Letitia Dosh. “I’m afraid to put a man before me in a relationship.”

It’s a Saturday night like any other in the small town of Haute-Jura. Florence (Laetitia Dosch), single, six months pregnant, meets Aymeric’s (perfect Karim Lecloux) ex-partner. He leaves the prison, slowly tries to restore himself. She is going to give birth alone, don’t worry about it so much. They will live a love story together, raising this child, whom Aymeric begins to treat as his own son. Until her biological father shows up again. And Florence decides to transform their shifting geometric relationship at the risk of irreparably damaging one of them.

Jim’s novel (1), the Larriet brothers’ ninth film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year, is a gentle, low-key melodrama that offers Laetitia Doshi a complex role. The woman that some would consider inconsistent, selfish. Others are in search of freedom. from Battle of Solferino (2013) to: Simple passion (2020) via A young woman (2017), the Franco-Swiss has no equal when it comes to giving meat and depth to imaginative, indecisive, often funny, sometimes tortured characters. And always on time. The lawyer for the lost cause, in which he plays The trial of the dogHis first film as a director in theaters on September 11 is no exception. Meeting.

Madame Figaro: What attracted you to the script? Jim’s novel ?
Laetitia Dosch. My dream was to work with the Larriet brothers. When I read the script, I realized that they are bringing in a new dimension, taking a different approach to melodrama and keeping their fantasy, freedom with people who are quite experimental in relationships. I found myself very beautiful.

And what did you think of Florence’s character?
At first I said to myself. “What the hell is he talking about?” I love these types of characters, they are like chirping birds. Florence is the one who will sleep with a man she doesn’t know while she’s 6 months pregnant and who will ask him to stay to be a father. Then when the real dad shows up, tell him “Okay, okay, we’re going to try to be a trio.” She is a woman who is quite innovative in human relations, but can therefore cause a lot of collateral damage. I loved this dual dimension. I also liked that we saw her naked, that she didn’t have a perfect body. Let him talk about it, let it be said. I like the way the Larrieu brothers look at women.

As you said, Florence is a complex character whose decisions and their consequences are very questionable. We can also talk about cruelty. How can I make him neither lovable nor hated?
On the one hand, I told myself that this woman must be understood. And on the other hand, I had something in mind that traumatized me Gladiatorby Ridley Scott, where Joaquin Phoenix plays a tyrant who kills everyone, but always while crying. As an audience, we always say to ourselves, “Oh, poor guy.” there is something super immoral about this role being played and played in this way. As actors and directors, we have a responsibility to justify certain things or not. The Larriet brothers decided to be honest. There are people in life who tell you things, happy or not, in a pretty direct way. And I think that’s exactly what they kept in the script. When Florence reveals what she’s done, which is pretty harsh, she’s precise, she’s not going to apologize, she’s not going to be sentimental, but she’s not going to be more brutal than necessary. These characters are caught in life, they have to make a choice. There are no good or bad guys among the Larieux brothers. This does not belong to their cinema. We try to do our best, and sometimes we make big mistakes

You were talking about the character’s body, and how Larrieu shot it… How did you work on this aspect?
A lot of this comes from the clothes, the way Florence dresses, the facial piercings, her zebra dresses… I was coming out of a year of post-production on my film during the shoot. The trial of the dog A year where we sit on our asses in chairs and where we eat all day because of anxiety. So I wasn’t on top of how I liked my body. But seeing the Florence cars, driving around a bit helped me a lot. As for the nude scenes, there’s one where I’m pregnant, it’s not my body, it’s 6 hours of makeup, so it’s actually very modest. And then another one where it’s actually me. Where the character, moreover, talks about her body, she says she no longer has her 20-year-old, “rocker bombshell.” America answers. “Yes, but you know, it’s not perfection that we love in women, it’s something else.” It’s trendy to hear it in a movie.

Florence is a very free character, a character trait that is typical of many of your heroes. Are you making a conscious choice to explore through your roles the freedom a woman can grant herself?
Yes, but it is also a prison. I am often offered female roles that have a certain contingency, a certain fantasy. It’s a lot of fun to play because you can invent and surprise others. But I am offered several women who have an important professional position. And it is an image that society sends back to us. Even a banker can have a fantasy in his life.

So you’ve cast yourself as a lawyer The trial of the dog Your first film as a director. Who after a love scene tells their partner “I feel free today” instead of “I feel good” or “I love you”…
He is a character who is looking for his freedom without finding it. He is more intimate like me. She fears being with a man because she thinks he will weaken her. And he doesn’t know how to act otherwise.

Is this a fear that haunts you?
Yes, that’s how I was educated. I realize now that I thought I had to be “chosen” by the man, that he was the point of reference. In a relationship, I fear always putting him before me. Meanwhile, our goal is to be a team. Men are not so guilty, they also have problems, doubts, they are looking for the same thing. It will give me confidence if a man tells me: “You know, I’m going to give you remarks, I’m going to be a little mean to you, but I’m going to destroy it myself. You have to learn to stand up for yourself, and together we can achieve this.” It is a contract that will calm me down a lot. But I have the impression that people under the age of 30 don’t ask themselves the same questions at all, while mine lived between two worlds. It’s like flirting. I was not taught to flirt. So when this happens to me, I’m extremely clumsy.

Jim’s novel men and women who are a little socially marginalized make a living by odd jobs. Do you want to comment on them, vote for them?
Yes, and what I particularly liked about the Larrieux brothers is that social difficulties don’t really affect their characters. I don’t know if it’s always like that in life, but they have vividness, freedom in the face of these problems. The hero, Aymeric, goes on temporary work missions, we don’t really know what he’s doing, and it doesn’t matter. On the other hand, it prevents him from thinking that he can pretend to be a child, find money to get on a plane and join him in Canada. Believing that he might be worth something.

Everything is said with great gentleness…
This film is a consolation for me, because there is love, respect, freedom in relationships. When there is collateral damage, it is dealt with in a very noble way, without revenge or cruelty. I’m glad people can see it, it’s a feel-good movie that brings back essential things about fatherhood, motherhood, love in all its forms. Without being stuck in any pattern.

(1) – Jim’s novelby Arnaud and Jean-Marie Lario, in theaters August 14.