Isabelle Huppert. “I’ve always felt more fragile than strong”

Bright green eye shadow. it is, among others, a detail that we remember The Prisoner of Bordeaux, Patricia Mazoui’s seventh film, presented at the 77th Cannes Film Festival as part of Cinematographers’ Fortnight. Makeup that is both expensive and spectacular is worn by Alma, a bourgeois played by Isabelle Huppert. A single woman whose extremely long days are punctuated by sudden bursts of vitality between two visits to her husband serving time in prison. It is there, in the visiting room, that he makes his way with Mina, a young mother from the cities, struggling to find the time and money to go see her boyfriend. From their meeting will be born a friendly love at first sight, as uneasy as it is intense, facing the boundaries that their differences contradict.

To this dialogue between two women, two environments, two actresses, Isabelle Huppert brings her blend of extreme sensitivity, sudden madness and mysterious gravity. And wear that line of eyeshadow as an identity statement. Meeting with the actress in Cannes, this time behind dark glasses.

What attracted you? The Prisoner of Bordeaux ?
Above all, it was the prospect of finding Patricia, who I had filmed with Saint-Cyr Early 2000s She has a knack for mixing the tragic and the comic, and she totally does. The Prisoner of Bordeaux. Patricia was very clear from the beginning. he never wanted anything to be caricatured, or for any of the heroines to be captured in the posture that the cast of roles might suggest.

This tragicomic side also characterizes your character very well, both composed of the abyss of loneliness and great splendor. He has a booming voice, sometimes makes big gestures… How did you work on the physical side of the character?
We talked a lot about it with Patricia. I worked with a dancer because my character was one in a past life. It wasn’t about talking in the living room, it was about having a certain attitude. It also gave certain stylization to certain scenes. Procedures are always very important in a film. It was both light in there, which might have suggested I was a dancer, but also very buoyant. It also gave a relationship to the world. someone’s relationship, as history will show us, is not very grounded.

How did you work through his extreme outbursts of enthusiasm or sincerity that belied his social status?
This was what Patricia wanted, this tone that Hafsia Herzi and I were portraying throughout the film, to never fall into the caricatures of the characters as they are more or less announced; the rich woman who is bored and the working woman who has no time to be bored. There’s an inherent strength in Hafsia and a fragility in me, which means it’s possible to imagine she’s the rich one and I’m the poor one, and which makes it all the more understandable why we’re meeting.

What does the film say about this dialogue between the two social classes, possible or not?
It says a lot, but very subtle and subtle, not showy at all. This is what works throughout the film. two classes collide, coming together for a moment while taking all the clues to prevent them from fully reuniting. I think of this scene where Alma is with her bourgeois friends who ask Mina embarrassing questions; suddenly we feel the gap between him and his surroundings. The people around him bear this caricature, and it is there that he encounters everything that brings him closer to Mina, and everything that separates him from his own world. Unfortunately, it doesn’t bring them together enough to avoid the impending tragedy, but it’s enough to make them want to leave this world and get rid of themselves.

Patricia Mazouin says about Alma that she is a character “closed in her solitude”. And that you have this…
“Closed in his solitude”. who isn’t? I don’t think I’m that original. And maybe as an actress, I’m not the only one who creates this feeling of loneliness, or something that isn’t fully named. This is what cinema creates, this is its great power, to give something to be heard and to be silenced.

The Prisoner of Bordeaux tells about a friendly meeting. What is the place? friendship A woman in your life? What significance do you attach to it?
Both are great in the idea that it exists, but not necessarily in practice. I have friends that are very important because I know they are there and they exist, but it’s not something I deal with regularly.

This 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival features many young female directors. How do you feel about this new generation?
I have a feeling that these are difficult times. Perhaps much harder than when I started, even if every era has its downsides. But I find them incredibly aware, political. And that’s a good thing, oh so much.

What is the Cannes Film Festival for you?
Such good times! It seems that I went to the official competition 22 times, and I don’t know how many times in the parallel section. Cannes is both an object of love and sometimes of rejection. It’s a very big festival, an enthusiasm that can sometimes bring the best, and not really the worst, because it never lasts, and we know very well that the whole history of cinema, of art in general, is created just like that, from immediate impulses. Then the cards are redistributed. But we know we’re living in a particularly vibrant moment, and I’m happy to go back there every time.

People often say that you are a monument, a holy monster. How do you view these definitions?
I’m a bit incredulous. All those adjectives and words that describe actresses as icons… I see icons in Russian churches. I am not the monument. the monument is all the people with whom I have been filming for some time now.

Or your filmography?
Yes, but not only. I’m also very proud of what I do in theater, the back and forth I do between theater and film. It’s something I built myself and I’m really happy with it.

And what do you think about being considered a powerful woman?
I always felt more fragile than powerful. It reminds me of a quote by Jean Cocteau. “We will win because we are the weakest.”