If our cinema finally seems destined to exist, it is thanks to women. And I say nothing about television which owes them so much.
Louise Archambault, Monia Chokri, Sophie Deraspe, Johanne Prégent, Chloé Robichaud, Sophie Dupuis, Ariane Louis-Seize, Sophie Lorain and I forget, are among those who are on the verge of lastingly changing the image of Quebec cinema.
Among these directors, there is another, Charlotte Le Bon, whose reputation continues to grow. After Falcon Lake, her first film which won a host of trophies, including the Louis-Delluc prize, Charlotte is showered with praise for her interpretation of Niki de Saint-Phalle in the biopic Niki, which premiered in Paris last Wednesday.
Chance or intended coincidence, Céline Sallette, the director of Niki, has a journey almost identical to that of the Quebecois. Established actress, Céline Sallette was nominated for the César for Most Promising Actress in 2012, like Charlotte Lebon in 2014. With NikiCéline has just taken a serious option on the Louis-Delluc for best first film, the equivalent of the Goncourt for literature.
Other points in common
Our Quebecer also has things in common with Niki de Saint-Phalle, the heroine of the biopic. Like her, Charlotte Le Bon was first a model. She even physically resembles the artist whose works we unfortunately do not see in the film. The heirs did not give permission to show them.
Damage! because the Nanas of Saint-Phalle are monumental sculptures which represent conquering and voluptuous women. They are even more spectacular than the big pink babies that Philippe Katerine sowed last summer in Montreal’s entertainment district.
In America, then in France
Like Niki de Saint-Phalle, Charlotte first experienced modeling in America and France, then she felt the need to create herself. Like Charlotte Le Bon who draws and paints. It is surely for all these resemblances that she creates such a credible Niki de Saint-Phalle in a film which only shows ten years of the artist’s life. Her most difficult years as she searched for her path and even spent time in a psychiatric clinic where she underwent electroshocks.
You have to see Niki for the masterful interpretation of Charlotte Le Bon and for a short, violent but very surprising scene, an episode of beatings and bad words between the Quebec painter Jean-Paul Riopelle and his companion Joan Mitchell. It is also this scene which would have launched the artistic career of Niki de Saint-Phalle.
Niki is another woman’s film which clearly shows that women’s view of life and things is different from that of men.
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