Under influences | Charlotte Le Bon: the dream life of angels

Artists are also the sum of the works that shaped them. The actress and filmmaker Charlotte Le Bon, excellent in the role of the artist Niki de Saint Phalle (designer of the Stravinsky fountain in Paris) in Niki by Céline Sallette, on display this Friday, talks about those that left their mark on her to our columnist Marc Cassivi, as part of our Under Influences section.

Marc Cassivi: I wanted to talk to you about the works that made you the artist that you are today. Which work had the most impact on your childhood?

Charlotte Le Bon: The little mermaid ! This is definitely the film I’ve seen the most. I tried to understand why it touched me so much, because some feminists don’t like at all that it features a woman who agrees to change for a man. What I always loved about the little mermaid was her curiosity. She is not satisfied with her immediate surroundings and she wants to look elsewhere to transform herself and live another life.

There is also his tragic destiny… [Note de l’intervieweur, qui ignorait que dans La petite sirène (1989), son destin est nettement moins tragique que dans le conte d’Andersen !]

Script-wise, The little mermaid by Walt Disney, it’s truly a gem. And I still have it posted in my room! In fact, I have the poster that was banned in the 1990s because Triton’s palace had phallic shapes…

Une pièce de collection !

Une pièce de collection et, surtout, une relique de mon enfance. En fait, je suis hyper nostalgique du rapport qu’on avait aux films quand on était enfant. Je m’ennuie tellement des clubs vidéo. Maintenant, tout est accessible, tout le temps. Avant, on ne regardait pas les films en appuyant sur « pause » pour faire autre chose, on n’était pas sur nos téléphones en même temps. On les regardait souvent deux fois. Il fallait en profiter avant de les rendre.

Les films qu’on a découverts à l’enfance nous marquent pour toujours.

Après, j’ai vu Stand by Me, qui m’a aussi ébranlée. Ça mettait de l’avant la vulnérabilité des jeunes garçons. Puis L’histoire sans fin, qui reste pour moi un immense classique. Il y a un message philosophique dans le film qui me touche énormément et m’inspire beaucoup. Chaque fois que je le vois, je découvre autre chose. C’est l’histoire du néant qui est en train de bouffer l’imaginaire des gens. J’ai un peu l’impression que c’est ce qui nous arrive en ce moment.

Tu me parles de films de mon enfance, que tu as donc découverts bien après leur sortie…

Oui, Stand by Me, c’est sorti en 1986, l’année de ma naissance. Il y a E. T. aussi, que j’ai revu récemment et qui est un chef-d’œuvre absolu.

E. T., c’est le premier film que j’ai vu au cinéma.

Quelle chance !

Et puis à l’adolescence, quels sont tes souvenirs d’œuvres marquantes ?

Un film qui m’a habitée longtemps, et qui a été une source d’inspiration pour Niki, c’est Girl, Interrupted de James Mangold. C’est le genre de film que tu termines et dont tu as juste envie d’écouter la musique, pour continuer à le porter en toi.

Tu l’as revu récemment ?

Oui, j’aime beaucoup l’approche américaine du jeu, un peu plus concrète que celle du cinéma français, qui peut être plus cérébrale. À l’adolescence, il y a aussi eu la découverte des films d’horreur, que l’on regardait de manière un peu clandestine, ce qui faisait partie du trip. C’était terrifiant. Après, je le payais très cher parce que j’étais incapable de dormir seule dans ma chambre ! Je ne sais pas combien de fois je me suis fait un lit dans la chambre de mes parents. J’ai dû complètement bousiller leur vie sexuelle au début de mon adolescence ! On regardait Scream ou I Know What You Did Last Summer, que j’ai revu et qui a tellement mal vieilli.

Ça reste en toi, ce goût pour les éléments de genre dans ton cinéma ? Il y aura des fantômes dans ton prochain film ?

Non, pas à proprement parler, mais il y aura de la métaphysique. J’en suis encore à écrire le scénario. Le monde de l’invisible en général est une source d’inspiration inépuisable pour moi. Tout ce qu’on n’arrive pas à rationaliser, ça me fascine.

Quelle musique écoutais-tu à l’adolescence ?

C’était très disparate. J’écoutais All Saints, mais aussi beaucoup de Nirvana. Je m’en cachais un peu. Ma mère [la comédienne Brigitte Paquette] didn’t really like it, because the singer, Kurt Cobain, died a tragic death. Maybe she was afraid that it would influence me in some way, that I would be caught up in her demons.

Were you a depressed teenager?

No, on the contrary. Maybe that’s why dark works fascinated me, because they were so far from me.

Are there any filmmakers who made you want to make your own films?

My desire to create films was born on film sets. And since both my parents are actors [son beau-père est le comédien Frank Schorpion]the set never intimidated me. When I arrived on a first set, it was natural, even if the acting profession was not yet natural. It helped me a lot. I love life on set… when it goes well! When things don’t go well, it’s really unpleasant. By watching the films I was in and trying to understand why I liked them or didn’t like them, I learned a lot. My tastes have become more refined. But I couldn’t say that there is a film or a filmmaker who constituted a turning point…

What inspired you, for example, when you made Falcon Lake ?

My inspiration comes a lot from a world that inhabits me and that I cannot completely describe. For Falcon LakeI was inspired by different filmmakers like Pawel Pawlikowski (Ida, Cold War), Jeff Nichols (Mud, Loving) and Luca Guadagnino sur Call Me by Your Name. I like Guadagnino’s cinema less. I think it’s becoming too mainstream, too pop. He is very strong in everything that is intimate. Amore (2009) was sublime. But when he goes into the effects, there is something that for me becomes too superficial and I can’t get attached to the characters.

The camera from the point of view of the ball in Challengers made me dizzy in IMAX! Would you say that your influences are more American than European?

Completely. I grew up with American cinema, but then I started my career in France. Maybe my cinema mixes the two a little. When I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mindit awakened in me the possibility of putting shapes on dreams. It inspired and reassured me a lot. At CEGEP, I studied visual arts and discovered the surrealists and Magritte, who was an absolute revelation. Then I discovered Fellini and I understood that Michel Gondry had not invented that! No one has the language of dreams like Fellini.

It’s true. And Lynch?

I like his approach, because he draws a lot from his unconscious, but I think he has a vision of women that is sometimes a little dated. There is something that bothers me about his cinema. I felt so bad for Patricia Arquette in Lost Highway. I told myself that it was impossible that she had experienced this in a casual way. But I like that in life, he is very sunny. He does transcendental meditation wishing to share it with as many people as possible. And at the same time, his work is very dark. This kind of duality, of ambiguity, is something that I really like.

He and Fellini share the same birthday. There is something of yin and yang, nightmare and dream, between them. It’s the part of the dream that interests you the most, ultimately…

It’s trying to put shapes on something that doesn’t have any. It becomes polyform. Everything can exist and everything is acceptable when we start from this point of view.

The movie Niki is presented in theaters.