Icon of our Saturday afternoons from 1996 to 2008, Bénédicte Delmas was revealed thanks to her role as Laure Olivier in Under the sunwhich she played for twelve seasons, and whose last episode was broadcast in December 2008. Since then, the former actress has reconverted by becoming a successful director and screenwriter. Having directed several episodes of More beautiful life, Such a big sun, The code, Search Sections or Tandemin particular, his work as a screenwriter was praised in 2013, for the very good television film They… The girls of Plessis (France 3), returning to the revolt of young girls within an establishment welcoming pregnant minors. On display on Saturday November 2, 2024 from River Brigadefiction that she produced for France 3, the former Chanel model shows us a new side of her personality by publishing a first historical novel, Joan, God's Rebel (Fayard).
“#MeToo hadn’t gone that way yet,” Bénédicte Delmas explains why this novel could not be a film
Télé-Loisirs: How was the idea for this first work born?
Bénédicte Delmas: I was preparing for They… The Girls of Plessisa film that I wrote and directed ten years ago. One evening, during this preparation, with a friend I drank a glass of wine from a Jeanne de Lestonnac vintage. She then told me that Jeanne de Lestonnac was Montaigne's niece, and that it was she who opened the first general education school for girls. It came back to what I was working on, which was girls and education. By digging a little deeper into the journey of this woman and this era, I found that it resonated with our current society, and that many of the problems of the 16th century were still not resolved today. I found it crazy, and I said to myself that this story had to be told. It was first a film project. But ten years ago #metoo hadn't yet gone through that, and we didn't necessarily want to hear this kind of journey, of fight. And two years ago, I met an editor who told me it would make a wonderful novel. I looked at it with wide eyes at first because writing a screenplay is one thing, but writing a novel is another. But the fact that she had confidence in me, and that she believed in it, I said to myself “come on, let’s try”.
How is Jeanne de Lestonnac a modern heroine?
Because she fights for the education of women, convinced that this is how they can emancipate themselves. Today, in 2024, girls' schools are still being closed in Pakistan, students are being chased away in Iran, books are being burned in many countries around the world, etc. Access to education is essential, particularly for the most vulnerable populations, that is to say women in particular.
“We are not really aware of the fragility of this achievement”Bénédicte Delmas analyzes the place of education in our society
Why is this subject of women's education so important, whether in your works, but also on your social networks?
I think that we are not only lucky in France to have access to school, but we have a duty to go to school. And I think we completely forgot that this was not the case everywhere. We must keep in mind that this is an immense opportunity. For us, it is an achievement, and I think we are not really aware of the fragility of this achievement. So, I say to myself, let's realize that education is a little treasure within our reach.
Joan, the rebel of God is a free adaptation of the life of Jeanne de Lestonnac. Why this choice not to follow the true story of Jeanne de Lestonnac?
If we choose to write fiction, and not a historical biography, it is precisely to take our liberties. And if I took them, it is because they allowed me to serve my purpose. I tried to invent his life before his orders. That is to say trying to find the engine and the motivation which pushed him to fight this fight. What made it so that at the end of the 16th century, a woman who was rich and educated, developed a passion for the education of women, and decided against all odds to set up this school? It was completely against the grain of the times. This is what makes her heroic and what made me want to tell her story.
“What's funny…”, Bénédicte Delmas returns to the image of women in Under the sun
Speaking of women, how do you judge the vision evoked of them in Under the sun, in which you toured for over ten years ?
It is certain that if we look at the series twenty-five years later, we can find that they define themselves in part in relation to their relationships with men. But what's funny is that the feedback we continued to get was their independence and the fact that they were friends. The fact that this friendship is above everything else. And then, what the series said at the time was that it was three women, three different and complementary women of course, but the heroines were three women. And it was very rare. I have great tenderness for this series and this period.
Did it make you want to write other novels?
Yes, of course, it set things on fire (laughs). I think I will have the desire to talk about women until the end of my days. But not only that. I am also a peasant's daughter, and I really want to talk about peasants.
*Jeanne, the rebel of God, Bénédicte Delmas, Editions Fayard
