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Portrait of a Lady on Fire interview with director and leading actresses, hosted by Patrick Fabre on Radio des Rues at the 2019 Angoulême Francophone Film Festival. Translation into English.

Patrick Fabre: PF

Céline Sciamma: CS

Adèle Haenel: AH

Noémie Merlant: NM

Translated by Steph RodCa

PF: We are here on the radio of the festival, and I‘m really intimidated, which doesn't happen very often, because I am with the director and the leading actresses of a film that has left me speechless, overwhelmed, thrilled. The only thing that I could think of when i saw it was: This is a masterpiece. I'm talking about Celine Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire. I'm joined by Celine Sciamma, Adèle Haenel, and Noémie Merlant. I am really happy to have you here. How are you?

CS, AH, NM: Pretty good, thank you.

PF: Was it a difficult night? Did the film screening start a little bit late? Or did everything turn out well?

CS: I think everything turned out well.

PF: Yeah, i've been told that. Spectators said that.

CS: I believe them

PF: I'm happy for you. Is this your first time at the festival?

CS: It is my second one

PF: The first time you presented…

CS: Girlhood

PF: The film was in competition, right?

CS: No, I don’t think so

PF: What is your opinion of the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival? Because everybody says is a key-event, is a must-go, you were at the Cannes Film Festival where things went well for you, so do you agree that this is a key-step?

CS: Well, it’s a key-step because we are in front of another kind of audience, a sort of “real audience”, even if I don’t know quite well what a real audience means

PF: An audience barely composed of professionals, that’s the rumors… Adèle is not completely sure of that definition

AH: I have nothing to say on that matter. Indeed, i think it is amazing there is an audience that is less related to the film industry. It’s the townspeople who come, so it’s amazing.

PF: Exactly. So, is it important to have this feedback?

CS: Of course, on the road to film release we get closer and closer to real audience so we are happy to be closer and closer to them.

PF: Both of you Adèle and Noémie, do you think likewise? Is it important to meet the audience, to have this feedback?

AH: Yes, it’s very important. It is a part of our job that may seem laborious sometimes but in fact it’s extremely important because we make films in the hope of communicating ideas, for the love of beauty, for the love of art. And this is not a one-way process, we are not the only ones who go and meet the audience, the people themselves come and meet us. So let’s say it’s the second heart of our job.

PF: What about you Noémie? Because you have already been to the festival as well. I remember that I hosted a screening of Heaven will wait, you were very moved. So, do you agree that it is important to meet the audience, to discover the film with them?

NM: Well, yeah, it is extremely important. I think we all make films to share something, a work, an experience. And yeah, I clearly remember what it’s like to meet them, to share the end of a film, to see their questions, their reactions, or just their strong words, it’s very significant.

PF: So, in the film Noémie is a young painter, Marianne, who is commissioned to make Héloïse’s portrait in order to send it to her future husband in Milan. Héloïse is played by Adèle Haenel. The story is set in 1770. It was you, Céline Sciamma, who wrote the screenplay. You were awarded the Best Screenplay at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. You went from a girlhood to another girlhood just some centuries earlier, and yet the film is extremely modern. How do you get to make a modern period film? Was that your intention?

CS: Yes, I wanted to make the subject as contemporary as possible, each one of my films has been ruled by this intention. So the time period may be ancient but the subject itself is contemporary. It seems to me that it is the same kind of energy that is present in all films, in character incarnation. To me, the significant difference is not so much the time period or even the film genre but rather adulthood, the fact of telling a past love story, and the desire to work with actresses in this business. I think that’s more what I try to do.

PF: Where did this story idea come from?

CS: From my mind. [Laughs]

PF: Which is apparently a good place

CS: Well, period films are quite particular. In general they are subject to the adaptation of a work or a historical event , which is the starting point. So there was this desire to tell an original story that had not been told yet, so it was rather wise to invent it. Then, there is the pleasure of proposing a completely new fiction, that also makes the film contemporary, by not making comments about the voices of the past, but instead by inventing them. Also, by telling the long continuity of the bodies, the hearts, the desires, even if the contexts are different, at the same time, there is a common ground because it’s a time period where progress seems linear, especially the progress concerning women, but this is not at all the case, the destiny of women and their place in the world are still adjustment variables. It was a time where there was some freedom and many women had a career but then there was a backlash and they were erased. Then, in the nineteenth century, the notion of bourgeoise women was introduced. We are going through a blossoming moment of a certain culture, a feminist counterculture that has shaped the world order, so I think this is an important moment, it’s a great moment to be alive. However,you know, you feel the violence, the backlash. Last night, there was an event around femicide, 94 women have been killed this year (in France), the numbers are increasing, it’s a higher rate compared with the same period last year. I think that constitutes a sort of backlash too.

PF: Definitely. As regards to acting in costume, at the beginning of the film we see Marianne arriving by boat to the island, there is a wooden box that fall off the boat, we don’t know yet what’s on the inside. It looks like it’s super important for your character, Noémie, and you jump into the sea wearing this dress and I was like, no way, she’s going to sink, she’s going to die. [Laughs] In that moment, do you bring out the importance of the costume?

NM: Yeah, totally. We talked about it before

CS: A lot

NM: For days and even weeks

AH: The costume was very stressful

NM: Because I don’t know what the dry weight of the dress is, several kilos ?

CS: It’s heavy

NM: Once wet, go figure! But you can do it, we did it. We also had a woman helping us, diving, but I was in the water, I swam wearing that dress and I did it. I had small buoys on the dress.

PF: For safety reasons. And it’s crazy, there are gestures in this film related to the costume that I’ve never seen before in a period film. For example, getting dressed and undressed, you observe a more practical aspect, you see the cords…

NM: The pockets, yeah.

PF: Adèle, you’re not convinced, you experienced that in a different way, didn’t you? Am i wrong and it’s not as easy as it seems?

AH: No, I mean it has to do more with the social function of people. Since we are talking about someone from nobility, it’s an object par excellence, you could say that. In this case, lacing a corset-back dress, getting dressed yourself becomes impossible. So we cannot say that independence is encouraged.

PF: Of course. But i was thinking of those petticoats

AH: Indeed. But, I don’t know, I’m not an expert on that, but based on the function of women there had to be a relatively high practical level. I think, all in all, servants were able to dress themselves, they didn’t need the help of anyone.

PF: Yesterday, I was telling Céline there is a shot in the film that overwhelms me, it’s a very simple shot, you see these three women in the kitchen. The third woman, it must be said, is played by Luàna Bajrami and she is the young maid. At a certain point, they’re left alone, the fiancée’s mother, played marvelously by Valeria Golino, is gone. You see them in the kitchen, the maid is doing embroidery, this activity is rather reserved for a noble or bourgeois person, someone having this social status, Noémie’s character is in the middle, and yours (Adèle’s) is cooking. So, there is a social role reversal. I found it a magnificent shot, it tells a lot of things without words, without dialogues. How did you come up with this? Was it something that appeared on the set or was it already written?

CS: I think films are made based on pivot scenes, scenes providing us with foundations and courage. Therefore, this image was one of these, it was one of the most precious images in the film. Besides, it’s a sequence-shot where there is a choreography between the three characters, you see Sophie doing embroidery, then there is Marianne who enters and serves a glass of wine, you see, women drink, women smoke, and then there is an aristocrat, Héloïse, cooking. So what’s interesting in this shot is not only the generation of a pleasure for spectators, this carnavalesque pleasure derived from this role reversal, but also a pleasure for the three women. I mean, the aristocrat is not cooking just because the roles have been reversed but because she enjoys it, it’s the jubilation of Adèle’s character and Adèle, she’s a part of the image’s composition, the pleasure, the incarnation, the joy, the opportunity, the meaning of having the opportunity to change places.

PF: Another strong moment is that when Adèle’s character says: “Let’s paint!”. To be represented in a reality becomes really important in this part of the film. What was your experience like in that scene?

AH: I don’t see it very different from the whole film. It’s pretty much what Céline has talked about. There is something political when we go into action but also something extremely joyful. We had essentially the same idea with Céline, we were going in the same direction, in terms of jubilation. To me, this scene is the result of connected minds, it’s not a dominant mind offering its world vision but it’s several minds stimulating each other, several sensitivities in connection and even if they remain single entities they have a decoupled strength.

PF: Group strength?

AH: Friendship strength, i would say.

PF: Is friendship strength what you need to make a good film? To be supported by a team you can trust? How important is to assemble a team before making a film?

CS: Yeah, of course. In this film there is, on the one hand, a great loyalty with my producer, with my mentor, with my music composer, even if music is sparingly used, with Adèle, and on the other hand, there is plenty of novelty, there is Noémie Merlant, cinematographer Claire Mathon. So it’s a mix of friends and meetings, as well as future friends. So I don’t believe friendship is necessary when making a good film, I think the film is similar to the way it was made and the set rules, the atmosphere, the feelings are reflected. Overall, I think if we make a romantic movie it’s okay to love each other.

PF: Noémie, this film surely means a lot to you because you are more in the spotlight, it’s one of the first films where you’re given a leading role, even if in Heaven will wait you had a leading role as well, it was kind of different since there were two parallel stories, it was hyperlink cinema, however in this one there are three characters. Besides, this film was presented at the Cannes Film Festival. Do all theses reasons make it even more meaningful to you? Or, they have nothing to do and it’s the story itself that really matters to you?

NM: Well, it’s a mix of a lot of things, what you said but also meeting the team, meeting Céline, Adèle, was really important to me. The way Céline works. The story also shows a real vision shared intensively by Céline and Adèle. They provided me and they provide me with this vision. So, to me it’s extremely important as an artist, as an actress, and as a woman. I learned and I keep on learning several things thanks to this film, so it is extremely important because of this as well.

PF: I think we can all learn a lot of things thanks to this film and I strongly recommend that you watch it. It will be released on…

CS: September 18

PF: I strongly recommend that you go watch Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire on September 18. I’ll definitely go watch it on September 18 because I’m already missing it. Then, maybe I’ll get a “page 28” tattoo. [Laughs]