The invention of anything else

Dzyd Dennis on Chantal Akerman (NYT):

“A lot of [Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles] came unconsciously,” added Ms. Akerman, who is now 58. “When I wrote it, it ran like a river.” What she produced was less a script than “a nouveau roman book,” she said, a fastidious account of her heroine’s every action. “Delphine Seyrig complained that there was so much detail she didn’t have to invent anything.”

From the Claude Berri obit:

He did not get along with everyone, however. On the set of his 1997 film, “Lucie Aubrac,” based on the life of a heroine of the French resistance, he abruptly fired his lead actress, Juliette Binoche, for having too many opinions about how she should play the role.

“When a director is so possessive about his film it’s a nightmare,” Ms. Binoche said in an interview in The New York Times shortly after her dismissal. “You can’t work with someone like that.”