Mia Hansen-Løve, the French writer-director whose final movie “Bergman Island” competed ultimately yr’s Cannes, is again on the pageant with “One Fine Morning,” a romance drama headlined by Lea Seydoux. The film world premiered at Administrators’ Fortnight and has earned stellar critiques with Selection‘s Man Lodge describing it as a “wistful, wandering character examine” and “gently transferring reflection on parenting one’s kids and fogeys without delay,” which marks Hansen-Løve’s “returns to French, and to kind.” “One Fine Morning” stars Seydoux as a long-single mom who’s dealing with her father’s degenerative sickness whereas embarking on a brand new, unsure romance with a captivating, but emotionally unavailable man (Melvil Poupaud). Hansen-Love spoke to Selection about her expertise directing Seydoux on this private film, taking on new challenges, her expertise at Cannes and what she’s working on subsequent. Les Movies du Losange is dealing with worldwide gross sales on the film which was produced by Les Movies Pelleas, in co-production with Razor Movie Produktion.
How autobiographical is “One Fine Morning”? Would you say it’s your most private movie?
It’s not precisely an autobiography, but it surely’s positively a really private movie. There are issues within the story which are impressed by my life however no more so than in my earlier movies. I so learn about sickness — my father suffered a degenerative sickness. After “Bergman Island,” I simply felt compelled to make this movie. It’s normally the way it occurs, I don’t make deliberate decisions to make a movie or one other. By this movie, I wished to course of one thing that occurred to me a number of instances, the place you come throughout the likelihood to fall in love, simply as you might be grieving, and also you’re drifting away from the ache. It brings nice pleasure, and on the similar time some torments. Movies discuss life which may be merciless, however we want cruelty to really feel alive. In Sandra’s case, she’s torn between the empathy she feels for her father and her personal needs. She embarks on this new like to survive, to flee this shipwreck.
Why did you select to have her fall in love with somebody who isn’t emotionally accessible?
As a result of I’ve this imaginative and prescient of affection that it’s by no means easy. Typically it’s a battle to make a relationship work. I wished to put in writing a movie that was nuanced which might replicate my expertise of the world, usually riddle with challenges, and present how love may be fragile and susceptible.
There’s additionally a political dimension within the movie.
Sure, however I didn’t attempt to make an overtly political movie but it surely seems that the ordeal of households navigating the world of retirement houses resonates strongly right now. (For the reason that begin of the pandemic), increasingly more individuals have began changing into extra conscious of this as a result of we’re in a rustic the place the inhabitants is growing older and there are increasingly more individuals affected by degenerative sickness. It’s very troublesome to age once you’re unwell. It’s a subject which has been lately tackled in Francois Ozon’s “All the pieces Went Fine” and Gaspard Noe’s “Vortex” however I didn’t watch these movies as a result of I didn’t wish to really feel influenced in any method. I discovered it fascinating to cope with this subject in a method that was trendy and delicate by way of this intimate story, reasonably than make a movie nearly it.
Is Lea Seydoux’s character within the movie supposedly your alter ego?
Probably not, after I solid Lea Seydoux for this position it was as a result of I wished to dive into fiction. I actually wished to make a movie with Lea Seydoux. She has an unimaginable filmography and has such a magnetic bodily presence. What I discover extraordinary with her is the paradox she embodies. She has a simplicity, a restrained nature that’s harking back to Robert Bresson’s characters, and on the similar time she’s a world-famous, glamorous star. After I movie her in “One Fine Morning,” I see her magnetic attraction and on the similar she adapts herself utterly to this position; she has this purity and her appearing is stripped of all artifice. She additionally has inexhaustible supply of thriller and disappointment inside her that only a few actresses have. She’s the best actresses of her technology.
How is it so that you can be in Cannes two consecutive years? Your earlier movie “Bergman Island” was in competitors, and also you’re now at Administrators’ Fortnight.
This yr could be very completely different. Final yr was specific as a result of we had been nonetheless in the midst of COVID, and now now we have the sensation that issues are choosing up. Much more persons are right here. Over at Administrators’ Fortnight, there’s a festive ambiance which I like, however the battle in Ukraine is in our minds, in my thoughts, so I’ve an ambivalent feeling in direction of this festive facet. It’s transferring for me to return to Administrators’ Fortnight the place I introduced my first movie “Tout est pardonné” which was a couple of father-daughter relationship, whereas this one is a couple of daughter grieving her father. It’s as if a loop has been closed. And I additionally respect the truth that Paolo Moretti had chosen my movie “Maya” at his pageant at La Roche-sur-Yon and has been very passionate about “One Fine Morning.” However I used to be additionally very comfortable to have “Bergman Island” compete final yr. Cannes is all the time a problem for me as a result of I’m very shy, I don’t really feel comfy being below the highlight. Since my movies are all the time private I really feel twice as uncovered. If I may have a lookalike attend for me I’d be comfortable.
What do you concentrate on the dialogue over the dearth of feminine administrators in competitors.
It’s clear that the competitors isn’t dazzling for its monitor document with feminine administrators. We’d prefer to see extra of them in 2022. Typically, there’s an impression, from the skin, that the competitors is reserved to male administrators, and Un Sure Regard is for girls. I’ve heard that I used to be thought-about a Cannes common however that’s not correct. Cannes has refused three out of 4 movies directed by me. I hadn’t been in Cannes in 12 years after I introduced “Bergman Island” in competitors. The final time was with “Le père de mes enfants” which performed at Un Sure Regard.
How did you want working in English with worldwide stars like Tim Roth on “Bergman Island” and the way was it to observe up with “One Fine Morning,” a extra intimate movie set in France.
I’ve by no means felt drawn by Hollywood sirens and to me, making a movie with Hollywood stars will not be a progress in itself. It was simply refreshing to shoot exterior of France, in Sweden, with completely different actors, after which return to France with a really native movie and shoot in a retirement house the place my very own dad lived. I prefer to enterprise into the unknown, break free from habits, take dangers and discover completely different worlds like Claire Denis. It stimulates me and likewise fulfils me.
What are you working on?
I’ve a sequence challenge concerning the lifetime of Annemarie Schwarzenbach, the trailblazing Swiss adventurer and author. I’m not attracted by the format of sequence, I don’t even personal a TV and I’m of the few individuals who proceed to go to the film theaters. But it surely’s a challenge that will solely work in a sequence format, not in a movie. I’ve been captivated with Annemarie Schwarzenbach for 15 years. She’s grow to be like a sister or a cousin. After “One Fine Morning,” I’d love to return out of familial grounds and painting this girl, who was so robust, so brave, and likewise susceptible. She was a form of icon however she remained within the shadow and she or he self-destructed. I haven’t written a line as but however I’m going to begin quickly.
Do you assume this sequence may curiosity a streaming service?
I doubt it. And for me, the ‘alpha and omega’ is the liberty. I wouldn’t be capable to make this sequence if I don’t really feel utterly free throughout the writing course of and filming.
Are you being actively courted to make movies or sequence within the U.S.?
I obtain scripts that aren’t good or too standard. Feminine administrators who’ve movies play at main festivals like Cannes or New York are very hotly courted. In precept, I’d like to work off of another person’s script to flee the painful expertise of getting to put in writing my very own. However the scripts I learn are typically very literal, demonstrative of their method to feminism; it’s usually very caricatural and lacks nuance. So I desire to carry on to my sense of integrity and be again in entrance of a white web page. Integrity is a price that was on the core of Ingmar Bergman’s work and that’s one of many issues that I’ve admired essentially the most with him. He was loyal to his demons.
