Andrea Arnold did not steal her Golden Coach presented at the Cannes Film Festival last May to celebrate her career. The English director was present there with the delicate Bird. She unfairly left empty-handed this year but had already won jury prizes for Red Road in 2006, for Fish Tank in 2009 and for American Honey in 2016.
“Cannes is important in my life and in my career,” she confides. The festival helped me make my voice and that of my characters heard around the world. » Bird, played by the remarkable Franz Rogowski, is the nickname of an eccentric young man who will help Bailey, (incredible Nykiya Adams, a revelation) to gain confidence in her dysfunctional family and in a world where she does not find not his place. Only his imagination offers him refuge.
With respect
“I like people who aren't talked about, people who don't fit the mold,” says Andrea Arnold. It’s important for me to make their voices heard.” In the often violent suburbs of London, people who are different are not respected. Andrea Arnold puts them center stage, revealing an England where those left behind finally have the right to the limelight. “I came from a modest background,” remembers Andrea Arnold. I have known people like those I portray in my films. That's why I don't look down on them. I feel justified in highlighting them with respect.”
Not like the others
We vibrate with empathy for the heroine but also for her father, played by Barry Keoghan seen in Dunkirk by Christopher Nolan. He is the only professional actor in the film and often gets the spotlight stolen by the other cast members. “I carried out wild casting in order to find natural performers, different from those we often see on screen,” insists the filmmaker. This adjective often comes up in Andrea Arnold's conversation.
“It’s my way of looking at cinema,” she admits. I look for authenticity in what I film.” This is what makes his work unique, through its realism close to documentary as well as its flashes close to fantasy. “I reached a milestone with Bird,” she admits. This film is… different.” When we tell you that this is a key word for Andrea Arnold!
