In conversation with Laura Venning, writer-director Leonardo Van Dijl discusses the deafening silence that drives his probing tennis drama.
A 15-year-old girl darts around a deserted sports hall, a space as grey and unwelcoming as a warehouse. At first glance, she seems to be playing tennis under the glare of bright white industrial light, giving it everything she has. But there’s no sound of the ball hitting the racket, only the stamp of her feet and her grunts of exertion. She’s miming.
The opening moments of Julie Keeps Quiet, which premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, aren’t just visually arresting. They establish this young tennis star’s determination to win, not just through practising movement without a ball, but also by imagining herself playing well enough to win. ‘It’s so cinematic, because it’s like Rocky, it’s like you’re imagining you’re the king of the world!’ says writer-director Leonardo Van Dijl of his feature debut. ‘Through this miming performance she’s expressing what she wants to be.’
But the sequence also establishes the crucial motif of silence. For Julie (Tessa Van den Broeck), silence is her protection and an expression of her agency, initially at least. A student at a Belgium tennis academy, Julie finds her highly disciplined life upended when the suicide of another female prodigy from the institution leads to her coach Jeremy (Laurent Caron) being suspended. Though it’s approached with sensitivity, it becomes clear that he is under suspicion of sexually assaulting his students, and Julie is pressured to speak out.
Van Dijl’s Stephanie (2020), which was nominated for the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film, was his first real foray into chronicling a young girl’s experiences in professional sport, and was inspired by stories he heard from his roommate, an accomplished gymnast. ‘Making that film unlocked something in me,’ he says, ‘I wanted to learn more, to understand the politics of the world through the eyes of these girls. As a gay guy, I’ve still been conditioned in a certain way.’ For inspiration, Van Dijl studied the Greek myth of the thematically similar Antigone, and in the writing process found that Julie’s choice to be silent could actually act as a different kind of cry for help.
Julie Keeps Quiet (2024)
Julie Keeps Quiet’s visual style echoes the almost oppressive atmosphere of restraint. Cinematographer Nicolas Karakatsanis, whose previous films include
I, Tonya (2017) and Cruella (2021), employs a muted colour palette, negative space and largely keeps the camera still. The resulting tableaux are as beautifully and coldly controlled as the discipline imposed on Julie both by Jeremy and herself. Van Dijl decided to shoot on 65mm film, partly because he felt that the precise, considerate nature of using celluloid resembles Julie’s silence. ‘You know that every shot, take, whatever, costs money, and it obliges everyone to be considerate with what they do. They need to be focused, and when I say “action”, everybody needs to be silent and watchful. It’s almost like I’m emphasising that Julie’s story is important.’
Julie Keeps Quiet (2024)
At the heart of the film is the extraordinary performance by newcomer Tessa Van den Broeck. From the outset, Van Dijl was confident that he would be able to find a talented young player with no acting experience who could take on the role. But it was actually easier than he anticipated, and he knew from the moment he met Van den Broeck that he’d found Julie. ‘She had the experience of being coached, and we created a language around tennis to explain how to act as well,’ he explains. ‘I would say “now you’re more in the defence, now you go to the net”– any tennis metaphor that would work as a piece of acting direction as well.’ He recommends that a director looking for young, dedicated and non-professional actors seek out tennis academies.
Julie Keeps Quiet (2024)
Van Dijl was nervous about the first audience’s responses to the film. ‘When I went to Cannes I was very afraid because I did not want to punish my character, and I was ready for the world to punish her. But the response has been amazing.’ The fact that Julie Keeps Quiet boasts Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka as an executive producer, an advocate for mental health in sport, is a testament to its compassion and emotional honesty. ‘Julie’s silence is the silence of many boys and girls, and I cared about her as if she was my own child,’ he says. It’s this protective instinct over his heroine and his desire for justice that makes the film so affecting, and so very vital.
WATCH JULIE KEEPS QUIET IN CINEMAS
