‘Days of Happiness’ Director Chloé Robichaud on Creating a Modern Conductor for the Big Screen

variety.com:

Jennie Punter Filmmaker Chloé Robichaud would often listen to classical music in the background to help focus her writing process — a subliminal influence that led to the creation of the main character of “Days of Happiness,” which world premieres in Toronto Sept.

9. Her third feature follows gifted young conductor Emma (Sophie Desmarais) at a pivotal moment in her career as she tries to reset her relationship with her controlling father (who is also her manager) and strengthen a complicated new romantic relationship.

Visit is handling U.S. sales; Item 7 is the production company and is handling international sales. While “Days,” like “Tár,” is about a female conductor — still not a common sight on the podiums of major orchestras — the comparison stops there.

Robichaud’s film has a warmer emotional arc. “I thought it would be cinematic to have a conductor who is struggling with her feelings and to have the music help her experience those feelings, and I immersed myself in that universe,” she said. “The film is Emma’s journey, but it’s also about how I see classical music today, in a modern way.” While writing the screenplay, Robichaud brought on Yannick Nézet-Séguin — the artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, which “plays” the orchestra in the film — as a consultant and talked to female orchestra conductors.