In her biopic “Niki” released on October 9, Céline Sallette retraces ten years of the life of Niki de Saint Phalle which will give birth to the artist we know today. Ten years marked by trauma, mental disorders, but also the love and resilience of an exceptional woman with a moving destiny.
Paris, 1952. Niki has moved to France with her husband and daughter, far from a suffocating America and family. But despite the distance, Niki is regularly shaken by reminiscences of her childhood which invade her thoughts. From the hell that she will discover, Niki will find in art a weapon to free herself and become the unique artist that we know today.
“I found my vocation among the mad,” says Niki de Saint Phalle in this biopic directed by Céline Sallette with Charlotte Le Bon, masterful in the role of the artist fighting against her inner demons.
For her first feature film, actress Céline Sallette (“L’Apollonide”) focused on the Franco-American visual artist (1930-2002) and wife of the Friborg artist Jean Tinguely, made famous by her busty Nanas, as well as her Tirs, performances where she shoots paint bags with a rifle. “Niki impacted me in a thousand ways. (…) I am fascinated by the way she doesn’t care about fashions, about the reception of her works. She does what seems right to her and it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t matter. “is not understood immediately”, indicates Céline Sallette in the Vertigo show on October 10.
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Trauma then rebirth through art
In “Niki”, we witness the birth of an artist. “It was about trying to show the stages of the process which leads Niki towards her, towards her full power, towards her liberation. (…) She is a source of light. I would really like us to know more his work. For me, it’s an example,” explains Céline Sallette.
Rather than a biopic from beginnings to recognition, Céline Sallette focused on a ten-year period (1952-1961) and chose to explore how mental disorders, illness and trauma shaped Niki from Saint Phalle. In particular the incest she suffered at the hands of her father, which she only spoke openly about later.
>> Listen to the interview with Céline Sallette in Vertigo on October 10:
Who else than Charlotte Le Bon to play this role? “No one,” replies Céline Sallette bluntly. Like Niki de Saint Phalle, the Quebecer started out in modeling and quickly felt cramped. “She lived in France and America, she didn’t really have a home, that’s something I understand. (…) There are lots of things that are very familiar to me, like the gestures of the painting because I also paint, or those of sculpture, because I understand them”, explained Charlotte Le Bon in the 7:30 p.m. of May 23.
The biopic “Niki” reveals the heroic life of the artist and the light she shares with humanity. “She was said to be a phoenix because at several stages of her life, at several moments, her dragons, her demons returned. (…) There is something about her that is miraculously resilient and “upsetting”, concludes the director.
Comments collected by Pierre Philippe Cadert
Web adaptation: Lara Donnet
“Niki” by Céline Sallette, with Charlotte Le Bon, John Robinson, Damien Bonnard and Judith Chemla. To be seen in French-speaking cinemas since October 9, 2024.
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