“To be very good lovers, you have to have a lot of complicity”

At the beginning of the film, they are full of certainties. Joan (India Hair) is no longer in love with Victor (Vincent Macaigne), the father of her daughter. Alice (Camille Cottin) is no longer attached to her companion Eric (Grégoire Ludig), but cherishes the stability of their relationship and their complicity. Without knowing that the latter is having an affair with their best friend, Rebecca (Sara Forestier), who only considers love in absolute passion. As their stories are made and unmade, all three will be caught up in the game of love, and the surprise of feelings more than chance.

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As often with Emmanuel Mouret, Three friends (1) explores, under the guise of elegant marivaudage, what questions us in the long run. Is friendship stronger than love? Is having a crush the same as cheating? Can desire really last? Questions that the three actresses also asked themselves.

Madame Figaro.- What appealed to you about what Three friends tells about friendship?
Camille Cottin.- I found it very modern. It is often said of Emmanuel Mouret's cinema that it is a little disconnected from current events, from the political, historical and social context. But I found that this film was imbued with a certain modernity on the ambiguity of what truth, lies, fidelity and trust are. It's a bit of all of this that is at stake between these three women, as well as incongruous things: like lying to her friend by having an affair with the latter's companion, while knowing that since she is not really in love from him, it's not against her, it doesn't matter. We are moving away from the moral codes that define the couple or the friendship. I know the original title of the film was “An Honest Woman”: that's what it questions, what it means to be honest in a relationship.
India Hair.- What touched me about the friendship of these three characters was their mutual help. To see how their conversations can be an invaluable source of help, as they go through dizzying moments in their lives. I also really like the delicacy with which they understand each other. Neither will try to go faster than the other's thinking, to tell them things that cannot be heard. It's a friendship where we take each other by the hand, where we try to take the other somewhere else, but through discussion. It's never violent.
Sara Forestier.- I feel out of place because I first wanted to make this film because of the actors. I was very excited about the idea of ​​filming with Camille because I had loved her in 10 percentand with India because we had already worked together. But also Vincent Macaigne, Damien Bonnard, Grégoire Ludig… These are actors and actresses who are in a place in cinema that I like, in their way of looking for something without resting on their laurels. That's what made me want to make this film, and it answers a little bit this question about friendship: sometimes, we choose people without knowing them, because we appreciate something about them.

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Does friendship allow more freedom than love? We have the feeling that in the film, the first allows everything, while the second is a matter of restraint, of compromise…
I.H .- Yes, because love has been used for political, financial and societal issues for centuries. Today, we are trying to change the codes for our children, to break away from certain constraints – what is happening at the moment with feminism is wonderful, it offers possibilities for everyone, in France at least. Friendship does not involve all these issues. So for me it’s a much freer space.
S.F. .- I am going to become a poet, but for me, friendship is an oasis, something of the order of “safe place“. It may be because I am sensitive to judgment, to being misunderstood, but what I find very beautiful in friendship is the fact that we truly accept each other as we are. East. It’s a look that welcomes and that’s sublime. In love, it's different: we give and we receive. Whereas in friendship, I have the impression that we give first, and that we receive what the other is without expecting anything.

Camille, your character, Alice, is no longer in love with her partner but appreciates their relationship, which almost resembles friendship. Does having your partner as a best friend always allow for romance?
S.F. .- Romanticism is a bit toxic, isn't it?
I.H. .- For my character, yes, it's toxic. Joan is really into the idea of ​​romantic love, and that's what becomes problematic in her life. But personally, having your partner as a best friend, I find it more modern than romantic.
C.C. .- I find it very romantic because what I mean by “best friend” is ultra-complicity, loving sharing a moment that makes us both deeply happy. Which does not prevent us from having desire: to be very good lovers, we must have a lot of complicity. This also predisposes to beautiful moments.
S.F. .– I ask myself a question: if we destroy romanticism, as is currently happening, perhaps that is in the order of things but are we not going to return to it afterwards? In a way, there is always a contradiction. The character Alice plays tells herself that she doesn't want to live in passion and ends up experiencing exactly the opposite. There are no absolutes, no single path.
C.C. .- The film is amusing in the way it plays with being the object of what you feel, and the terror that generates. Joan's character feels guilty about no longer being in love and it's terrible, she suffers from it because she endures it. But she tells herself that if she ends the situation, she will make the other person suffer it. She is in a form of impasse. As for Alice, when she suddenly falls in love again, she is afraid of being left, she hurts… And it's good at the same time.
S.F. .- In Emmanuel Mouret's cinema, we start to believe in something and the opposite happens. Joan is the girl who doesn't want to have any guy, but she's the one who “sick” the most! Whereas my character wants everything and gets screwed throughout the film. Emmanuel Mouret really has a sense of irony.

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How many best friends do you each have?
I.H. .- I have 3… Actually, I think it's better if I say 4. But I have a top.
S.F. .- It's a bit difficult for me, I'll rather speak in the past tense since unfortunately, I lost people. But roughly speaking, I would say 3.
C.C. .- I'm about 5, 6, but I could easily push it up to 15. I actually love long, faithful relationships. Over the years, there are friends who will be very present in certain situations, less in others, and there are things that we only love to share with certain people.
S.F. .- I would also say that I am my own best friend. But it took time.
I.H. .- Me, so not…
C.C. .- And me neither!

(1) Three friendsby Emmanuel Mouret, in theaters on November 6.