Charlotte Le Bon unleashes her rage in “Niki”, a surprising biopic on Niki de Saint Phalle

MOVIE THEATER – ” I want to make my own creation. » No more actress, no more model. In Nikisurprising first film by French actress – and now director – Céline Sallette on Niki de Saint Phalle to be seen in theaters since Wednesday October 9, Charlotte Le Bon plays the role of the famous artist ready to release the anger within her .

Don’t expect to see his sculptures of the Stravinsky Fountain in Paris or those of his incredible Tarot Garden in the Tuscan countryside on screen. Niki takes us to the turn of the 1950s, when Niki Mathews, her husband and their first child left the United States to settle in France.

We will follow her for ten years, ten decisive years in the career of the artist she is about to become. What she thought never existed – an incest she suffered during her childhood at the hands of her father – resurfaces and poisons her. Niki suffers a full-blown breakdown, landing her in what could be the most austere of hospitals.

There, she discovered collage and painting. And very quickly, passion becomes an obsession. “They don’t want to give me any glue, so I have no choice but to hide”she maintains in front of her doctor, who has just caught her trying to make craft glue with bread. Her art partly heals her. She feels liberated.

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In Paris and elsewhere in France, Niki trained, but it didn’t work. She is rejected by the art world, the galleries and the intelligentsia of the capital, who see her as a simple housewife who paints to keep herself busy.

Charlotte Le Bon: “ I had to go »

She is mistreated, especially by men. Her doctor, first, who burns a letter of apology in which her father admitted to having abused her. There “ only proof » that she didn’t invent everything, that she’s not crazy. Her first husband, too. He cheated on her behind her back countless times. His father, obviously. And later, her lover, a manipulator.

Rage roars within her. She’s on the verge of exploding. How to express it? By destroying paintings with knives and darts, perhaps. Or shooting it with a gun, nod to Tira famous canvas created by the artist in 1961 on which the film ends. Niki depicts the genesis of Niki de Saint Phalle, ready to take up arms to go into battle.

A strong and confusing role, played by a disturbing Charlotte Le Bon, from whom we discover a range of intense emotions made up of tears, joy, fear and anguish. The scenes at the hospital left an impression on her. “ I was diving and trying to give my best from the startshe explained to West France, during the presentation of the film in Cannes. Then, if it was necessary to reduce intensity, I adapted. But I had to go for it. » His character doesn’t have a minute to lose. And don’t let us lose any in this biopic that she illuminates.

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