She has just arrived from filming in the Cévennes. Her dog, a black and white French bulldog named Rocky, never leaves her side. “My boyfriend already takes care of the kids, I have to do my part!” » From her home to the hotel where we found her, Céline Sallette made the trip by motorbike taxi: “The baptism for my dog! Too funny! He seemed very comfortable.” Like his mistress obviously happy with the reception of her first film as a director. The positive reviews are the one we loved in “Les Revenants”, the flagship series of Canal +. Her filmography is one of the chicest: Philippe Garrel in “A Burning Summer”, Bertrand Bonello in “The Apollonide”, Sofia Coppola in “Marie-Antoinette”… Céline Sallette knows the meaning of the expression “to be desired” by a director . “As an actress, I only exist through the eyes of others. In my private life, it has been like this for a long time.” Fascinated by Niki de Saint Phalle’s rage to seek the cause of the hell that inhabited her and to draw from it world-famous works, making a film on this major artist of the 20th century seemed obvious to her. As if Céline Sallette recognized herself in this transformation and had found a form of serenity.
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SHE. Why did you choose Niki de Saint Phalle?
CÉLINE SALLETTE. I came across a video clip on Juliette Binoche’s Instagram account by chance. It was an interview carried out in 1965. The journalist was not kind when addressing the artist: “You hang out rags, you do the work of a good little housewife”. In fact, he understood nothing about his work. Niki is wearing paint-stained overalls. She has her doe eyes like Amy Winehouse and her own way of expressing herself, half aristocratic, half American-French. Like an alien. The gap between these two worlds was incredible.
SHE. Charlotte Le Bon was perfect for the role…
C.S. On the one hand, her resemblance to Niki is incredible. On the other hand, Charlotte is an actress who is like uncharted territory, she had never had a major role like this. What’s also crazy is that Jalil Lespert wanted to make a film about Niki at the same time as me. He had Charlotte in mind, like me! But he didn’t want to write or direct. Just produce. So we worked together. Proof that a film about Niki had to be made and that Charlotte had to play her.
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SHE. Did you know that Niki was a victim of incest?
C.S. Yes. I don’t know the terror of incest. But I wasn’t afraid to get closer to its reality: how Niki was able to transform this hell that prevented her from living into light. Like an alchemist who turns lead into gold. This adventure interested me. I studied the mechanisms of incest and its consequences: the feeling of being crushed, the stays in HP, the suicide attempts… Niki’s madness, her depressive side, we look at them differently today. We are enlightened thanks to the work of Christine Angot, Emmanuelle Béart, the anthropologist Dorothée Dussy, of the CIIVISE (Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence against Children) who tell us: “Incest is It’s dark night. What do we do with it? » In Niki’s case, we are in a silent patriarchal pattern: her father writes her a letter of confession. What does the psychiatrist do? He’s burning it! I had to tell this episode in my film because it symbolizes what the struggle to escape from the night, from this nightmare is.
SHE. You did not have permission to use works by Niki de Saint Phalle. Was this a hindrance?
C.S. I contacted the granddaughter and I understand that she did not want us to make the film. It’s complicated to see your grandmother represented like this. Not having the rights didn’t stop us. Niki is a public person, there is no law against making a film about her. She spoke openly about her problems.
SHE. Do you admire his journey?
C.S. Yes. I think that in life in general, there are things that we don’t see at home, which are of the order of denial or lack of awareness. And she had the courage to go to a psychiatric hospital, to bring out what had happened to her. For me, this is exemplary. How she fights to get through it. She made the choice to leave her family to survive.
SHE. Did you identify with this long process of metamorphosis that Niki carried out?
C.S. I understand it. The first scene of the film shows an object woman, she is a model, a little princess, a jewel woman, a trophy woman. The last image, we see that she has cut her hair haphazardly, she is armed with a gun, she has the look of a fighter. How we take up arms is what my film is about. This transition to realization is also my fight. How did I get there? I am the result of a transformation. I too lived in emotional dependence. I needed the gaze of others to exist. When you’re an actress, it’s okay. You can make money with that. But in my private life, it was hell. My life had become a dead end. The realization came about ten years ago. At 34, on my birthday. I had put a single candle on my cake, I blew it out and I had the impression of being a year old, of being born, of having to relearn everything, to revisit everything. When the house is on fire, you have to have the courage to remove everything. I spent ten years obsessing about transforming myself. One of the big topics in my life is transformation.
SHE. You have worked with renowned directors. Did they leave an imprint on you? Did this help you during filming?
C.S. Completely. As if for twenty years, I had been trained in the school of directing by the greatest. I was so lucky. From Jacques Audiard, I learned his immense confidence in his collaborators, he asks them for their opinion. It’s very constructive. From Bertrand Bonello, I borrowed the separate screens. And Sofia Coppola, I was fascinated by the way she spoke to the actors in silent scenes.
SHE. Watching this film, do you regret not having started directing sooner?
C.S. No way. I simply wasn’t ready before. This adventure took four years of my life. I feel like it was like riding a dragon. Shooting a film is crazy! You have to show leadership and know how to assert yourself. To have carried it through to the end, at 44 years old, I am proud of it.
SHE. Do you want to repeat this experience as a director?
C.S. Yes ! I am working on rewriting a screenplay about two legendary couples: Marylin Monroe-Artur Miller and Simone Signoret-Yves Montand. In my head, I think of actors like Léa Seydoux, Sidney Sweeney, Michael Shannon and Damien Chapelle. But they don’t know!
“Niki” by Céline Sallette, with Charlotte Le Bon, John Robinson, Damien Bonnard, Judith Chemla (1h38).
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