Conversation with Ruben Impens about his work on "The Broken Circle Breakdown"

By Anton Mertens and Jo Vermaercke, translated by Dylan Belgrado.

17 mai 2014 - Modifié le 8/07

For his fourth movie, The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012), director Felix Van Groeningen once more teamed up with director of photography Ruben Impens. The movie tells the love story of Elise and Didier (Veerle Baetens en Johan Heldenbergh). They couldn’t be happier when their daughter Maybelle is born.
However, when Maybelle turns six, she becomes seriously ill and her illness impacts Didier and Elise’s relationship. Both of them react differently to the diagnosis, but don’t have any other choice but to fight together for their daughter. The Broken Circle Breakdown was an enormous success and the movie won many international prices, one of which was a César for the Best Foreign Film. It was also nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.

On the set of "The Broken Circle Breakdown" - DR — **On the set of "The Broken Circle Breakdown"**

DR

Anton Mertens : How long have you already known Felix Van Groeningen ?

Ruben Impens : We actually became friends quite a long time ago, when Felix was still studying at the art academy. I had already graduated from KASK (Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent) when he finished his final project, 50cc.
Felix was a very dynamic person and everyone knew him. He was also engrossed with theater and Kung Fu and created remarkable things. We had a connection and he asked me to film his final project for school (academy).
Originally, this movie was supposed to be a short film, but it was 40 minutes long when he finished it. The film was about young boys who hung out during a vacation and who tried to be cool with their 50cc scooters. This was something I identified with and I really wanted to shoot that. (Laughs) Trixie Withley, Sam Lowyck and Lies Pauwels took part in the movie and Felix’s mother was responsible for the decor, which was very ambitious.

We all came from Ghent, but found a piece of wasteland in the harbor area of Antwerp. There, he installed a fake gas station. He had also bought a trailer for a couple hundred euros that had to be moved from Ghent to Antwerp. When we drove to the set in the pickup truck of Felix’s mom, we passed the truck that carried our trailer. At that moment we all felt something great was happening, and that was a wonderful experience.
Next to our set was a gypsy camp, with actual gypsies living there. We were worried they would trash our set, so Felix decided to sleep there. As soon as the trailer arrived, he stayed on set. He also did it to get a connection with the location. We camped there for about ten days.

The previous year he had made Truth or Dare, also for college, and that was a very intense project. The movie was about typical behavior of young people : taking of your mask, being yourself, stopping with posing and having the urge to score. But it had content and I was immediately intrigued by his work. That’s basically where it all began.

(Translated by Dylan Belgrado)