Starring:
Juliette Binoche
William Hurt
Stephanie Buttle
Barbara Garrick
Paul Guilfoyle
A story I really wanted to tell... Chantal had already made quite a
few films. Intimist films they say, but always truthful. This film, for me, is a surprise film.”
PREMIERE - SEPTEMBER '95
“
He is a psychoanalyst; his name is Henry Harriston (William Hurt). Her name is Beatrice Saulnier (Juliette Binoche), she's a dancer. He lives in New York, on the Upper East Side, the "Golden Ghetto". She lives in Paris, right in the heart of Belleville, multi-ethnic Paris.
She is exuberant and happy amongst the chaos. He is obsessive and withdrawn and craves order. She needs to shake up her life, men like her too much and it's getting her down. He's had enough, of himself, New York and his patients. He places an ad in the Herald Tribune for an apartment swap. Henry is heading to Belleville while Beatrice is New York bound.
Beatrice takes to New York immediately, but when she is mistaken for Henry’s replacement she begins analysing his patients with surprising results. Nothing goes right for Henry in Paris so he returns home sooner than planned. When he is mistaken for a patient he meets Beatrice for the first time and is unexpectedly drawn into her world.
Juliette Binoche first met director Chantal Akerman in 1991 for the female lead in Nuit et Jour. Binoche was caught up in the stop-start shoot of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, and had to decline the role. Four years later she was keen to make a comedy and approached Akerman who wrote Un Divan à New York (A Couch in New York) for her.
Inspired by the films of Lubitsch and Cukor, Akerman’s shrewd comedy was a departure from her European auteur dramas mixing qualities of American and European cinema in an original and unlikely way.
Beatrice Saulnier
Henry Harriston
Anne
Lizbeth Honeywell
Dennis
Campton
Tim
Wood
Stein
Jerôme
Restaurant Patron
Cab Driver #1
Julie
Employee at Airport
Cab Driver #2
Cab Driver #3
Julien
Martin
Thomas
Jogger
Man in Central Park
Juliette Binoche
William Hurt
Stephanie Buttle
Barbara Garrick
Paul Guilfoyle
Richard Jenkins
Kent Broadhurst
Matthew Burton
Henry Bean
Bernard Breuse
Adam LeFevre
Boris Leskin
Tiffany Fraser
Wendy Way
Jerry Dean
David S. Lomax
Jean-Baptiste Filleau
Lusako Karonga
Blaise Chakir
Bruce Katzman
Michael McCormick
Directed by
Screenplay by
Produced by
Original Music by
Cinematography by
Film Editing by
Production Design by
Costume Design by
First assistant director
sound by
Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman
Jean-Louis Benoît
Diana Elbaum
Régine Konckier
Robin O’Hara
Jean-Luc Ormières
Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Dietrich Lohmann
Claire Atherton
Christian Marti
Stéphane Rollot
Edith Vesperini
Gabriel Julien-Laferrière
Pierre Mertens
Produced by
In association with
Les Films Balenciaga
France 2 Cinéma)
M6 Films
Babelsberg International Film Produktion
Paradise Films
Radio Télévision Belge
Canal+ (participation)
Sofinergie 3
Sofinergie 4
Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg
Ministère de la Communauté Française de Belgique
Eurimages
a film by Chantal Akerman
1996
International trailer
© Provided for reference only
US trailer
© Provided for reference only
Spanish trailer
© Provided for reference only
The Art of Being Exclusive!
Korean trailer
© Provided for reference only
The Art of Being Exclusive!
"New York Quator" by Sonia Weider-Atherton
"Central Park" by Sonia Wieder Atherton
Press kit #1
PDF - French
1996 553kb
Flyer
PDF - Japanese
1996 1.4mb
Movie card
PDF - French
1985 1.5mb