Like many eighties children in France and around the world, director Francois Ozon also grew up on “La Boum” and fell in love with his star, Sophie Marceau. She was 13 when she was filmed, and unlike many prodigies she managed to cultivate an impressive film career even after that. The director always dreamed of working with her, and offered her some scripts, which she rejected for various reasons. Only recently has the dream come true, and the object of his admiration was accepted his offer to star in “Everything Passed in Peace.”
The film premiered as part of the official Cannes Film Festival competition last year, and is now coming to Israel. Marceau plays a woman whose beloved father has a stroke at the age of 85, and asks her to help him go through euthanasia, which of course presents her with a moral dilemma and emotional flooding. It sounds like a heavy and depressing drama, but in fact it has quite a few touches of humor, and a lot of lightness and humanity. Through dealing with death she manages to express quite a bit of joy of life.
“Marceau is a huge star, but there is no jealousy or resentment towards her in France, only love and empathy, and it was important to me that in a story like this the protagonist would be played by someone the audience could identify with,” Ozon said of her choice. “The film is based on a book by Emanuel Bernheim. I sent it to Sophie, and after one day she called and said to me, ‘Okay, this time it suits me, you can work together.’ I would not work with anyone else, so the film would not have happened without her.”
I meet Marceau with a small group of journalists from across Europe, a day after the premiere on the Riviera. The star is already used to this class – she has walked the red carpet in Cannes many times. In addition, she has a relatively glittering Hollywood career behind her, probably relative to a French actress of her generation, which includes, among others, the Oscar-winning “Brave Heart” and the “The World Is Not Enough” series in the James Bond series. And despite all that, it has no stardom.
Unlike many of her colleagues, the actress arrives for interviews on time and without any entourage behind her. She speaks openly and at eye level, and enjoys shaking off contours. Perhaps precisely because she does not pursue respect and love, she is so loved in her homeland. The Journal de Dimench conducts a survey every year in which it asks the public who its favorite local anchors are, and Marceau regularly occupies the first place among women.
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“I’m an actress in the sense that I act in movies, but I’m not an actress in the sense that other actresses are portrayed in the media,” she says. “I do not judge anyone and anyone, but I read about the conduct of stars, and I do not recognize myself in it. I do not like to have people around me who arrange my life. I like to do things on my own.”
Life is not a picnic
Unlike many of her colleagues in France, Marceau was not born into the world of glamor. Her parents, with whom she was in very close contact, were working class people: her father was a truck driver, her mother worked in a shop and then in a restaurant, and they did not take her to see movies and certainly did not encourage her to play in them. “Already as an actress, I did everything myself,” she tells me. “I did not have an agent, I did not have a stylist, I did not have anything. When I went to be photographed for interviews on the occasion of ‘Party Madness’ or his pledge, so I took the metro, and put on my clothes from home.”
When I tell her that in Israel it is customary to see her as a symbol of French chic, she laughs. “It’s so funny to me to hear that. Do you know where I came from?” She says. “In France they thought I was simple. One producer told me I was dressed like a housewife. He was so evil. Even editors at fashion magazines hated me because I could not get into the clothes they wanted me to wear. They said I was ‘too fat’ and I would ruin them. The projects we planned to do. “
Do you feel you have sacrificed things for your roles?
“No, I do not think we as actresses are sacrificing anything. I do think I suffered, and I’m fine with that. Life is not a picnic. It has suffering, and it has an important role. On tears of the good kind, because they connect you to something. “
Speaking of your family, do you remember the moment when you realized that your parents are not just your parents but people in their own right, with a world of their own?
“I remember the moment, and you know what? Even now, when they are already dead, I do not know them. I always thought: as soon as they die, I will be enlightened, and I will understand them and understand myself. It did not happen. I still have many questions left. I You do not judge them, they just have intimate sides that I did not know and did not understand. “
What would you ask them if you could?
“But how can I talk to them now? There’s no way, right? I’ve already learned to accept the mystery. I realized there are questions we will not get answers to in this life.”
How did you deal emotionally with the death of your parents?
“I’m an actress, so if I do not know how to activate the emotion, I better change professions. The encounter with death floods you with emotions. When someone dies, the family puzzle changes, and everyone has to grab a different slot. It’s a tsunami of emotions. You laugh at despair with all the colors in the middle of”.
Light as a bird
One of the journalists compliments Marceau, telling her that she now looks even better than the last time they met. “Thank you very much, it’s nice of you,” she replies. “My mother was so beautiful. Her sister, my aunt, is still alive. She’s 80, and still so beautiful. She looks so young, she’s amazing. I’m lucky. It’s probably the genes, and so is my diet – I do not eat nonsense. “.
Why do you miss the most from the days of “Party Madness”?
“As a child, I ran all the time. I was as light as a bird. I did not walk from point A to point B – I ran. Today, I no longer have the strength to run, I walk. If I run, I get up the next day with busy muscles.”
How do you look at the perspective of “party craze”?
“It was a wonderful experience. Thanks to it I visited the whole world. I can not say I traveled, because I usually only saw the hotel and its terrace, but I met a lot of people. Whether it was in Japan or in Israel, we always talked about the same things. The film deals with universal issues. “Like the first kiss, and can connect to it anywhere.”
He also appeared in a film in the James Bond series. What does this experience look like in retrospect?
“It was fun, I loved the spectacle. I enjoyed doing blockbusters, and I have no objection to attending another one in the future, but I admit I prefer more intimate films, the kind that are made in France. I love films that are thoughtful, handcrafted, and personally I like to be involved .
Have your kids already watched “Party Madness”?
“I do not think, they have not seen most of my films. My daughter, Juliette, watched this film and said to me ‘Mom, already in the first minutes there is a fuck in your credibility.’ I asked ‘Oh, alas, why?’, And she said ‘because “You are seen traveling by metro, and you are never traveling by metro.” She is right, I really stopped traveling by metro many years ago. It is one thing in my lifestyle that has changed over time. ”
Avner Shavit is the film critic of Walla!