Returning to the theater Bungalow 21:00Directed by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, the actress plays Marilyn opposite her sister Mathilde Seiner as Simone Signore.
It was a sleepless night. During these few hours in Merlin’s room, Emmanuel Seiner did not sleep a wink. In 2014, he visited Los Angeles, staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel, his favorite address. “I asked for his 21st bungalow but I couldn’t sleep there, too much pressure,” he laughs today. This fall, he plays the supreme star, idol, icon at the Madeleine Theater in Paris…”
Without the facial expressions – she still has her hair cut and curled – she looks more Norma Gee than Monroe. In front of him, on the stage, is his sister. Mathilde Seiner stars in this closed session of Simone Signore, written by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, inspired by a Hollywood stay the French actress and her husband Yves Montand spent in 1960 on the set of the film. billionaire By George Cukor. Monroe and the playwright Arthur Miller, her husband from 1956, then occupied the adjoining bungalow at 21, a famous palace with pink walls and black upholstery.
A story of friendship and betrayal
Two Couples and a Groom, a tragicomedy in eleven sequences, directed by Jeremy Lipman, based on an idea by Signore’s grandson, Benjamin Castaldi. It was her grandmother’s letters that enabled the recollection of this romantic episode and the budding affair between Monroe and Montagne. “Simon and Marilyn are friends, it’s men who create competition between them. For Montana, Monroe is an ego-stroking treat… An American is like a child, to be loved. He argues with Miller, that’s the end of their story. Signore also suffers from Montagne’s betrayal, but above all from the humiliation of having the whole world know about it. And yet he loves Marilyn.
Complicated feelings, unusual personalities, cinematic environment… And unique casting. The Seiner sisters had never shared the same poster. It was Matilda who brought Emmanuel to the project. “I sent my sister a video of me looking like Marilyn. He showed it to the director…” After the joint reading of the play’s text in the theater, a decision was made. “When I play with Matilda, I only see Signore, she is like him in her natural authority. And our complicity certainly helps,” notes Emmanuel Seiner, who had not returned to the stage for ten years and his collaboration with Luc Bondi at the Odéon.
Emmanuel shares with Merlin a childish side, sensuality, and also flaws…
Jeremy Lipman, director
Adventure life journeys
Some like it hot And The Unhinged are his favorite movies, Emmanuel has admired the superstar since childhood. His fragility, his sorrow, his pain. “That’s what the play is about,” he says. The director auditioned many actresses before finding Emmanuelle Seiner to play Monroe. “Emmanuel has some similarities with her, a childish side, sensuality, flaws too, an eventful life journey, a unique love story. She doesn’t need to play Marilyn, she knows how to live it,” says Jeremy Lipman. He chose Michel Cohen for Yves Montand and gave the role of Arthur Miller to Vincent Winterhalter, two stalwarts of the theater. And for inspiration, he drew on the correspondence between Signore and Montagne, the never-before-published pages that Castaldi had entrusted to him.
Marilyn Monroe at the heart of the play Bungalow 21. Getty Images:
There are images of the fabled foursome, black and white photographs taken at dinner in the bungalow. Bottles of red on the table, Monroe’s bare shoulder, Signore’s concerned look, everything is said, an obvious source of inspiration for the actress sisters. Emmanuel Seiner returns from the Venice Film Festival, where he presented a film by Olmo Schnabel, son of artist Julian Schnabel. Pet Shop Boys, with Willem Dafoe. American feature film for someone who currently has a work visa in the United States. “It was always difficult for me in France. Unlike my sister, she believes. I’ve always been told I don’t look French, that’s the problem with my life. I was made to look like a German or Swedish girl. Anyway, I’m more interested in foreign cinema.”
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In 1987, he toured with Harrison Ford Crazy, by Roman Polanski, whom she married the following year. Then the head of Warner offered him a contract for three films and an opportunity to settle in Los Angeles. Seiner refuses. “I didn’t want to limit myself to the roles of French women, which are useless, because that was the time…” He assures that everything changed thanks to Juliette Binoche and Marion Cotillard. Now French women are taking on consistent roles in Hollywood. In France, she believes that she is “annulled”, the wife of a man prosecuted for rape, the author of a confessional book, A life on fire (Éditions de L’Observatoire), where she defends Polanski, the father of her two children. “I have no offers in France. They “cancelled” me. But that’s not a problem,” he says boldly.
Between tension and emotion
Emmanuel, who also sings rock, has a tough skin. He is also multiplying his musical projects, preparing, in particular, a CD with the poet Boris Bergman. And follows his daughter Morgan, 30, also an actress, who is starting out in directing in England. The end of August was devoted to rehearsals Bungalow 21:00. It takes hours to find the voice, the tone, the gestures, not a monkey, to find the right sensations, to convey the right sensibility… “Tension, danger, emotion,” Jeremy Lipman demanded of him. “It’s a lot of work, but the role is great,” concludes Emmanuel Seiner.
Bungalow 21, By Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, with Emmanuel and Mathilde Seiner, directed by Jeremy Lippmann, at the Madeleine Theater in Paris.
Source: Le Figaro
