Lhe man in the hat shows up about fifteen minutes late on the terrace of a Cannes hotel where he has a meeting with journalists. He is in demand from all sides, those around him tell us: Jacques Audiard is undoubtedly the personality of this Sunday, May 19 on the Croisette. Her new film, the dazzling “Emilia Perez”, delighted festival-goers during its screening on Saturday evening (1).
An extraordinary project. The epic tale of a drug trafficker who has dreamed since childhood of becoming a woman and decides to follow this aspiration to the end. Like its main character, the feature film avoids any genre assignment. It is both a musical comedy (the songs are by Camille), a thriller and a melodrama. Let us add that it is a French production, but the dialogues are in Spanish, and that the action takes place in Mexico, Bangkok, Tel Aviv…
This is the first big buzz for this 2024 edition, which positions, in Cannes rumors, Jacques Audiard as the favorite, at this stage, for the Palme d’Or (he already received it in 2015 for “Dheepan”). “The match is over” even headlined our colleagues from “Parisien”. But there are still six days of competition remaining.
How did you imagine this pretty crazy film?
The idea came to me during the first confinement. The starting point is reading a novel by Boris Razon, “Listen”. In one chapter a drug trafficker appears who wishes to become a woman, but he disappears later in the text. I wanted to explore this idea and extend this track, first in the form of an opera. I started working with the composer Clément Ducol. And it was he who gradually encouraged me to move towards cinema and musicals.
A register which has the reputation of being, for directors, very complicated…
It’s especially the editing that is long. In this case, it lasted a year. It took a lot of post-production, re-recording songs, adjusting playbacks. A lot of songs were thrown away and others had to be written.
The film aptly addresses a subject, transidentity, which is often controversial or conducive to simplifications. During the writing process, did you consult researchers and associations?
No. I find these trajectories fascinating, and I had an unstoppable consultant in the person of Karla Sofia Gascon [l’actrice trans qui joue Emilia Perez, NDLR]. She experienced this transition, we exchanged a lot.
An interpretation prize for Karla Sofia Gascon would be very strong
One of the surprises of “Emilia Perez” is the participation of Selena Gomez, teenage star from the Disney galaxy. She seems far from your world, how did you think of her?
I had seen her in the film “Spring Breakers” and in “A Rainy Day in New York” by Woody Allen. An American agent put me in contact with her, I met her one morning, quite early, in New York, and very quickly I found her simply irresistible. I told her we would work together, she didn’t believe me. As filming was postponed a year to wait for Zoe Saldana to be available, we lost contact. When I called her back, she thought I had completely forgotten about her.
How do you feel about the very laudatory reception of your film in the press this Sunday?
I haven’t had time to read the articles yet. Everything goes so fast in Cannes! And you know, I’m psychologically fragile (laughs), so I usually don’t read the press much, I rely on the summaries that the press officer does. But so much the better obviously! When I release a film, I need to be reassured.
If you had to choose, would you prefer, in the list of awards, a second Palme d’Or or an acting prize for Karla Sofia Gascon?
I’m lucky to have had a palm, that’s already good. A prize for Karla would be very strong…
(1) Released August 28.
Prize list
Will the Cannes Film Festival jury award, for the first time in its history, the best actress prize to a transgender actress? Answer Saturday evening, when the prize list will be presented. The moving star of “Emilia Perez”, Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón, 52, is one of those nominated for the prize. She changed gender at 46. “On the networks, you type the word trans and all that comes up is porn or insults,” she lamented this Sunday in Cannes. We are normal people. A trans person is a person who is going through a transition. Once she has passed through it, she is no longer in transition. She is what she is. »
