at the camera from her chamber. Cast Analysis One of the themes of the film is the desensitization to violent or disturbing imagery, both real and simulated, in the modern viewer. Writer Rosanna Maule describes the film as one preoccupied with the over-saturation of digital media culture and globalization, and the roles they play in the "formation of the economic, ideological, and social." Upon its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Demonlover was noted for the disintegrated nature of its final act, which has been described by critic Jonathan Romney as "fall[ing] into an apparent lapse of incoherence." Romney characterizes the film as one made in "the catastrophic mode," exploring a post-capitalist 'société de spectacle' ( "society of spectacle"), "grown out of a generalised contamination and formatting of reality that leaves no apparent means of escape." Critic Thierry Jousse similarly wrote that this quality of the film exhibits "the vertigo of sameness... a no man's land of time changes, of diffused projections, of mental images, of tricky perspectives, of disconnected spaces of ghostly gaps." Production Development Writer-director Olivier Assayas was inspired to make the film based on the writings and experimental films of Guy Debord, which denounced the damaging effects of media on social and interpersonal relations. Casting Connie Nielsen accepted the role of Diane after reading the screenplay, commenting: "I felt something about Diane from the moment I read the script. She's removed and very lonely. I think she mirrors the general loneliness that people feel in a cutthroat environment." At the time, Nielsen had recently completed the big-budget historical drama Gladiator (2000), but was impressed enough by the screenplay that she agreed to star: "I've always done big and small movies. As long as I feel something in my heart when I read it, it really doesn't matter to me." Chloë Sevigny agreed to star in the film as she was an admirer of Assayas's film Irma Vep: "I just wanted to work with a filmmaker who I found fascinating, who was making intriguing work. I met with him in Paris and read the script and signed on." Sevigny had previously been offered the role of Vivian Kensington (a role that eventually went to Selma Blair) in the comedy film Legally Blonde (2001), but opted to star in Demonlover instead. Sevigny was required to learn to speak French for her role of Elise, an American who speaks both