De Kermadec's directing career was plagued by a controversial, and, extremely unfortunate accident, that caused many to debate, when European mogul, producer Serge Silberman, and his daughter Irene Silberman halted the production of what was to be Kermadec's major first International movie in the Fall of 1978: after the second week of filming, Silberman stopped production over the French Riviera's sets of "Sophie et le Capitan" (Sophie and the Capitan) a 14 week, big budgeted motion picture based on an extremely controversial, and erotic story, that was to star Julie Christie. After being terribly disappointed by the first 2 weeks of reels he had envisioned, and, fearing disaster for the film, and, for its main star's reputation, without any further hesitation, Silberman preferred to honor most star's contracts, but he no longer wanted to finance any further nor move forward with the film. Liliane de Kermadec was terribly challenged and saddened by the decision, and, despite Julie Christie's support, with a number of press conferences which were aimed with the hope to resume production on the film, in the winter of 1979, the project was ultimately abandoned.
