Mathieu Amalric in Heartbeat Detector Courtesy of Sophie Dulac Distribution

The film explores the idea that there exist similarities between the procedures used by the Nazis in the name of efficient racial purging and the dehumanizing methods used by modern capitalism in the pursuit of greater profits. Simon purges the company of workers "as one deals with a sick limb," according criteria such as to age, absenteeism, adaptability. What do you think was the message of the film in comparison to other Holocaust films?
The film is more a question than an answer. Sometimes, because you do a job, you have sort of professional habit or you do everything your way. And there is something about the language that you use, the words that you use, that are supposed to maybe hide the bigger violence. So you use a sort of professional cold technical language that exists today. Nothing is invented. Those are words that we hear every day. And we hear it from politics also. In France we have a president who knows how to use those words, saying we have to kick 25,000 [emigrant] kids and women and men out of the country. He can't say that! So they say, "We didn't finish the plan." [This is] a way of just hiding a reality behind professional technical language. I think the film [explores] that sort of strange feeling. Simon is aware of it after some [time] in the film.

As you indicated, the film also seems to be an investigation into the use and abuse of language. Toward the film's end the character of Arie Neumann (Lou Castel) says that we have "a dead language invaded by technical words," a language that absorbs its humanity. The Diving Bell was also a film that deals with the power of language. Is it difficult to transfer those ideas on film?
Well, it's not difficult. When you know that [Dominique Bauby] has to spell each letter, of course you are very aware of each word you have to spell because it's a lot of work. So as we had a lot of improvising during the film because Julian Schnabel works like that: no rehearsal. Sometimes he would ask me to just say whatever pops into my mind. And all the actors knew the alphabet so we could improvise and, yes, I would choose my words. The two [films] had something in common for me but of course those are thoughts that came to me afterwards. It may be the fact that [both films] had a lot to do with inner thoughts and what happens in the brain. In The Diving Bell he can't express himself and people don't know what he has in his head. And he tries to communicate, to show that as much as possible. And in [Heatbeat Detector] Simon's job is he has to not show what he thinks. The strength, the power comes from the coldness, from not showing what you think. And, of course, we know that in big enterprises people have to hide a part of their humanity. So it's not a film on the Holocaust. I don't think so. I think it would have been too demonstrative if it were just that. I think it's a question on why do people are so scared. It's almost like a film noir, like the Fritz Lang [films]. For me it has to do with fear.

From your portrayal of Simon Kessler, we realize he may be a psychologist working for a human resources department but he is also a technocrat and ruthless in his own way, devising criteria to halve the work force without much human compunction. Did you struggle to identify with this character?
Well, not really. No. [You] have to forget who you are and to pretend or to not say what you think — because it's dangerous to say what you think. It's always easier just to smile. And there was also something else that helped me a lot and that was Simon's nightlife in the film. So there's a sort of explosion during the night with his feelings for the girl [in his life]. In those cafes and [through] those songs, he's dizzy inside.