How Céline Sallette made Niki de Saint Phalle her model of revolution

It’s not the destination that matters, but the journey.” While the formula may seem hackneyed, it lends itself well to the career of Niki de Saint Phalle, for whom the creative process took precedence over the final work, as well as to that of Céline Sallette, who has been engaged for ten years in a profound restructuring inspired by the destiny of the visual artist.

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Coming across one of her interviews, I was doubly struck, first by her resemblance to Charlotte Le Bon, then by the modernity of this woman who, in 1965, revealed, in front of Roger Kahane’s camera, a determination to free herself from the condition of housewife and minor artist in which they wanted to confine her.

This anecdote, Céline Sallette had the opportunity to tell it last May at the Cannes Film Festival, during the presentation of her first feature film in the Un Certain Regard selection. But when we find her, on a scorching afternoon, in the cool of the air-conditioned offices of her distributor, the actress takes the time to open up. “At 34, I understood that the way I was functioning was not the right one. Locked in an emotional dependency, I was constantly looking to satisfy something in the eyes of others to feel that I existed. To get out of this impasse that was rotting my intimate life, I had to search deep within myself. It is difficult, uncomfortable work, but when I understood that I was ultimately my own hell, I felt internally, even physically, the need to completely reform myself. This had consequences on my life and my environment.”

Also readIn the secret garden of Niki de Saint Phalle

This (r)evolution is also what his first feature film tells, Niki. Carried with graceful determination by Charlotte Le Bon (who, in addition to her talent as an interpreter, has many things in common with the person she plays: dual nationality, unfortunate experience in modeling, the need to make her own artistic or cinematographic productions), the film retraces the ten years that allowed the Franco-American visual artist “to go and find, in the psychiatric hospital, the cause of the hell that inhabited her, then to draw from it knowledge that she would bring to the world through her works.” We then discover that when channeled through art, her rage becomes powerful.

Watch the video Niki: the trailer for the film with Charlotte Le Bon

This journey gave Céline Sallette the desire to have a second child, ten years after her first daughter, and allowed her to allow herself to tell stories. “In literature as in cinema, stories are what interest me. They allow me to reach the vibration of the world and help me understand how we live,” she notes. As an interpreter, the former student of the Conservatoire national supérieur d’art dramatique de Paris has had the opportunity to wear them, whether Shakespearean tragedies or dramatic comedies with our contemporary filmmakers. With Philippe Garrel, who entrusted her with one of the main roles ofA hot summershe learned as much as she made herself known. Thanks to him, Bertrand Bonello invited her to join the closed circle of The Apollonide. Memories of the Brothel and it was gone!

With the series The Revenants she has tasted the pleasure of accompanying a character over the long term and allowed the spectators to identify her quickly. Across the Atlantic, Sofia Coppola and Clint Eastwood did not wait long to spot the intensity of the acting of this actress with a hint of Gena Rowlands. Marie-Antoinette Then Beyond remain like two elegant stamps on her passport. With Jacques Audiard, she put her name on the poster of the memorable Of rust and bone and gained in Marion Cotillard a friend with whom to share his commitment to ecology.

In front of Cédric Jimenez’s camera, she made a place for herself between Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lellouche in The French . And other strong films like Corporate by Nicolas Silhol on the relentless world of business, But you are crazy by Audrey Diwan, on the pitfalls of drugs, Brilliant by Sylvie Gautier on the precariousness of cleaning ladies or more recently Green Algae by Pierre Jolivet on an ecological scandal allowed this committed woman to put her art at the service of her thoughts.

Through writing and then directing, Céline Sallette saw the field of possibilities open up.I discovered a joyful passion, that of studying reality, even of carrying out investigations to invent sequenced stories.” she said. After The Arch of Canopiesa short film produced as part of the Talents Adami, she has started writing her first feature film. One idea giving birth to another, the actress-director is now teeming with desires and projects. The two she is currently focusing on? The rewriting of a script on Marilyn, Miller, Montand and Signoret that she had been offered with the aim of playing the latter and which she returned to direct. Excited by the idea of ​​making the shared destiny of these legends resonate with our times, she is already dreaming of a cast bringing together Sidney Sweeney, Damien Chapelle, Michael Shannon and Léa Seydoux. But between two writing sessions, Céline Sallette would like to prepare her BPREA, an agricultural certificate that would allow her to exploit the land she has just acquired. An adventure that is both crazy and sensible that would surely have enchanted the mother of all GirlsNiki de Saint Phalle.