A Belgian's American-Seeming Film - NYTimes.com Nearly everything about "The Broken Circle Breakdown," Belgium's shortlisted submission for the foreign-language Oscar, is improbable, starting with what first inspired it. When George W. Bush placed limits on stem cell research in his first term, the Belgian playwright and actor Johan Heldenbergh was so angry that he decided to write a theater piece as a way of venting. On its surface, "The Broken Circle Breakdown," directed by Felix van Groeningen, is a melodramatic love story about Didier, played by Mr. Heldenbergh, and Elise, played by Veerle Baetens, who meet cute, fall in love, marry and have a child. He is playing banjo in, of all things, a Belgian bluegrass band when they first get to know each other, while she's a fan who soon becomes the group's lead singer. The film's title, of course, derives from a bluegrass classic associated with the Carter Family. But both the movie and the play that inspired it also dig deeper, examining issues of religion and loss through both dialogue and carefully selected songs from the bluegrass canon. Mr. van Groeningen, 36, had made three films before this but said none of them had resonated as strongly with audiences, or had provoke as much debate - developments he attributes to the sharp contrast between Didier's unwavering rationalism and Elise's embrace of the spiritual. At the European Film Awards this month, the European equivalent of the Oscar, Ms. Baetens won the prize for best actress (beating out Keira Knightley and Naomi Watts, among others). Mr. van Groeningen was interviewed in New York a few days before the ceremony, and spoke about how he took over Mr. Heldenbergh's work and what he hopes to get out of the Oscar process. I know that your film is adapted from a stage play, which is the source of the really unusual juxtapositions in the script. But can you tell me what about the play gripped you so strongly? I didn't know that Johan was into this music, and I didn't know the music myself. So it was like a bomb. Where did this come from? What is he talking about? It was all so heartfelt, hitting you right where you don't want to be touched, and yet you come out of it relieved somehow. It was gut-wrenching, but I had a great night. It's about the things you are most afraid of, but the music makes it all bearable and worthwhile. Johan is the author of the play, and plays the male lead in the movie. But he didn't write the screenplay with you. That seems unusual. He was supportive all the way through. I wanted his opinion, his approval, but I also wanted him to go along with my vision. But it's been tough for him. Just to give an example, I didn't pick the lead actress from the play, and I brought in other musicians. I started to make this mine. I'm not a guy who can just direct something. I have to be in total control of everything. What kind of things did you do to open up the play for film? I imagined their whole lives actually. Because the play was just the bluegrass band on stage. It was set up as a concert, and in between the songs, they are telling their stories. So I had to invent or show what they talked about. You get a career-making performance here from Veerle Baetens. Did you at some point start writing specifically for her? I had written a first draft, and then I did auditions a year before shooting. She and Johan would bring in music and we would all sit together and talk about that. Six months later they started rehearsing the music, so it was a very long process, because it was so complicated. When you knew she was going to play the role, did it then become easier to write? At the audition she just brought something that I hadn't realized that much, which was her darkness. She is a force of nature and is extremely joyful at some points. She had energy too, but it was really the darkness that surprised me. I can understand why this couple would love each other, but only when I saw Johan and Veerle together, I saw for the first time why he would also be afraid of losing her. How well known was she before this? She became very big with TV and is one of the most famous actresses in Flanders for that reason. But I had never worked with her before. She is just a great actress. Usually when you start working on a scene, you have rehearsed it, but when you go in with the actors you have a couple of rounds of talking about it before you get where you want to get. But she's there instantly. She grabs onto the emotion of a scene immediately, and you can do different things. She's such a chameleon. The story requires considerable musical skills of the leads, both singing and playing. At what level were they when they began? Well, Johan learned to play the banjo for the play, and by now he's an O.K. musician. Whereas she is more talented, she had a better voice and is a better singer. Her training is in musical comedy, so she always loved singing, and now she is also pursuing a musical career, she's been touring with the bluegrass band, and also has her own band. And she started playing guitar too, she was eager to learn it. You've just come from two weeks in Hollywood. Do they tend to think there that you've made an American-style movie? No, I think I've had that reaction more from people in France or Germany. They say, "This doesn't feel like a Belgian movie at all, it's more like an American movie, like a better independent American movie that comes out of Belgium. How is that possible? Laughs Given how critical Europeans can sometimes be about American films, do you take that as a compliment? I guess. I'll take anything as a compliment. I guess what Americans love is that it is your music, and it makes you think about your own country, from an outside view. I guess it makes Americans realize more that people are still looking to them. Where do you hope to go with this in terms of the Oscar process? I met Mads Mikkelsen. He was doing promotion for "The Hunt," and he said a great thing. He said, "You should enjoy it and take it very seriously while it's going well, and don't take it seriously if it's not." Laughs. This movie is permitting me to have high hopes to get a nomination. But if not, I'll cry for a day, then go on and make my next movie.