Rise and fall
Raised by an unloving mother and an absent father, Maria Schneider tried her luck as an actress at the age of 19. Still a minor (remember that in 1972, the majority was 21 years old), she was approached by the director Bernardo Bertolucci, who asked her to be the second headliner in his next film, entitled “Last Tango in Paris », in duet with the American star of the time: Marlon Brando. If filming begins in a good-natured atmosphere, a scene of extreme violence, not planned in the script and made at the initiative of Marlon Brando under the leadership of Bertolucci, will damage the apprentice star forever. Quickly, the young woman will experience glory, but above all scandal, decline and a long descent into hell…
Finally heard
Freely adapted from the eponymous book written by Maria’s second cousin, Vanessa Schneider, this biopic aimed to “go through the film through Maria’s eyes and not let go”, as Jessica Palud told us during a preview in the region. And the director adds: “This woman was dented, humiliated, despised by the eyes of others and not listened to. She said things but she was not heard. I wanted to carry his voice. »
Full of real references, the feature film retraces the tortuous and decisive fragments of Maria Schneider’s life. With increased sensitivity, Jessica Palud breaks the silence, denounces the traumatic attack suffered by the young actress and pays tribute to a destiny shattered in flight: “I wanted to stay with Maria, and only with her, that we feel her experience as an actress
dominated by the two male gazes. We had to feel the shift of the scene. So that his “No”, finally, is heard. »
To bring Maria Schneider back to life, Jessica Palud chose the young actress Anamaria Vartolomei. “At the beginning, I was very much into imitation, tracing, then I had little material on Maria,” she told us. By working, we managed to create our own Maria. »
Filming in progress
Collaborating with the director with kindness and respect is the secret to a successful shoot. Ironically, Jessica Palud found herself on a Bernardo Bertolucci shoot when she was 19 years old, and remembers: “I was an assistant on the sets, including Bertolucci’s. There were indeed directors who had omnipotence and I saw a lot of things that I shouldn’t have seen… Any young person who arrives in this profession is not ready to be crushed by this system. » An opinion shared by Anamaria Vortolomei, having started her career very young and who welcomed Judith Godrèche’s request to better protect minors on set.
