at Lumière

Posted on 16.10.2023

Irène Jacob introducing El Camino by Ana Mariscal

"Ana Mariscal filmed a universe of young boys. For one of them, it is their last summer in the countryside. The director shows this interruption, then asks a comprehensive question: ‘Do we know more about the world by living in the country or by studying in the city?’ She also raises the question of religion when one’s senses are being called upon from all sides. In this film, it’s all about sensory perception: the light, the cries of the animals, the nicknames of the children like a nod to Truffaut's The 400 Blows. There's also the poetry of the dialogue: ‘If a star falls from the sky, where does it go?’”

© Jean-Luc Mège Photography

Karin Viard introducing Lulu femme nue by Solveig Anspach

"I'm an emotional actress and I learn a lot about myself through what I'm presented with. What usually makes me say no to a film? I’ll refuse it  if it's a bit conventional, if it lacks singularity, or if I feel like I've done it before, or if I don't think it's written well enough, or if I realise it's not a story I'd like to see.

I don't have a painful relationship with acting, I don't go home with it, I have more of a playful relationship and overall, I don't confuse myself with the characters I play. On the other hand, if I don't get on with a director or a cast member, that can take away my joyful nature. Solveig Anspach was a very, very special director in my career, and I loved her deeply. The first time she came to me was with Haut les Cœurs !, a story she had written in a sterile room, about a woman who learns she is both pregnant and diagnosed with cancer.

I was a determined girl and I wondered if I would be able to play the part. It's a film where life and death progress together in the same body, and it's been used as a testimonial at doctors' conferences. Seventeen years later, she asked me to make Lulu femme nue, when the disease had caught up with her after a long remission. Our relationship needed no words, but it was something very deep: she knew how to film my intimacy, and like Maïwenn, she had a carnal side. Lulu femme nue is an embodiment of her.”

 

© Jean-Luc Mège Photography