Those who know the films of Sophie Fillières, director of the wonderful “Aïe”, “Arrête ou je continue” and “La Belle et la Belle”, should prepare themselves for some great moments of emotion when they go to see “Ma vie ma gueule”, in theaters this Wednesday, September 18.
Others will just have to let themselves be carried away by this astonishing nugget, and are not immune to several upheavals during the session either. Because the feature film is the posthumous film of the filmmaker, who died in July 2023 at the age of 58, and its editing was completed after her death by her children Agathe and Adam, born from her relationship with the filmmaker Pascal Bonitzer.
A moving, offbeat and very funny score by Agnès Jaoui
From the first minutes of the film, we understand what is at stake in this very autobiographical story. “Ma vie ma gueule” follows a fifty-something woman who is losing her mind a little, a wacky portrait of an advertising agency employee who is more passionate about the absurd poetry she writes, and has strange relationships with others, especially her shrink and her children. Which will lead her to a psychiatric hospital before, once she has recovered, embarking across the Channel for a singular adventure.
This extraordinary woman, Barberie Bichette, nicknamed Barbie to her great dismay, is a double of Sophie Fillières, who pushed the mise en abyme very far during the writing and shooting of the film. And this is where we must dwell on the incredible interpretation of the character by Agnès Jaoui, who delivers here her best performance in a long time.
On set, the actress had to engage in an astonishing exercise for weeks: wearing the director’s dresses and jewelry, while reproducing the attitudes of the woman who was directing her. Better still, several hilarious scenes confront Barbie with her psychoanalyst, but it is Sophie Fillières’ real shrink who plays the role.
This magnificent, moving, offbeat and very funny score by Agnès Jaoui is the whole point of the feature film, but not only that: twisted or melancholic sequences pepper the story, especially those with a Philippe Katerine who is more lunar than ever. For the rest, this testamentary film, in which the talented director puts herself in the picture, will undoubtedly shake up a large part of the French auteur cinema community, because Sophie Fillières, with her natural kindness and wise advice, has long been a godmother for many young filmmakers, starting with Justine Triet, the director of “Anatomy of a Fall”.
Some have already paid tribute to her in May in Cannes, during the opening of the Quinzaine des Cinémathèques where the film was screened in the presence of her children, the actors of the film, relatives, parents, technicians, directors and friends. A session between laughter and tears that was a landmark, proof of the aura of this dear departed, and whose last film, undoubtedly her most personal, is now coming to meet the public.
dramatic comedy by Sophie Fillières, with Agnès Jaoui, Angelina Woreth, Édouard Sulpice, Philippe Katerine, Valérie Donzelli, Laurent Capelut… 1h39.
