Presented at Cannes Première on the occasion of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the biopic dedicated to the life of actress Maria Schneider has been available in theaters since June 19. Under the direction of Jessica Palud, Anamaria Vartolomei is Maria!
In theaters since June 19, Maria is a heartbreaking biopic, which looks back on the broken destiny of actress Maria Schneider, headliner of the sulphurous Last Tango in Paris in 1972 alongside Marlon Brando. A feature film which marked his career, but also changed his entire existence…
In fact, Maria was only 19 years old when she landed one of the main roles in the new project by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci (The Conformist). But upon its release, the film was rated X in many countries, and banned in others, because of its explicit sex scenes, including a sodomy scene which particularly shocked the public.
In it, Marlon Brando’s character uses a pat of butter as lubricant, a gesture improvised by the actor and filmmaker, of which Maria Schneider had not been informed beforehand. Her tears shed on screen are indeed real. The trauma of this attack, the humiliation experienced and the contempt of certain spectators after the release of the feature film will plunge the young woman into a destructive spiral.
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To play Maria Schneider, it was therefore necessary to find an actress up to this highly intense role, a major challenge for director Jessica Palud. And it was Anamaria Vartolomei, awarded the César for Most Promising Actress in 2022 for her performance in L’Événement, that she chose!
When Anamaria becomes Maria…
Soon to appear in the highly anticipated Count of Monte Cristo, the 25-year-old actress was entrusted with the difficult task of playing this multifaceted woman. “The character of Maria is complex, there are several roles in one: the young girl, the actress, the drug addict, the injured woman… […] Anamaria has a very strong cinematic style, and also panache: she was not afraid to do things. And then, to play Maria Schneider, you have to burst the screen,” explains Jessica Palud.
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The director also chose her actress after writing the script, already having in mind all the ambivalence necessary to interpret the different “faces” of Maria. Together, the two women worked extensively before filming so that the actress could fully make the role her own.
“We saw each other a lot, we worked, rehearsed beforehand and created our Maria together for several months. I wanted her to know the story by heart, to free herself from it on set. I knew that for us to finally hear Maria’s voice, she had to give herself completely to the character,” says the director.
Since this is also the strength of the 7th art, giving a voice back to those who have not been listened to, these victims who have been ignored, put aside or left behind, and paying tribute to them during a movie.
With this performance, Anamaria Vartolomei once again shows the full extent of her talent in a dramatic register. She notably opposite Matt Dillon in the role of Marlon Brando. Marie Gillain and Yvan Attal play her parents, Marie-Christine Schneider and the actor Daniel Gélin.
Discover the story of Maria Schneider at the cinema in the film by Jessica Palud.