"I created my characters for "Mécaniques célestes" by using people I had met in Paris and who had made an inpression on me. Nothing is a complete invention and yet nothing is as it truly was. Reality has been romanticized, exaggerated and transformed. Characters like the analyst "Alcanie" or the shifty witch-doctor "Toutou" are similar to people I've known. I also knew a zany boy like "Armand", who was as generous as he is in the film. He had been with his boyfriend for twelve years yet went through a paper marriage to help out one of my friends. Moreover, the way I found the actor who plays him, Frédéric Longbois, was just as zany. I met him by chance in the air salon where he was working. He would cut my hair while singing songs that he had written himself, putting on a real act for me. Fascinated by this crazy individual who, in actual fact, was amazingly similar to the character in the screenplay. I offered him the part. He was so moved that he started his recital all over again while working on my hair. I left the salon with a crew-cut."

(Fina Torres)