Member of the jury chaired by Guillaume Canet, Rebecca Marder talks with us about this experience and her tastes in American cinema at the Deauville Festival.
Fourteen feature films in Competition. And nine jurors to decide between them at the end of this 49th Deauville American Cinema Festival, which has been taking place since September 1st and will end on the 10th.
Under the presidency of Guillaume Canet, Yodelice, Marina Hands, Alexandre Aja, Stéphane Bak and Rebecca Marder, nominated for the César for Most Promising Actress last February for A Young Girl Who’s Well, are brought together. And recently seen in Simone ou Mon crime by François Ozon.
From the stage, the Franco-American actress, former member of the Comédie-Française, talks with us about this experience as a juror. And his tastes in American cinema, starting with his love of musicals.
THE DEAUVILLE FESTIVAL
We’ve been seeing films for two days, and it’s been a pretty great experience. It’s a luxury to be able to spend ten days watching movies (laughs) I can’t say too much about the movies, but it’s exciting to be there. And what is also very pleasant is that Guillaume Canet suggested that we meet every day to talk about the films we see. Without doing anything. But it’s interesting to debate.
And to talk about cinema with people we admire and who have different opinions. We all come from different backgrounds and it’s rather exciting. When you come to present a film at a festival, you don’t see any films. We sometimes don’t have time to see yours, because we’re here to talk about it. So that’s very pleasant. The juror experience is a very different spectator experience.
I go to the cinema a lot every day, but I go to see films that I choose to see. There, it’s an opportunity to discover films that we wouldn’t have chosen, it renews another viewer’s desire.
When you come to present a film at a festival, you don’t see any films. We sometimes don’t have time to see yours, because we’re here to talk about it.
The charm of festivals is also going to see films without knowing what they are about.
Exactly ! And in genres to which you would not necessarily have gone.
As a Franco-American, the Deauville Festival must be important to you, since it brings together the cinematographies of your two nationalities.
But yes it’s true ! Quite ! And I’m even happier for that.
SHOT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
This is something I would really like to do. Necessarily. Taking advantage of this double culture would be a dream. But as I was in my cloister at the Comédie-Française for seven years, from my 20s to my 27th birthday, and as I only left last year, I was quite attached to Place Colette [à Paris, lieu principal de la Comédie-Française, ndlr]which prevented me from traveling or even dreaming of crossing the ocean (laughs)
But now, yes. I even have a manager in the United States, but it’s more complicated at the moment with the strikes. There are fewer things being prepared – or it’s being pushed back. I would really like to take advantage of this dual culture, and since I have both passports, it’s easier to work.
The radiation of “Simone” should be able to help more.
Yes, it just came out there [le 18 août, ndlr]. But with the strike, I really come at the right time (laughs)
FIRST AMERICAN FILM SEEN
So the first… From childhood, we are faced with American films, so it was really Beethoven or Hello Maman here baby, which are more comedies for children. There are also Charlie Chaplin films, of course. As a child, these were also the first somewhat shocking films, like that: The Kid, Modern Times… And I saw them on the big screen, at MK2: they had released them and I must have been 5 or 6 years old. I was shocked by that.
A CULT MOVIE
It’s always hard to choose one. Here I think of Twilight Boulevard. And also to screwball comedies [nom donné aux comédies loufoques de l’âge d’or hollywoodien, qui combinent burlesque et dialogues vifs sur fond de moeurs, ndlr]. The films of Doulgas Sirk. Him and Billy Wilder have to be something big.
And it’s true that, in my desire to do this job and to enter this world, when I think of “cinema dream”I think of musicals like West Side Story, Hairspray.
Especially since you recently made two musicals, in very different registers.
French style yes (laughs) But American musicals are one of my dreams as a spectator.
I have the impression that it’s the genre that we most associate with the golden age of Hollywood, with its colors, its music, its performances.
Quite. I also, of course, like all the films of John Cassavetes. Tootsie by Sydney Pollack. Or, today, the work of Sam Mendes and Noah Baumbach. This is a bit of a mess, put it that way. (laughs) I also really like John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, who did Crazy Stupid Love. I think it’s great.
American musicals are one of my dreams as a spectator
It’s not a bad move from Cassavetes to musicals.
Yes. But it’s all a dream in American cinema. And it’s great to see independent films here. It gives hope in other ways of making films. In the meantime, coming back to the question, I would also like to add Tim Burton and Beetlejuice.
Isn’t the musical, at the same time, the most cinematic genre, and the most difficult for an actor, given what it involves in terms of singing and dancing?
In France perhaps. I feel like it’s part of the actor’s training in the United States. Me, I was trained in France, I went to the school of the TNS [Théâtre National de Strasbourg, ndlr], but I aspire to be more than a talking head. I find it great, and not just in musicals, when an actor’s performance is physical. I’m always impressed by the body.
But I don’t think it’s one genre harder than another. Afterwards, of course, a successful musical is more difficult to do (laughs) And in France we are not professionals.
A FETISH ACTOR OR ACTRESS
It’s cliché, but Gena Rowlands necessarily. Maybe Faye Dunaway too. And on the side of the actors, Leonardo DiCaprio is a sacred monster. But there are so many. Dustin Hoffman is the king of everything to me. But I think my two favorite actors are Christopher Walken and Steve Buscemi.
Is there an actress who is a role model for you?
So it’s impossible to try the comparison huh (laughs) But Meryl Streep. And then Kate Winslet, who I find incredible. Especially in the mini-series Mare of Easttown, which everyone must see. This actress is insane. I would also add Bette Davis.
LAST SEEN AMERICAN FILM
So I went to see… I’m serious. Pardon. It’s the brainwashing of the summer, especially since when I got back to Paris, I saw Anatomy of a Fall and Yannick straight away. But I would say it’s Mission: Impossible 7. And I thought it was good in the genre. How are you. It almost made me laugh.
I had also had the chance to see Indiana Jones in Cannes, and I had been too dazzled. And no, the last American movie I saw was actually Barbie.
LAST AMERICAN FAVORITE
I discovered Kramer versus Kramer, which I still hadn’t seen. I saw him last week. And there, real crush. I also discovered Minnie and Moskowitz with Gena Rowlands, and it’s too beautiful.
AN EXPECTATION
I’m waiting to see Joaquin Phoenix in Napoleon. I really want to see this. And Dune, of course, which we are all waiting for. But passion Joaquin Phoenix, whom I also adored in Walk the Line. He’s crazy in it.
Interview by Maximilien Pierrette in Deauville on September 3, 2023