By Cara Nash
For the past eight years, FilmInk has had the pleasure of attending an annual, week-long media junket in Paris during which we devour an endless number of French films and interview the biggest names in the industry. It’s an incredible opportunity, and we’d be kidding ourselves if we classified it as a “working week.” But FilmInk’s visit this year was a decidedly different affair, with this journalist landing in the French capital on the early morning of Friday, November 13, hoping to sneak in a few days of sightseeing first. But that changed when, that evening, a series of terrorist attacks – at a soccer stadium, a rock concert, and restaurants and bars – shattered the city and stole 130 lives.
It was profoundly sad news that was difficult to absorb, and tough to know what to do in the circumstances – stay indoors like the French Government were suggesting, or step outside and see how the city was coping? Deciding to venture out on the appropriately bleak Saturday, we found various metro lines shut, cafes and restaurants largely deserted, cinemas closed, and even a trip to the supermarket saw security guards checking your bag and coat thoroughly. While the streets slowly began to come back to life on Sunday, the city’s famed museums and monuments remained closed and branded with a sign that read, “State Of Emergency.”
In communication with two other Australian journalists who had also arrived ahead of the junket, FilmInk learnt that the other writers still scheduled to come had cancelled their trips. At this time, it seemed uncertain whether the junket would proceed. The evening before the interviews were to commence, however, we received an email from the Vice-President of UniFrance Films, the organisation responsible for hosting the junket. “As you know, our country is deeply shocked,” it read. “Nevertheless, we have the conviction that our best answer is to keep our culture alive. We’re prouder than ever to represent French cinema.”
It was a touching email, and one that had an air of admirable defiance about it. In many ways, it was a predictable response given that we were in one of the world’s greatest cultural capitals, and a city that proudly values the arts even – or perhaps, especially – in times of crisis. Admittedly, this year’s junket was a quieter affair, with a few artists dropping out, including Vincent Cassel, though no absences were for reasons directly related to the attacks. Cassel was shooting the new Bourne film in London, and the events in Paris saw production stall there, and thus the French superstar’s return home was delayed. The attending artists soldiered on though, greeting us warmly and checking in with how we were feeling before getting down to the discussion of French cinema.
One of the more visibly shaken artists was actress-turned-filmmaker, Maiwenn, who enters the hotel room dressed all in black and collapses into tears. When we ask whether she’d still like to conduct the interview, she responds that she doesn’t want to put her life on hold, and asks if it’s okay that she smokes in the hotel room. We don’t mind. We gently ask the French beauty about the genesis of her new film, Mon Roi, a stunning and devastating look at a ten-year relationship between two lovers played by Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Bercot. “I’ve been thinking about this story for more than ten years,” she says in English. “I had the feeling that I wasn’t ready to write it. I was not mature enough. A few months ago, I wanted to make a film about the war, but now I feel like a four-year-old girl. I’m not ready again because of everything that happened this weekend.”
Maiwenn may be in a fragile state now, but Mon Roi, her follow-up to 2011’s acclaimed Polisse, is another deeply impressive piece of work from the increasingly confident and compelling 39-year-old filmmaker. After pulling herself together to talk in detail about her film, she tears up again at the close of our interview. “To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what I’m going to do next. It’s hard to project myself into the future today. Will I write again? Will I not? Like a lot of artists today, I’m feeling completely numb. Making movies like this one feels superficial. Right now is what matters. On the other hand, culture is what feeds the spirit. Since Saturday, I’ve been torn between these two things.”
In more upbeat spirits is Vincent Lindon, a true legend in the French film industry, and best known for playing working class heroes in a string of acclaimed films. He plays another decent-hearted family man in The Measure Of A Man, a performance which landed him the Best Actor Award at The Cannes Film Festival. The simple but heartbreaking film tells the story of Thierry (Lindon), an unemployed factory worker desperately trying to make ends meet. When we ask Lindon if the battle of his character – and by extension, the film – is not to give in to apathy, the actor nods. “One scene is very important in answering your question,” he says, detailing a sequence in which Thierry is attempting to sell his mobile home, but clashes with a potential buyer looking to drop the price. “I thought that this scene was about a poor guy fighting with a powerful guy who doesn’t want to give him the money asked. But that’s not the true story, and that’s what I like – this scene is about two poor guys fighting for the same thing, which is 200 euros. That’s big for me, but big for him too. I need those 200 euros because I can fill my fridge for fifteen days, but it’s the same for him. The problem today is that because there are no jobs and life is violent, as you can see by what has happened in the past three days in France, it’s difficult to take care of others because there’s not enough room for everybody. It’s a fight.”
One film with particularly potent subject matter given recent events is Raphael Jacoulot’s Heatwave, which chronicles the story of a troubled young man who is eventually made into a scapegoat for the troubles occurring in his village, and then murdered. It was an incident that actually occurred in a village near the director’s hometown, and he was compelled to bring the story to screen. “We worked on the feelings of insecurity and fear and how they can make people more fragile and lead to rumours based on fantasies. I wanted to explore how that violence can grow within each character.” When we suggest how timely his film feels, Jacoulot agrees, but slightly evades our line of questioning too. “I always wanted to have a universal approach. There’s no name given to this village, but the way that ‘outsiders’ can become stigmatised is something that you can see in neighbourhoods and yes, in cities.”
This mix of the personal and political is something that French filmmakers excel at, and writer/director, Catherine Corsini, perfectly blends the two with her romantic drama, Summertime, a seventies-set love story between two women, played by Cecile De France and pop star-turned-actress, Izia Higelin. “When you make a film, you start with this personal core, and you open up,” reveals Corsini, who produced the movie with her real-life female partner. “I wanted to show how the development of the homosexual movement really felt from the woman’s liberation movement. In the seventies, the women’s movement was incredibly dynamic, and there was this sense of solidarity and utopia. It was even more of a revolution than what happened here in May ’68, and the changes that it brought about are the changes that make up our world today.”
It’s hard to discuss Corsini’s film without Abdellatif Kechiche’s hugely talked about 2013 French drama, Blue Is The Warmest Colour, creeping into the conversation, and indeed the filmmaker felt its presence too. “I was upset when I found out about the movie,” she reveals candidly. “Things happened so quickly – between first hearing about it and then it winning the Palme d’Or. I was in the midst of writing my script, but I decided not to give up. How many films about heterosexual love have there been? Two movies about homosexual love isn’t really too much. I wished that I was the first one, but on the other hand, maybe viewers went to see his film in greater numbers than they would have if the director had been a woman. It paved the way for me to a certain degree.”
There seems less of a gender debate in France, but Corsini says that’s simply because “we lag behind in terms of discussing issues.” Tellingly, if we’re to look at the films at the junket through a statistical lens, all the comedies have been directed by men, whereas female filmmakers – perhaps feeling the need to prove themselves – tackle the more serious dramas. When we put this to Marina Fois, star of Mama Or Papa, a subversive comedy in which two divorcing parents fight not to have custody of their children, the actress becomes animated. “Comedy is a place, at least in France, where there is a real sexism,” she says. “Either we’re nymphomaniacs, depressed because we’re going to have our period, or have belly fat. I want to make people laugh while being feminine, but that’s not the case. It’s as if funny women in France are expected to bring out their manly side.”
One of the junket’s best comedies belongs to writer, director, and actor, Bruno Podalydes. TitledThe Sweet Escape, the bittersweet film follows a weary office worker who embarks on what he dreams will be an epic kayaking adventure, only to keep circling back to the same place. It provides a perfect end note for our trip. “The crucial idea is giving up on your agenda,” the filmmaker smiles. “That can really be the beauty of travelling. If you stick to the established plan… well, sometimes it doesn’t work that way. Just look at what’s happening here in France today. There are a lot of people here on holiday tours, and their stay will be disrupted, and yet they might come to find out more about France – our values and motto and sense of community. Even though some monuments are closed, they might get to understand more deeply what France is about, and who French people are. That’s the strength of the unexpected.”
All of the films mentioned in this article are set to screen at The Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, screening around the country in March and April, 2016. For more information, visit www.affrenchfilmfestival.org.
