First dancer of the Paris Opera since 2019, Marion Barbeau made herself known to the general public by appearing for the first time on screen in In Body by Cédric Klapisch, a role tailor-made for a dancer capable of both the most classical and the most contemporary. Since then, Marion Barbeau has been on leave from the Opera to explore all the layers of her art as she wishes. On display this autonomous Dronea technological thriller by Simon Bouisson, in which she finds herself stalked and trapped in a voyeuristic device, Marion Barbeau shows us how to use her body as an instrument of emancipation.
In search of emancipation
After two years of availability with the Paris Opera, during which Marion Barbeau was able to multiply her experiences in both contemporary dance and cinema, she chose to leave the institution definitively. “It’s a page that turns, it’s a beautiful leap into the void. I had the impression that it was the logical continuation of what I had experienced in recent years. I wanted to feel freer for projects with other choreographers and other filmmakers.”
She also motivates him by the desire to confront more complex characters: “What frustrated me about classical dance is that to describe female characters, we go back and forth between four adjectives: she is beautiful, romantic, sweet and playful. I wanted more ambivalent characters”. In Drone, Marion Barbeau plays Emilie, a young architect recently arrived in Paris: “I like this character because she is very ambivalent. At the beginning of the story we feel blocked, stuck, introverted, she is afraid of the gaze of others and in particular of the gaze of men and at the same time we feel a bubbling strength, she wants to regain possession of her body.“
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Lecture listen 42 min
This desire for emancipation, of the body and through the body, responds singularly to the experience of Marion Barbeau: “My job is directly linked to the body. In classical dance we shape the body in a very strict way, there are models to which we must correspond. In my life I gradually freed myself from these constraints, so this is what I reinvested in the film.” Tracked by a drone, Marion Barbeau is in all the plans: “as a dancer you are used to being looked at, to being judged. I started working on detaching myself from this look, while being aware that I need it.”
She therefore finds in cinema a framework to experiment with new ways of expressing herself: “In cinema there is a quest for the present moment. It’s like on stage. We are unattainable and that allows us to get things out. Things that we can’t usually do, because of social conventions. We try to sublimate fragility. It’s about letting go. There’s nothing more beautiful than seeing an actor who goes there and doesn’t care.“
His news:
- Drôneby Simon Bouisson hits theaters on October 2, 2024
Sound clips:
- Quebec dancer and choreographer Marie Chouinard, on France Culture in 2022
- Director Macha Makéieff on France Inter in 2023
- Drone trailer
- “Dancing shoes” des Arctic Monkeys, de l’album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
