Francois Ozon. “I was interested in filming with actresses of their age”

One movie a year (or almost). François Ozon is as prolific as he is unclassifiable, capable of irresistible comedy. (My crime recently) as great public works (unforgettable Thank God). But it is with the thriller that he returns when autumn comes an engrossing suspense that focuses on the seventies and octogenarians rarely depicted in cinema.

Josiane Balasco and Helen Vincent play Marie-Claude and Michel, lifelong friends living in the countryside. Their life is peaceful until the accident. While cooking mushrooms, Michel poisons his daughter, with whom he had a conflicting relationship. Family secrets, ghosts and guilt then invite themselves into this fascinating story that, without needing to be trumpeted, shakes up the representations of gender and age on screen.

Madame Figaro. – When autumn comes, it is associated with a childhood memory. Tell us about it.
Francois Ozon. – My aunt, my father’s sister, organized a family dinner in the village, she collected and cooked mushrooms, everyone was sick. Except for the one who hadn’t eaten anything. As a child with a vivid imagination, I wondered if he did it on purpose. This story stayed in my head. when you cook mushrooms for someone, don’t you want to get rid of them eventually? This is the question I ask through the character of Helen Vincent. did he knowingly poison his daughter? Does he feel guilty? In every family there are knots, unsaid things, neuroses and ghosts. It is fascinating to discover, destroy, analyze them.

You give the main roles to 81 and 74 year old actresses. It is extremely rare…
Everything started with this desire. In cinema, we rarely see old people, or relegated to second or third roles. I was interested in filming with actresses who assumed their age. Helen and Josiana have no cosmetic surgery, no retouching, but they are alive, much more so than some actresses who do too much and look like the living dead. I understand the weight of society, the injunction to stay “fresh” in this profession, but sometimes it’s more interesting for a filmmaker to shoot a face that moves, expresses, moves.

Is the point of view of older actresses changing?
Completely. When I did under the sand With Charlotte Rampling, who was only 50 at the time, I had heard so much… I had trouble even putting the film together. Today, that would no longer be a topic, thanks to actresses like Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Hooper. However, beyond physical acceptance, the passage of decades remains difficult for actresses because it implies changing their appearance, grandmother… Ludivine Sannier went through a difficult period in her thirties. She was neither a girl nor a woman, she was offered roles that did not suit her. Today he regains his place. a lot opens up before him. I knew him Water drips on hot stones – he was 21 years old – was found 8 Women And swimming pool but I had not painted it for twenty years. Today she is a mother of three children, a woman very grounded in reality, and I wanted to show her in a different way, to film the time passing through our reunion.

We see very few old people in the cinema

Francois Ozon

What you show about the third age also defies the clichés…On the outside, Helen Vincent is a sweet grandmother, but behind this image she is an independent and free woman who has had a difficult life, made difficult choices, had a sexuality that some condemn… We tend to idealize grandparents, but they they also have obligations. We lose so much by not wanting to know.

You have always fought against stereotypes related to femininity. How do you explain that?
Female characters have always interested me. in a society that has long despised them, women have always struggled. It’s a cliché to say, but they have the ability to be anything and can carry just as much darkness within themselves as men. The paths they take to survive are many, sometimes admirable or immoral as the case may be. When autumn comes. Maybe they will blame me for this, but I am used to it. on: 8 women it was already disturbing that my characters were not saints. Pure misogyny.

They call you a “protean” film director. Is there a genre that still eludes you?
I never ask myself the question in those terms. It is the story that imposes the genre. But then my crime which played on craftsmanship and theatricality, I wanted to be more realistic, in a production that almost disappears in favor of the characters. I would get bored staying in the same corridor.

It is interesting to discover, discover and analyze what is not said in families.

Francois Ozon

The sitcom, your first feature film, is 25 years old this year. What do you say to yourself when you look in the rearview mirror?
I may have been rejected for my first films, but today I look at them with tenderness. As if they were the work of a young director, to whom I would like to give some advice. I also see that my desire is inviolable. As for energy, that’s a different matter. After 50, I wear glasses, have 20% hearing loss in one ear, and am given lemon juice with ginger in the morning to help me get through the day.

when autumn comes By François Ozon, with Hélène Vincent, Josiane Balasco, Ludivine Sagnier, Pierre Lotin…