Both an actress, director and singer, this is her role as the painter Marianne in the film Portrait of the girl on fire by Céline Sciamma, who was the point of connection between Noémie Merlant and the public, and also between her and the profession. Her father was therefore right to push her to go on stage at Cours Florent to become an actress. Since 2019, the greatest directors have called on her such as Jacques Audiard, Louis Garrel, Ellen Kuras and Audrey Diwan, who offered her the role of Emmanuelle. An object of fantasy anchored in collective memory, with an axis that appears in his second film Women on the balcony. This axis is that of the quest for assumed pleasure or the story of three girls addicted to the very handsome guy who lives opposite their apartment.
franceinfo: You denounce violence against women, rape, the right to abortion against the backdrop of two murders, sex and a furious need for freedom. It's a bit sex and rock 'n' roll for the second film!
Noémie Merlant: Sex, rock 'n' roll, and then we'll say: sorority, freedom and a world where we defend ourselves.
You won't sweat this movie!
Yes, I get told that a lot.
And surprisingly, we understand better who you are, why you are so strong and why your look is so precise and so assertive. Isn’t that exactly what you wanted to tell in this film? Is what you are saying powerful because you experienced it?
Because I experienced it. Strength also comes from these three women and their friendship, and it is something that has been very present in my life for a long time. This is what helps me to draw a lot of strength but not only humor, to move forward despite the various attacks, rapes or others that I or my friends have also suffered around me. There is a cathartic side where I reflect all this violence, but trying to couple it with humor because we are really in a comedy. One of the references of the film, moreover, is Santa Claus is trash. But there you go, there is a cathartic side which is an outlet and which for me is very important.
A few years ago, you left home to escape a certain number of things and you found something very strong in living with women. This is what we discover through this film. That too is a point of humor because Women on the balcony… When we talk about balconies, we generally talk about women's chests.
This humor is really present in my daily life. This is why the film is tinged from start to finish with this humor, with this absurd side.
There is an Ionesco side at times.
Yes and then I find that humor, comedy, allows us to talk about more things. It really is a very important tool at all levels.
You point the finger at the attackers. It's a reality. They are always, at least when men appear in this film, problematic.
“It’s a film that is made to bring people together, to question ourselves together using reversals of codes that were very present.”
Noémie Merlantat franceinfo
We are in the absurd. We are almost in a fable. It is the character of Nicole, a writer, who begins to write this story. It's true that sometimes, in my film, there are reactions – so less than I thought and I'm delighted – from women and men elsewhere, who say “ah yes, it’s against us men“, while for me not at all.
Do you feel like things are moving forward? I would just like to come back to this film which revealed you. You were alongside Adèle Haenel at that time, who was at the origin of a huge step forward in denouncing what could be happening in the industry.
Yes, already, I think that a few years ago, I would not have been able to direct this film, for example. We are at the beginning, so there are a lot of things to do, but that gives us hope.
You started as a model, it was your father who pushed you. He understood very quickly, instinctively, that you were made for this.
While he himself knows nothing about it, it's not his field, but he has a gift for detecting their passions in young people each time. And he immediately said to me: “but wait but you are not going to start studying“because I had a good student side, I did this or that because it had to be done, because at school they teach us to succeed. So when I arrived on the set of Cours Florent, I said to myself: ah, it could be a job. I didn't realize what a job it could be. I said to myself then: this is what I want to do.
“It was obvious. I felt more alive on set than in real life. I felt freer.”
Noémie Merlantat franceinfo
In everything you have done, there is always a commitment. Is that a condition? sine qua non for you to say yes to a film? It’s because he moves things forward or the way others see things.
Yes, there is always something. I like to put meaning into what I do. In any case, I like to find stories or characters who, perhaps, sometimes disturb or are different or precisely do not have enough space in society or in representations. But whether it's a comedy, something more commercial or something more independent. It's not the question of the form of the film. And ultimately, yes, it must create a bond between people and move things forward for the better, towards sharing and acceptance of others and of oneself.
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