“ Maria”, it’s Maria Schneider. We are at the end of the 1960s. She is 16 years old, with candid eyes, her face covered with little girl’s bangs. She is no longer a child, not yet an adult. Her father, actor Daniel Gélin, played here by Yvan Attal, invited her to attend a film shoot. An apprentice actress, she observes him admiringly. Deep down, she knows…
“ Maria”, it’s Maria Schneider. We are at the end of the 1960s. She is 16 years old, with candid eyes, her face covered with little girl’s bangs. She is no longer a child, not yet an adult. Her father, actor Daniel Gélin, played here by Yvan Attal, invited her to attend a film shoot. An apprentice actress, she observes him admiringly. Deep down, she knows little about this inconsistent enjoyer, who did not raise her.
Three years pass. A prominent Italian director, Bernardo Bertolucci (Giuseppe Maggio), offers him an important role in a film whose subject will be, he says, “an intense physical relationship”. With Marlon Brando (Matt Dillon)! She accepts, not without pride.
The team shoots in isolation in a Parisian apartment that is as opulent as it is gloomy. In this stifling closed space, Brando reigns like a dark star. He no longer believes in anything, especially not in cinema. What a contrast between the cynicism of this despot who oozes self-hatred and Maria’s faith in her new profession.
Simple, frontal implementation
The rest is sadly known. During one scene, the character played by Brando sodomizes his partner with the help of a piece of butter. This was not planned in the script. The actor and director had this idea a few hours before filming, and did not inform Maria. She is paralyzed, struggles in vain, under the voracious and cruel gaze of the camera. This humiliation, fixed forever on film, will remain an incurable wound for the young actress.
The character played by Brando sodomizes his partner with the help of a piece of butter. This was not planned in the script
Bertolucci justifies the unjustifiable by invoking an alleged quest for truth. Maria’s agent advises her to forget the episode, to silence her anger. “Otherwise, no one will want to hire you anymore. »
But Maria does not recover and seeks a solution to this trauma, and her loneliness, in drugs. She pursued a demanding career no matter what, filming with Rivette and Comencini, while fiercely refusing, forty years before #MeToo, to obey when filmmakers wanted to make her film nude. This insubordination marginalizes her.
Moving Anamaria Vartolomei
Adapted from a book by journalist Vanessa Schneider, her cousin, Jessica Palud’s second feature film is classically crafted, and flirts with didacticism in certain scenes. But what strength! It’s hard not to be moved and revolted. The filmmaker chose a simple, frontal direction, indexed on Maria’s point of view, to describe, beyond her character, a system where women come up against the wall of power and silence. She talks about cinema before #MeToo, confirms that when it comes to the status of actresses, we have come a long way, a long way.
Anamaria Vartolomei and Matt Damon, who plays Marlon Brando.
Guy Ferrandis/Haut et Court
The impact of “Maria” owes a lot to the incarnation of Anamaria Vartolomei, moving in her fragility and righteousness. She impressed in “The Event”, by Audrey Diwan, will amaze you in “The Count of Monte Cristo”, which comes out at the end of June. At 25 years old, this raw talent is firmly establishing itself in French cinema. In “Maria,” she is the face of bruised innocence.
“Maria” by Jessica Palaud. Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes. Released June 19.
