that he, you know, he just set it up that way, he just lined it up for us to hit it you know. We spent tons of time together, we went fishing, we built a dog house together, we made birthday cakes and had birthday parties, fake christmas," said Gosling.
    "We'd have to get in fights and then take our, take Faith out to an amusement park and pretend like everything was OK. (Laughs) I wonder what that felt like for her," added Williams.
    Wladika said she loved pretending to be Gosling and Williams' daughter, but that she was no stranger to the world of movies.
    "I already am a actress. I booked a movie when I was ten months," she said.
    The Cannes Film Festival runs until Sunday (May 23).
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