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 tell no one interview
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Tell No One: tell everyone. Anyone focused solely on English-language films would only know Guillaume Canet for snugly filling a pair of swimming trunks and traipsing along behind Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach. French cineastes, however, may not even cite his acting at all. Canet has written and directed two features since his island sojourn with Leo, even winning the Best Director César for his latest, the gripping new thriller Tell No One. “I always wanted to be a director before acting,” says the boyish-looking Canet, still only 34. “But I was really surprised when I won the César because no directors of my age have won one yet. I was really the youngest – usually it’s really experienced people who have done 15 films.”  An unusual choice then for the famously sniffy French cinephiles, yet well deserved. Tell No One, adapted from US crime writer Harlan Coben’s bestseller, displays the assured hand of a veteran. Boasting an all-star French cast - with our own bilingual Kristin Scott-Thomas in support – it’s an epic tale of murder and betrayal, yet aiming for far more emotional depth than most thrillers. “The love story is really the engine of the suspense,” agrees Canet. “It’s motivated by the passion of this man who lost his wife, killed by a serial killer. We see him eight years later and understand that he never rebuilt his life. Then he receives an e-mail asking him to connect to an internet address and when he does that, he sees his wife on a street surveillance camera, alive. We don’t know if it’s a recording or live – that’s really the start of the story.”  Adapting Coben’s very American novel to a French setting was tricky, but nothing compared to the task of reducing a 400-page epic into a two-hour movie. “In the novel, the story is so well-constructed,” contends Canet, “as soon as you take something out, everything is falling apart, you know?” Still, it seems that Canet’s changes went down well with the author. “He even told me it was better than the book,” he beams, proudly. None of which has enticed Canet to transpose himself to Hollywood just yet - unless the offers match those at home. “I couldn’t do a film with 15 producers behind the video monitor,” he insists, “or not having final cut, for example. If I’m doing a film, it’s my film. I make all the decisions.” He’s definitely not acting.
Leigh Singer
Tell No One, now on selected release.
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