For the main actors the director was looking for "classic beauty, something pure in the shapes of their face, to project the romanticism of the film", to complement the beauty of the natural world. He wanted actors who could express artlessness - she engaged in the revolution and him in a state of wonder at nature. As the two characters become "porous" to each other during the film, an essential quality he sought was 'solid fragility' ("solide fragilité"). Giacomini took part in the initial auditions without success but she insisted to be seen again.
