Democratic Cinephile

She/her, Scorpio, C-Villian, Hedonist, Trivia nerd, no regrets, only memories. Daughter, sister, auntie, Jill-of-all-trades, lifelong learner, dedicated dilettante.

[darkbloomiana]

You Owe It to Yourself to Watch Michael K. Williams and Anthony Bourdain Explore Brooklyn

Remember these men with this amazing, joyful clip.

[thexfridax]

Day 1. En Attendant la Neige (2003)

En Attendant la Neige (2003) Céline’s Role Screenwriter (Screenwriting stream, La Fémis Class of 2005) La Fémis student film Englis...

Céline Sciamma Film Festival

As you may know, Dee (Twitter: @Bfowah 👏🏾) has created a very extensive Adèle Haenel film and theatre blog. She is now back with another blog about Céline Sciamma’s work and collaborations 😍 Enjoy!

En Attendant la Neige (2003)

Les Premières Communions (2004)

Cache Ta Joie (2005)

Naissance des Pieuvres (2007)

Pauline (2009)

Ivory Tower (2010)

It Was on Earth That I Knew Joy (2010)

Tomboy (2011)

Les Revenants (2012)

Bird People (2014)

Mademoiselle (2014)

Bébé Tigre (2014)

Bande de Filles (2014) 

Quand on a 17 Ans (2016)

Ma Vie de Courgette (2016) 

Le Vent Tourne (2018) 

Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu (2019) 

Playlist (2020)

[…]

[thexfridax]

Master list: Translated interviews / articles / Q&As with Céline Sciamma, Adèle Haenel, Noémie Merlant (and others)

Last updated: 11 July 2021

—

Created on 3rd of August 2020 (and updated hereafter as much as possible, but you know how it is 😅; the Excel file with all of the below is saved here for the time being.)

This is a master list gathering various interviews etc. with Céline, Adèle and Noémie (and others that were interviewed together with them, or in relation to them and their work), translated by @mlleclaudine​, @ladyonfire28​ and moi (@thexfridax​). I would like to thank and applaud Claudine and Aimée for your massive contribution to the Portrait fandom.

There are so many more of you (@pensoakspaper​, @unfumble​​, @morningmightcomebyaccident​, @hedawolf​, @empressofkalumina​, @bereaving​​, @tenemos-que-hablar​​, @rosedelosvientos​ … to name a few) who keep the fire and conversation around Portrait and C/A/N alive by creating art and content – merci, this is also for you!

@justanotheruntitled04 created a master list of videos/audios with any of the three of them here. More Youtube translations can be found here: @akaiimee​.

Aimée’s amazing POALOF DVD commentary master post can be found here. [C’est fini 😥]

***UPDATES***

If you want to find out more about Adèle’s theatre work, check this out.

POALOF podcasts made by @podcastofaladyonfire can be found here.

@scorpio-sky has created a DVDography of Adèle’s work, it’s here.

An inofficial fan-made transcript (French plus English stage direction) of POALOF can be found here, a collaboration 😍 between @pensoakspaper, @mlleclaudine, @ladyonfire28 and @morningmightcomebyaccident.

@page28club provided English subs for Adèle’s anti-racist transfeminist roundtable [troll alert during the Q&As 😡] and Boomerang interview [Césars, Les héros ne meurent jamais, Le Corps Lesbien].

Folks, we have the unofficial English translation of the French POALOF screenplay (Plain Archive) HERE, brought to you by yours truly @mlleclaudine, with support from @tonovember, @morningmightcomebyaccident, @ladyonfire28 and @hedawolf among others.

#MeToo in France: Interview with Marine Turchi (Nov 2020), Mediapart article about Adèle Haenel’s case (paywall; Nov 2019), Mediapart interview with Adèle Haenel (Nov 2019). 💔

@ladyonfire28​ wrote her first piece about cinema, choosing Céline Sciamma’s debut film Water Lilies, see here in French or in English.

A CALL FOR SUBMISSION for Portrait fanart can be found here. A joint initiative by @empressofkalumina, @mlleclaudine​, @rosedelosvientos and @thexfridax. 🖼️👻🔥

Interview with Céline Sciamma on ‘Coming of Age, in Life and Film’ (Berlinale Talents, March 2021) via @celinesfiamma​

L’Étang review in the NY Times (May 2021)

L’Étang recap by yours truly, @thexfridax​ (June 2021)

Weird Céline Sciamma profiles, for good measure [1], [2]

I’m happy to add anyone else to this list, too! The more the merrier. 😉

Photo by Foc Kan/WireImage

***

Somewhat ordered by year of publication and C/A/N/others (as of 3rd of Aug 2020: 78 155 ✨; any further updates will be put at the bottom of each year to make my life easier):

2021

CÉLINE SCIAMMA | Interview

Céline Sciamma : « Pour une cinéaste, on ne sépare pas la femme de l’artiste »

Director Sciamma ‘It’s a dance with ghosts’

“On est du côté des enfants, de leur regard sur leurs parents”: Céline Sciamma à propos de son nouveau film, “Petite Maman”

Reviews on Pétite Maman: [1], [2]

Céline Sciamma : «S’engager rend toujours vulnérable»

Céline Sciamma, réalisatrice de “Petite Maman”: “Sur le tournage, je me demandais, que ferait Miyazaki ?”

Céline Sciamma: “’Petite Maman’” est le parfait film post-pandémie“

«L’expérience offerte par une œuvre d’art devrait être centrale»

Reviews on L’Étang: [1], [2], [3]

Noémie Merlant : ”L'expérience de la salle de cinéma manque terriblement“

Interview / De Sciamma à Mixte : Nina Meurisse, l'actrice de Caen qui a la cote!

2020

CÉLINE SCIAMMA : «DiCaprio est une icône lesbienne. »

Céline Sciamma: inventer une femme pour les raconter toutes

Aïssa Maïga and Adèle Haenel : «Finally there’s something political happening»

Noémie Merlant, l'actrice qui dévergonde le cinéma français, se confie

Noémie Merlant (JUMBO) : "Si je ne fais rien, il faut que je sois dans l'eau”

The making of Shakira with Noémie Merlant

Noémie talks about Jumbo in L’instant cinéma

JUMBO, NOEMIE MERLANT

A Good Man Behind the Scenes

Rising star Noémie Merlant: ‘Being a model is terrible. It shouldn’t exist’

Noémie Merlant: «Quand ça dérange, ça titille des choses importantes et utiles»

Noémie Merlant: “I remember very well the pride I felt on the red carpet.”

Noémie Merlant, in the light

*Noémie Merlant talks about the César*

“The double life of Noémie Merlant”

Jumbo - Interview de Noémie Merlant & Zoé Wittock

Rencontre avec Zoé Wittock et Noémie Merlant sur le film “Jumbo”

Zoé Wittock & Noémie Merlant: Jumbo Instagram Live 28 March 2020

Rencontres confinées : Claire Mathon à propos du film Portrait de la jeune fille en feu - 29 avril

From mourning to resilience, Gisèle Vienne discusses her next creation with Adèle Haenel

***UPDATES below***

Céline Sciamma & Annie Ernaux: Sœurs de Combat

Céline Sciamma

Translated interview with Adèle Haenel, heroine of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”; Translated excerpt from ’“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” - Approaching the True Face* of Adèle Haenel’ [2 in 1]

Haenel gets up and gets out

#4 Adèle Haenel

“Not correctness, but towards raising questions”: the gaze of actress Adèle Haenel

“The experience of being alive is not the priority of the government”. Conversation with Gisèle Vienne, Adèle Haenel & Ruth Vega Fernandez

Adèle Haenel

Interview d'Adèle Haenel et Noémie Merlant pour la sortie Portrait de la jeune fille en feu au Royaume-Uni [1, autotranslated]; [2]

Fashion and cinema interview with Noémie Merlant, star of French cinema at the Deauville Film Festival

Rencontre avec Luàna Bajrami, étoile montante

2019

‘We started a culture war‘

Céline Sciamma • Réalisatrice de Portrait de la jeune fille en feu

Céline Sciamma: «Il y a eu un sacrifice de lesbiennes dans toute l'histoire du cinéma»

«Portrait de la jeune fille en feu» : entretien avec Céline Sciamma [1]; Portrait of a Lady on Fire: An Interview With Céline Sciamma [2]

Entretien avec Céline Sciamma : « Je veux juste qu’on arrête d’opposer le point de vue féminin au point de vue universel. »

Céline Sciamma, en feu et en flammes

Céline Sciamma, la femme qui filmait les femmes

Céline Sciamma: «Portrait de la jeune fille en feu» est un film totalement dédié à l’amour»

“Portrait de la jeune fille en feu” : Céline Sciamma et Adèle Haenel s'embrasent

“Portrait de la jeune fille en feu” : rencontre au Méliès de Montreuil

«Je ne viens pas pour servir la soupe» : entretien avec Adèle Haenel

Viennale Star Adèle Haenel: ‘Equality is sexy’

A new politics of love - An interview with Adèle Haenel on 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire’

Adèle Haenel: Figurehead of the new French Film

Adèle Haenel: 'Sex in cinema is usually quite pathetic’

Adèle Haenel (German interview)

Adèle Haenel en rediffusion et Pomme en déconfinement

Exclusive interview with Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel, lead actresses in ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’

Entretien avec Adèle Haenel et Noémie Merlant

Interview Noémie Merlant et Adèle Haenel : «En tant que comédienne, en tant que femme, il y a beaucoup d’échos.»

Dance of the gazes and female desire  

[PORTRAIT] Noémie Merlant : «J’ai progressivement essayé de choisir des rôles féminins qui ont du sens »

Festival de Cannes 2019 : Noémie Merlant, «Quand je m’éteins, je vais voir un film et je re-rêve »

France tv & vous / République, le film interactif avec France.tv lab [Noémie Merlant, Lyna Khoudri]

Rencontre avec Hélène Delmaire, la peintre lilloise du film « Portrait de la jeune fille en feu »

Christel Baras, la directrice de casting qui a découvert Adèle Haenel à 11 ans

***UPDATES below***

Culture : Feux croisés entre Céline Sciamma et Monica Sabolo

Rencontre Céline Sciamma: “Il faut créer les conditions de sa liberté”

Céline Sciamma : «Je voulais faire un voyage dans l’histoire de l’art d’un point de vue féminin»

The female gaze: An interview with Céline Sciamma; Interview with director Céline Sciamma; Sciamma: ‘I want to show images of daily life that are missing’ [3 articles in 1]

Interview : Céline Sciamma «Ils ne savent pas voler, elles, elles savent.»

Love and let love

Céline Sciamma: ‘I love films that hate me!’

Director Céline Sciamma: ‘I try to create new forms of eroticism’

Forgotten women

‘I am a film activist’ - Interview with Céline Sciamma

Adèle Haenel : «Le respect pousse à s’investir»

Rencontre avec Adèle Haenel, à l'affiche de trois films à Cannes

Actress Adèle Haenel: The French Revolutionary

2018

Adèle Haenel, le jeu sacré

Adèle Haenel : «Il y a toujours matière à rire de soi »

***UPDATES below***

Adèle Haenel : “J’ai grandi avec La Cité de la peur et Les Trois Frères”

Adèle Haenel: «Je fais souvent les choses à l’envers»

2017

Entretien avec Adèle Haenel – Sophie dans 120 battements par minute

No, I’m not made of sugar: Shooting star Adèle Haenel

Génération Slimani

Adèle Haenel et Adèle Exarchopoulos : Orpheline

Adèle Haenel in an interview for 120BPM

***UPDATES below***

Screenplay writer Céline Sciamma: The women behind the big emotions

Un fantôme que l’on décrit avec complaisance est un fantôme qui cesse d’agir 👻

Adèle Haenel. L’émotion brute

‘I have ten years, then I become part of the system’

“120 BPM” à TÊTU : Les acteurs nous ont confié les secrets du tournage

Adèle Haenel in 2017 [3 articles merged]

Quand Adèle (Haenel) rencontre Adèle (Exarchopoulos)

Noémie Merlant & Naomi Amarger: ‘Heaven will wait’

2016

Translated interview with Adèle Haenel [and others] on ‘The Bloom of Yesterday’

Adèle Haenel, l'insaisissable

Le Grand Journal du 23/03 avec Wassim Nasr, Stéphane Gatignon, Adèle Haenel et Marianne Denicourt - CANAL +

MASTERCLASS du 6 oct 2016 - La Fille Inconnue

Dans la tête de Adèle Haenel

Noémie Merlant dans «Le Ciel Attendra »

Chris Kraus about Adèle »Machine Gun« Haenel

***UPDATES below***

André Téchiné et Céline Sciamma: entretien croisé autour de Quand on a 17 ans

Interview : Céline Sciamma

Adèle Haenel, géante dans Les Ogres

Interview with Adèle Haenel about ‘The Unknown Girl’

Les Ogres. Adèle Haenel: “Ne valorisons pas trop la souffrance”

Adèle Haenel: “Je ne veux pas me résoudre au cynisme”

Adèle Haenel: “And the fight against racism, is that a black thing?”

Adèle Haenel : «La plus grande force de l’homme, c’est le pardon»

Adèle Haenel : “Dire ‘Allez vous faire foutre !’, c'est un peu mon moteur” [Télérama; long version]

Adèle Haenel, comédienne : “Le cinéma blanc et masculin, j'en ai marre” [Télérama; short version]

Noémie Merlant, talent brut

2015

‘Being young means: To refuse’

Une apparition de cinéma [!!!]

Brouiller les pistes [!!!]

Les grandes actrices sont des femmes intelligentes

Une minute sans cligner des yeux

On va te manger

***UPDATES below*** 

Adèle Haenel, la belle dégenrée 😱

2014

Filming of ‘Girlhood‘

‘Girlhood’ - A meeting with Céline Sciamma

“'Bande de filles’ montre des Blacks à l’écran et ça nous rend fières”

Céline Sciamma: «Les grands films libèrent des territoires plutôt qu’ils ne les occupent»

Cannes 2014: Céline Sciamma, fille de bandes

Adèle Haenel : “Je ne pose pas de limite quand j’ai donné ma confiance”

Les verbes d'Adèle:  Rencontre avec Adèle Haenel, actrice

Adèle Haenel - Force vive

***UPDATES below***

Course en Tête

Adèle Haenel : “A un moment on commence à tellement se kiffer qu'on fait n'importe quoi”

Adèle Haenel, petit soldat

La belle vie d’Adèle Haenel

Adèle Haenel: « J’aime l’idée que les filles s’endurcissent »

Interview d'Adèle Haenel : “La relation avec un réalisateur fait tout”

Adèle Haenel: cherchez le garçon… manqué !

Adèle Haenel: “On ne me reproche plus de ne pas être assez féminine!”

“Elle a un fort potentiel burlesque”, Adèle Haenel racontée par André Téchiné

“Une super-héroïne sans superpouvoirs”, Adèle Haenel racontée par Thomas Cailley

2013

***UPDATES below*** 

Adèle Haenel - La belle audacieuse

2012

Adèle Haenel et Nicolas Maury: conversation ciblée sur Avignon

Une journée avec Adèle Haenel

***UPDATES below***

Interview with Céline Sciamma

2011

***UPDATES below***

Tomboy - Interview with Céline Sciamma

Céline Sciamma, quand tourner est un jeu d’enfants

Adèle Haenel, la belle insurgée

2007

Naissance d'une réalisatrice

[virgomoon-deactivated20240514]

[jennylouwho81]

She’s a wounded beast and I’m trying my hardest to forgive her.

[homunculus-argument]

I love how both corvids and parrots are in general highly intelligent, but where corvids generally have strict hierarchies, solve disagreements in the pecking order by fighting, and have a strong dislike for anything new or foreign until they figure out how to make use of it, parrots are just here to party.

The New Caledonian crow, who knows how to specifically build a tool in order to build another tool, never engages in play. These motherfuckers are smarter than some people with the right to vote, and they are Extremely Serious Birds. They don't have time to play, they got work to do and kids to raise.

And then there's the kea, straight-up titled "clown of the mountains", that has a specific vocalization for "playtime!". Scientists decided to try what happens if they play the Play Call for two fully-grown adult keas that are together in an area and can clearly see there is no other, third kea to make the call, and they just go "great idea, disembodied voice! it's TIME TO FUCKING PARTY!" and start wrestling.

Imagine working really hard in order to make it into a top university to study astrophysics, making it to your first Very Serious Class, sitting down full of serious determination, and the dude next to you is taking notes without using his hands, with a glitter pen he's shoved up his nose. And his notes are good.

[homunculus-argument]

It's your first day of Bird University and you already fucking hate this guy.

[trixree]

So there's this gene in humans called PLXNC1 or "Plexin", right? So Plexin is associated with increased neuron function and is generally thought to be correlated to human's increased cognitive ability for the use of language, i.e., "language learning". Super cool, right?

Humans aren't the only animals with advanced language learning that have Plexin in their genome. We can actually find homologous plexin between humans and PARROTS!

Using genomic alignment search tools, we can actually break down the sequence of human Plexin and directly compare it to the Plexin found in parrots. (This was actually a project I ran for an upper division genomics class, and running the program literally takes like... ten minutes.) I wanted to see how similar the plexin gene was between humans and parrots, so I queued up the human sequence against all of the available records from parrot genomes and sorted by greatest percent identity (i.e., which bird species had the closest plexin to ours?)

It was this funky dude right here:

THAT'S RIGHT BABY! The kea, notorious for being a straight up motherfucking prank god, carries Plexin with a 79.42% identity comapred to humans'.

THIS LITTLE ASSHOLE HAS A HOMOLOGOUS LANGUAGE LEARNING GENE WITH US!!!! A GENE THAT IS THOUGHT TO BE CORRELATED TO HIGHER LEVEL LEARNING AND INTELLIGENCE!!!!! AND THEY USE THEIR INTELLIGENCE TO WREAK HAVOC ON TOURISTS

Also these guys have been found to literally have predictive reasoning skills, which we consider REALLY FUCKING ADVANCED for a lot of animal species. They pass the Aesop's fable test with flying colors. They're so goddamn cool, I love them so much. The kea really said: "I will use my superior intelligence to have a good fucking time" and that's so powerful honestly

[jennylouwho81]

Have met a few keas.   This is accurate.

[ltwilliammowett]

How to Make Ginger Beer - The Victorian Way

[portraitzine]

Interest Check for a potential zine based on Portrait of a Lady on Fire is here! It will stay open from July 11 to August 8

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSevsyz7D_-Wu5Q9Wtx7HS2I2lRWTAzMY6Z-_KmaDcgSJsbn3Q/viewform

interest check for a potential zine based on Portrait of a Lady on Fire

@zinesubmissions @zineforall @atozines @faneventshub @zinefeed @zinefans @zinesunlimited

[creativespacetime]

[bellybuttonblue-deactivated2021]

[devilmns]

THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) ⤷ dir. Robert Wise

[prideprejudce]

here’s a hard pill to swallow: abuse does not just exclusively occur in romantic or family relationships. friends can be just as toxic to your physical and mental wellbeing as a partner or a family member. also, the aftermath of being in an abusive friendship can be just as traumatizing as any other abusive relationship. don’t boo me i’m right 

[prideprejudce]

for some reason people don't know this but toxic friends can mirror all the same behaviors as seen in an abusive romantic partner. i will use my own story of my ex-high school best friend who abused me for several years. signs of abuse include but are not limited to:

Humiliating or embarrassing you - my ex-best friend LOVED to try and make me squirm in any way possible to see my reaction. once she went up to a guy and told him i had a crush on him to watch me struggle to explain myself

Unreasonable jealousy - if i so much as went to hang out with any of my other friends i would have to let my ex-best friend know beforehand. i pretty much had to get her permission to see other people or she would be convinced that i was ‘ditching her forever’

Refusing to communicate - if she was ever angry with me or upset she would never tell me that so we could talk about it. instead, she would ignore me or respond to all my texts with ‘k’ or ‘ya’ and i would have to struggle for hours to get her to tell me what was wrong

Ignoring or excluding you - she would ignore me for weeks at a time as a ‘punishment’ knowing that it would eat me up inside wondering what i did wrong. i still remember spending nights wide awake crying in bed because i didn’t know what to do 

Mean jokes or constantly making fun of you - she would constantly poke fun at my appearance and personality to where my self-confidence plummeted. god help me if i ever said anything about her though

Saying things like “If you don’t _____, I will_____.” - she would constantly threaten to kill herself if i didn't do what she wanted

Guilt trips - she never apologized once to me in our seven-plus years of being friends. not once. every time we argued i would be the one who apologized in the end. once when i stood up to her and called her out on treating me like crap she would make up a story of how her life was miserable and that i was making things worse 

Isolating you from friends and family - been mentioned before but she was extremely jealous of all my other relationships and would override my plans with other people on purpose and would guilt trip me if i still went to see them

 Domination and control - also mentioned before but i needed her permission on everything. if i joined any group or extracurricular activity without her knowing she would be furious   

Extreme moodiness - after ignoring me for weeks she would contact me out of the blue and act as if nothing happened. she would also refuse to talk about why she ignored me for so long and did not care if my mental health suffered from it

anyway, abusive friendships need to be acknowledged more because they are not only extremely common but also very damaging to someone’s mental health. i personally had to go through years of therapy to unlearn the guilt and self-hatred that my ex-friend helped instill in me. stay safe yall

[prideprejudce]

a GREAT addition from @mememic-bry

#also- because sometimes I think people throw around words like ‘abuse’ a little carelessly on this site #people who aren’t abusive sometimes might do one or two things on this list #because people are flawed #and sometimes we screw up and hurt each other and it’s ouch and it sucks #if your friend does one of these things once they are not an abuser and please don’t bring it up by saying ‘you’re being abusive’ #instead say ‘hey this specific thing you did hurt me and here’s why it was p stressful’ #and a good friend will hear you out. maybe they will get defensive or sad (cause who *likes* being called out let’s be real) #but ultimately they will listen to you. they will own up to their actions. #and they will make a genuine effort to not act in that way that hurt you again

#ON THE OTHER HAND #an abusive person will do several of these things *repeatedly* and *consistently*. it is a pattern woven in your relationship #and it just keeps happening #and if you try to bring it up they will deny any ownership of their actions #they will either say they never did those things OR that they *DID* but it’s not their fault #every single time they will gaslight you or make themselves the victim and refuse to hold themselves accountable for hurting you #that’s an abuser. that’s a toxic friend 

[funny-tik-toks]

[cockslutpadalecki]

“it is amazing how many people view direct communication as an attack.”

[drtanner]

For real, though. I have many litmus tests for figuring out if someone is Basically Decent™ or not, but one of my very favourites is setting a reasonable boundary like this, or otherwise politely but unapologetically refusing to indulge a request from them and seeing how they respond.

Basically Decent™ people will be totally fine and understanding. Shitty people will be livid.

[foxieskullz]

It’s especially fun when they use ‘anxiety’ as an excuse to get away with their actions instead owning up to the mistake and acting like an adult. Anxiety is an explaination, not an excuse.

[jennylouwho81]

My personal favorite, when they inevitably take umbrage and/or feel persecuted, is when they air it all in the tags for all the world to see, instead of confronting the other party head-on like a gotdang adult would do.

[uccelletto-di-kokuyo]

Out of all the things for TERFS to go after, is the fact that I'm an evolutionary biologist. It's fucking bizarre.

I have my degree in evolutionary biology. I've been interested in the sciences since I was young. I was a part (and still am a part) of the Audubon Society, Herpetology Society, Science Olympiad and regular volunteer at our state-run science museum. I wanted to be a paleontologist for most of my life and that shifted to ornithologist in high school. I narrowed that in on my own in uni to birds and their relatives along with snakes (because I love snakes).

I took anthropology, archaeology, chemistry, and other classes as part of my degree and out of my own curiosity. My anthropology class is most noticeable. I think it would be fair to say I would have been considered a TERF or close to one in high school. This one class though forced me to look all those beliefs I had in the face.

That anthropology class is where I first learned about gender and class as social constructs. And where I got the first inkling I might not be cis. It forced me to look at cultures outside of what I know.

Then my biology classes forced me to look at how complex, and definitely not binary, sex is. How strange it can be. The many ways nature plays with it. Categories are something that humans made up to try to understand the world. They are breakable, bendable and always always holds exceptions.

And my archaeology classes? Let me just say this. Humans are fucking weird. We're weird. Our evolution is weird.

Altogether though, the more I learned and from reputable sources, the more I learned that TERF ideology is not just wrong, but that it isn't a reasonable viewpoint. It doesn't help us understand our world better. It is not the most predictive value. At all.

[terfteenthdoctor]

Funny how if I had ever said anything like "sex is a spectrum” or “mammals can change sex“ within earshot of a professor I would have never graduated. Girl even linked to a bunch of “sources“ in the notes which are just articles on intersex conditions. I hope you at least know what a condition is...

[uccelletto-di-kokuyo]

Those are sources you fucking nitwit. I'm done playing nice when you are literally fucking denying scientific knowledge now. Did you even read them? I've got fucking scientific papers, the WHO and other sources for that shit. And I repeat for the 1000th fucking time....

So don't keep calling me one.

Intersex in and of itself is proof that sex is not binary and never has been. We categorize things. We name them to understand them. And that can shift, morph and change. Science evolves and changes as we gain new information that may challenge what used to be accepted.

Intersex is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn&#8217

Aka - Sex is a spectrum that does weird things and it's incorrect to categorize it as a binary or force intersex people to choose a binary.

Stop Using Phony Science to Justify Transphobia

Actual research shows that sex is anything but binary

Sex Redefined: The Idea of 2 Sexes Is Overly Simplistic

Biologists now think there is a larger spectrum than just binary female and male

Sex isn't binary, and we should stop acting like it is

It's time for legislation and education to reflect sex as a spectrum with unlimited options

7 gender-bending animals in the animal kingdom

There are many other species in the animal kingdom apart from our own that don't adhere to a gender binary.

Meet Mmamoriri The Transgender Lioness

You’ve heard of gay penguins, but species throughout the world also count transgender members among them.

And maybe we can't fully change sex. But guess what? We have resources that allow sex reassignment surgery among other things. And who knows how far we will be able to go in the future!

For fuck's sake, we are starting to be able to grow brand new body parts in a lab. You think that technology won't develop in the future to allow people to make a full transition to align with their gender if they so desire? Fuck off my post.

Again: What sources do you transphobic assholes have to show sex is binary that isn't just high school level biology?

Science changes as we learn new information and we should change on an individual level as we learn new information. Grow the fuck up, learn and let go of outdated beliefs.

As a side note, there is a huge push against calling instersex a disorder or condition. There are many things that we used to consider disorders or conditions until we learned otherwise. Kinda of like asexuality or homosexuality. It being a 'condition' does not negate the reality of sex not being binary

[lemonsharks]

OP sorry for jumping in on this. I'm procrastinating on ye olde day job.

Sex redefined: The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that. (Nature)

Respecting variations in embodiment as well as gender: Beyond the presumed 'binary' of sex (Nursing Inquiry)

Dr Anne Fausto-Sterling's entire oeuvre; however, her New York Times opinion piece, Why Sex Is Not Binary, is a layperson-friendly condensation thereof.

Rethinking Sex Designations on Birth Certificates (New England Journal of Medicine)

Sex Differences in Immune Responses (Science)

When does an advantage become unfair? Empirical and normative concerns in Semenya's case (Journal of Medical Ethics)

Testing sex and gender in sports; reinventing, reimagining and reconstructing histories (Endeavor)

How Human Bones Reveal the Fallacy of a Biological Sex Binary (Pacific Standard; yes, it's a news site; yes, the author has standing to speak on this topic)

---

"~Some intersex radfems don't like that the existence of intersex conditions means sex isn't a binary~"

How nice for them. My grandmother doesn't like that the existence of 4.36 billion year old zircon crystals means young earth creationism isn't a thing.

Science doesn't care if you like it or not; it's still there, being factual, with or without your permission.

[thexfridax]

Master list: Translated interviews / articles / Q&As with Céline Sciamma, Adèle Haenel, Noémie Merlant (and others)

Last updated: 10 June 2021

—

Created on 3rd of August 2020 (and updated hereafter as much as possible, but you know how it is 😅; the Excel file with all of the below is saved here for the time being.)

This is a master list gathering various interviews etc. with Céline, Adèle and Noémie (and others that were interviewed together with them, or in relation to them and their work), translated by @mlleclaudine​, @ladyonfire28​ and moi (@thexfridax​). I would like to thank and applaud Claudine and Aimée for your massive contribution to the Portrait fandom.

There are so many more of you (@pensoakspaper​, @unfumble​​, @morningmightcomebyaccident​, @hedawolf​, @empressofkalumina​, @bereaving​​, @tenemos-que-hablar​​, @rosedelosvientos​ … to name a few) who keep the fire and conversation around Portrait and C/A/N alive by creating art and content – merci, this is also for you!

@justanotheruntitled04 created a master list of videos/audios with any of the three of them here. More Youtube translations can be found here: @akaiimee​.

Aimée’s amazing POALOF DVD commentary master post can be found here. [C’est fini 😥]

***UPDATES***

If you want to find out more about Adèle’s theatre work, check this out.

POALOF podcasts made by @podcastofaladyonfire can be found here.

@scorpio-sky has created a DVDography of Adèle’s work, it’s here.

An inofficial fan-made transcript (French plus English stage direction) of POALOF can be found here, a collaboration 😍 between @pensoakspaper, @mlleclaudine, @ladyonfire28 and @morningmightcomebyaccident.

@page28club provided English subs for Adèle’s anti-racist transfeminist roundtable [troll alert during the Q&As 😡] and Boomerang interview [Césars, Les héros ne meurent jamais, Le Corps Lesbien].

Folks, we have the unofficial English translation of the French POALOF screenplay (Plain Archive) HERE, brought to you by yours truly @mlleclaudine, with support from @tonovember, @morningmightcomebyaccident, @ladyonfire28 and @hedawolf among others.

#MeToo in France: Interview with Marine Turchi (Nov 2020), Mediapart article about Adèle Haenel’s case (paywall; Nov 2019), Mediapart interview with Adèle Haenel (Nov 2019). 💔

@ladyonfire28​ wrote her first piece about cinema, choosing Céline Sciamma’s debut film Water Lilies, see here in French or in English.

A CALL FOR SUBMISSION for Portrait fanart can be found here. A joint initiative by @empressofkalumina, @mlleclaudine​, @rosedelosvientos and @thexfridax. 🖼️👻🔥

Interview with Céline Sciamma on ‘Coming of Age, in Life and Film’ (Berlinale Talents, March 2021) via @celinesfiamma​

L’Étang review in the NY Times (May 2021)

L’Étang recap by yours truly, @thexfridax​ (June 2021)

I’m happy to add anyone else to this list, too! The more the merrier. 😉

Photo by Foc Kan/WireImage

***

Somewhat ordered by year of publication and C/A/N/others (as of 3rd of Aug 2020: 78 150 ✨; any further updates will be put at the bottom of each year to make my life easier):

2021

“On est du côté des enfants, de leur regard sur leurs parents”: Céline Sciamma à propos de son nouveau film, “Petite Maman”

Review(s) on Pétite Maman: [1]

Céline Sciamma : «S’engager rend toujours vulnérable»

Céline Sciamma, réalisatrice de “Petite Maman”: “Sur le tournage, je me demandais, que ferait Miyazaki ?”

Céline Sciamma: “’Petite Maman’” est le parfait film post-pandémie“

«L’expérience offerte par une œuvre d’art devrait être centrale»

Reviews on L’Étang [@Vidy-Lausanne]: [1], [2], [3]

Noémie Merlant : ”L'expérience de la salle de cinéma manque terriblement“

2020

CÉLINE SCIAMMA : «DiCaprio est une icône lesbienne. »

Céline Sciamma: inventer une femme pour les raconter toutes

Aïssa Maïga and Adèle Haenel : «Finally there’s something political happening»

Noémie Merlant, l'actrice qui dévergonde le cinéma français, se confie

Noémie Merlant (JUMBO) : “Si je ne fais rien, il faut que je sois dans l'eau”

The making of Shakira with Noémie Merlant

Noémie talks about Jumbo in L’instant cinéma

JUMBO, NOEMIE MERLANT

A Good Man Behind the Scenes

Rising star Noémie Merlant: ‘Being a model is terrible. It shouldn’t exist’

Noémie Merlant: «Quand ça dérange, ça titille des choses importantes et utiles»

Noémie Merlant: “I remember very well the pride I felt on the red carpet.”

Noémie Merlant, in the light

*Noémie Merlant talks about the César*

“The double life of Noémie Merlant”

Jumbo - Interview de Noémie Merlant & Zoé Wittock

Rencontre avec Zoé Wittock et Noémie Merlant sur le film “Jumbo”

Zoé Wittock & Noémie Merlant: Jumbo Instagram Live 28 March 2020

Rencontres confinées : Claire Mathon à propos du film Portrait de la jeune fille en feu - 29 avril

From mourning to resilience, Gisèle Vienne discusses her next creation with Adèle Haenel

***UPDATES below***

Céline Sciamma & Annie Ernaux: Sœurs de Combat

Céline Sciamma

Translated interview with Adèle Haenel, heroine of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”; Translated excerpt from ’“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” - Approaching the True Face* of Adèle Haenel’ [2 in 1]

Haenel gets up and gets out

#4 Adèle Haenel

“Not correctness, but towards raising questions”: the gaze of actress Adèle Haenel

“The experience of being alive is not the priority of the government”. Conversation with Gisèle Vienne, Adèle Haenel & Ruth Vega Fernandez

Adèle Haenel

Interview d'Adèle Haenel et Noémie Merlant pour la sortie Portrait de la jeune fille en feu au Royaume-Uni [1, autotranslated]; [2]

Fashion and cinema interview with Noémie Merlant, star of French cinema at the Deauville Film Festival

Rencontre avec Luàna Bajrami, étoile montante

2019

‘We started a culture war‘

Céline Sciamma • Réalisatrice de Portrait de la jeune fille en feu

Céline Sciamma: «Il y a eu un sacrifice de lesbiennes dans toute l'histoire du cinéma»

«Portrait de la jeune fille en feu» : entretien avec Céline Sciamma [1]; Portrait of a Lady on Fire: An Interview With Céline Sciamma [2]

Entretien avec Céline Sciamma : « Je veux juste qu’on arrête d’opposer le point de vue féminin au point de vue universel. »

Céline Sciamma, en feu et en flammes

Céline Sciamma, la femme qui filmait les femmes

Céline Sciamma: «Portrait de la jeune fille en feu» est un film totalement dédié à l’amour»

“Portrait de la jeune fille en feu” : Céline Sciamma et Adèle Haenel s'embrasent

“Portrait de la jeune fille en feu” : rencontre au Méliès de Montreuil

«Je ne viens pas pour servir la soupe» : entretien avec Adèle Haenel

Viennale Star Adèle Haenel: ‘Equality is sexy’

A new politics of love - An interview with Adèle Haenel on ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’

Adèle Haenel: Figurehead of the new French Film

Adèle Haenel: 'Sex in cinema is usually quite pathetic’

Adèle Haenel (German interview)

Adèle Haenel en rediffusion et Pomme en déconfinement

Exclusive interview with Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel, lead actresses in ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’

Entretien avec Adèle Haenel et Noémie Merlant

Interview Noémie Merlant et Adèle Haenel : «En tant que comédienne, en tant que femme, il y a beaucoup d’échos.»

Dance of the gazes and female desire  

[PORTRAIT] Noémie Merlant : «J’ai progressivement essayé de choisir des rôles féminins qui ont du sens »

Festival de Cannes 2019 : Noémie Merlant, «Quand je m’éteins, je vais voir un film et je re-rêve »

France tv & vous / République, le film interactif avec France.tv lab [Noémie Merlant, Lyna Khoudri]

Rencontre avec Hélène Delmaire, la peintre lilloise du film « Portrait de la jeune fille en feu »

Christel Baras, la directrice de casting qui a découvert Adèle Haenel à 11 ans

***UPDATES below***

Culture : Feux croisés entre Céline Sciamma et Monica Sabolo

Rencontre Céline Sciamma: “Il faut créer les conditions de sa liberté”

Céline Sciamma : «Je voulais faire un voyage dans l’histoire de l’art d’un point de vue féminin»

The female gaze: An interview with Céline Sciamma; Interview with director Céline Sciamma; Sciamma: ‘I want to show images of daily life that are missing’ [3 articles in 1]

Interview : Céline Sciamma «Ils ne savent pas voler, elles, elles savent.»

Love and let love

Céline Sciamma: ‘I love films that hate me!’

Director Céline Sciamma: ‘I try to create new forms of eroticism’

Forgotten women

‘I am a film activist’ - Interview with Céline Sciamma

Adèle Haenel : «Le respect pousse à s’investir»

Rencontre avec Adèle Haenel, à l'affiche de trois films à Cannes

Actress Adèle Haenel: The French Revolutionary

2018

Adèle Haenel, le jeu sacré

Adèle Haenel : «Il y a toujours matière à rire de soi »

***UPDATES below***

Adèle Haenel : “J’ai grandi avec La Cité de la peur et Les Trois Frères”

Adèle Haenel: «Je fais souvent les choses à l’envers»

2017

Entretien avec Adèle Haenel – Sophie dans 120 battements par minute

No, I’m not made of sugar: Shooting star Adèle Haenel

Génération Slimani

Adèle Haenel et Adèle Exarchopoulos : Orpheline

Adèle Haenel in an interview for 120BPM

***UPDATES below***

Screenplay writer Céline Sciamma: The women behind the big emotions

Un fantôme que l’on décrit avec complaisance est un fantôme qui cesse d’agir 👻

Adèle Haenel. L’émotion brute

‘I have ten years, then I become part of the system’

“120 BPM” à TÊTU : Les acteurs nous ont confié les secrets du tournage

Adèle Haenel in 2017 [3 articles merged]

Quand Adèle (Haenel) rencontre Adèle (Exarchopoulos)

Noémie Merlant & Naomi Amarger: ‘Heaven will wait’

2016

Translated interview with Adèle Haenel [and others] on ‘The Bloom of Yesterday’

Adèle Haenel, l'insaisissable

Le Grand Journal du 23/03 avec Wassim Nasr, Stéphane Gatignon, Adèle Haenel et Marianne Denicourt - CANAL +

MASTERCLASS du 6 oct 2016 - La Fille Inconnue

Dans la tête de Adèle Haenel

Noémie Merlant dans «Le Ciel Attendra »

Chris Kraus about Adèle »Machine Gun« Haenel

***UPDATES below***

André Téchiné et Céline Sciamma: entretien croisé autour de Quand on a 17 ans

Interview : Céline Sciamma

Adèle Haenel, géante dans Les Ogres

Interview with Adèle Haenel about ‘The Unknown Girl’

Les Ogres. Adèle Haenel: “Ne valorisons pas trop la souffrance”

Adèle Haenel: “Je ne veux pas me résoudre au cynisme”

Adèle Haenel: “And the fight against racism, is that a black thing?”

Adèle Haenel : «La plus grande force de l’homme, c’est le pardon»

Adèle Haenel : “Dire ‘Allez vous faire foutre !’, c'est un peu mon moteur” [Télérama; long version]

Adèle Haenel, comédienne : “Le cinéma blanc et masculin, j'en ai marre” [Télérama; short version]

Noémie Merlant, talent brut

2015

‘Being young means: To refuse’

Une apparition de cinéma [!!!]

Brouiller les pistes [!!!]

Les grandes actrices sont des femmes intelligentes

Une minute sans cligner des yeux

On va te manger

***UPDATES below*** 

Adèle Haenel, la belle dégenrée 😱

2014

Filming of ‘Girlhood‘

‘Girlhood’ - A meeting with Céline Sciamma

“'Bande de filles’ montre des Blacks à l’écran et ça nous rend fières”

Céline Sciamma: «Les grands films libèrent des territoires plutôt qu’ils ne les occupent»

Cannes 2014: Céline Sciamma, fille de bandes

Adèle Haenel : “Je ne pose pas de limite quand j’ai donné ma confiance”

Les verbes d'Adèle:  Rencontre avec Adèle Haenel, actrice

Adèle Haenel - Force vive

***UPDATES below***

Course en Tête

Adèle Haenel : “A un moment on commence à tellement se kiffer qu'on fait n'importe quoi”

Adèle Haenel, petit soldat

La belle vie d’Adèle Haenel

Adèle Haenel: « J’aime l’idée que les filles s’endurcissent »

Interview d'Adèle Haenel : “La relation avec un réalisateur fait tout”

Adèle Haenel: cherchez le garçon… manqué !

Adèle Haenel: “On ne me reproche plus de ne pas être assez féminine!”

“Elle a un fort potentiel burlesque”, Adèle Haenel racontée par André Téchiné

“Une super-héroïne sans superpouvoirs”, Adèle Haenel racontée par Thomas Cailley

2013

***UPDATES below*** 

Adèle Haenel - La belle audacieuse

2012

Adèle Haenel et Nicolas Maury: conversation ciblée sur Avignon

Une journée avec Adèle Haenel

***UPDATES below***

Interview with Céline Sciamma

2011

***UPDATES below***

Tomboy - Interview with Céline Sciamma

Céline Sciamma, quand tourner est un jeu d’enfants

Adèle Haenel, la belle insurgée

2007

Naissance d'une réalisatrice

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

oh hey wanna see some antique ivory anatomical manikins complete with itty bitty handcarved removable organs?

[aromantic-angel]

Not particularly

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

sure you do! you are absolutely champing at the bit to see these things! you’re pumped up and raring to go. you are eager, ebullient, ecstatic, electrified, elevated, energized, enraptured, entertained, enthusiastic, impassioned, intoxicated, intrigued, fiery and feverish and fervent and fired up and frothing at the mouth!!! jesus kid you’ve got to GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF

[jackest-jack]

I am actually just as desperate as stated above to see the dolls

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

excellent give me a dollar

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

alright you stingy bastards, take the wages of your sin and weep, weep evermore

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

[i-am-the-hero-alfred-jones]

Ah, so this was the inspiration for pregnancy Barbie. 

YOU BET YOUR RECALLED ASS THAT WAS A THING

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

some things you can’t unsee

I would also like to inform you that there (briefly) existed a Teen Pregnancy Barbie which was sold in 1982 complete with detachable magnetic baby bump

[theunimpairedcondition]

[mlleclaudine]

Céline Sciamma : «S’engager rend toujours vulnérable»

by Annick Cojean - Le Monde, June 6, 2021

I WOULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN HERE IF…  The director looks back on her joyful and curious childhood and talks about how her encounter with cinema offered her a «vicarious life»

In four films, director Céline Sciamma, 42, has established herself as the representative of a new genre of sensitive and demanding auteur cinema.  Her Cannes award-winning Portrait de la jeune fille en feu has been seen around the world, and was the first French film screened abroad in 2020 with 1.5 million admissions.  She returns to theaters with Petite maman, a poetic tale, filmed from a child’s perspective.

I wouldn’t have gotten here if…

… If I hadn’t grown up with siblings.  It’s the most constant and fundamental element in my life.  Something essential.  I say this with all the more conviction because I thought hard about your famous question!  I’ve been wondering about the tipping points that have marked the course of my life, but without being able to distinguish a «decisive» moment or a «major» turning point.  To unearth the truth, you have to go back in time as far as possible.  And this is how my siblings line up: my sister, younger than me by three years, and my brother, the youngest child, by seven years.  It’s the longest accompaniment in my life.  And much more: the most unconditional support.  At heart, it’s a primary alliance based on solidarity, trust, and caring for each other.  And then the games!

Because it’s joyful?

Oh yes!  What a laugh!  We’re in touch daily and talking to them, even if it’s only for a few minutes on the phone, is a guarantee of laughter, even when we talk about serious things.  My brother and sister are my confidants.  We continue to grow together.

Have you always felt the strength of this bond?

My very first memory is of my sister’s birth.  But I feel that it was when my brother was born that we instantly bonded as siblings.  A trio emerged, much stronger than the duo.  And from that moment on, we were a team.  Our parents were very young because they had me at 21.  I felt a real responsibility as the eldest: to be attentive, creative, a kind of role model.  But it all happened through play: singing, dancing, playing sports.  Our environment was conducive to it.  We lived in Cergy-Pontoise, one of these new cities that fascinate me and which are places designed for children.  You can cross the city without passing a car, and there is even a small wood.  Can you imagine our freedom as kids, always outside?  There was room for our respective games and passions.  And a constant dynamic of humor.  My brother actually became a comedian.

Joy and light of childhood…

Yes, but not just that.  The little girl that I used to be always felt a sensation of marginalization and inadequacy.  It was vague, confusing, inexpressible.  But I had an early awareness of being out of step with the projections and the imaginings that society offered me.  I dreamed of something else.  I was not compliant.  So the team of siblings did not preclude solitude and secrecy.  Even though I was an energetic and happy child, I was still working on my lion’s wrinkle!

Were you what Nina Bouraoui calls a «homosexual child»?

I was very well aware who my heart was beating for!  And there was a continuum of clues that made me feel some weird emotions that I quickly realized were forbidden.  This was the early 1980s, a pre-Internet era, with no information or images to project onto.  Homosexuality did not exist in the cultural space, lesbians even less so.  You had to deal with this poorly identified feeling.  It wasn’t really an affliction, but I wanted to grow up quickly to be free to choose my life and not always be waiting for it to start.

Did you talk about it with your parents?

Certainly not!  I had a secret relationship with it.  It wasn’t so much that it was difficult to talk about or a problem to «come clean» as it was the desire to protect the immense curiosity I had and the dream of a particular sentimental destiny.  I wanted to cultivate this dream, not to counter it.  It seemed to me to be a promise.  But announcing it before actually living it was out of the question!

How did you nourish this curiosity?

A young English girl in the 1980s could find a whole shelf of lesbian literature in a bookshop or library.   Impossible in French libraries where the classification is universal and not by genre.  Unearthing a book in which I could find myself was something of a treasure hunt.  I spent a lot of time in libraries, digging, scrutinizing, hoping.  And then one day, it finally happened.  You come across Colette.  You come across Virginia Woolf.  And you’re struck in the heart.  You pull on one thread…  And you realize that the great women authors have often had queer existences, in their lives or in their novels.  And that by taking an interest in great feminine literature, therefore feminist, we end up meeting.  And it’s an enormous emotion, completely aside from the work.

What feeling does this paucity of representation engender?

Today, I would call it exclusion.  But back then, it made you doubt yourself and your intuition.  You felt very alone, possibly the only one in the world.  How can you explore your own feelings if you can’t relate them to the images, stories, behaviors visible in society?  So, when by some miracle you recognize yourself, I assure you that you can’t miss it!  It’s so strong, so overwhelming, that it is impossible to go back.  If the desire survives its total erasure, and the emotional extortion often brought about to make it disappear, well I assure you that it empowers you with a hell of a lot of strength.

How did your encounter with cinema come about?

In much the same vein.  Overnight, it took over from literature.  From the age of 13 or 14, I went there three times a week.  By myself.  And I saw everything, thanks to the wonderful Utopia cinema in Cergy.  My life was organized around that: earning money by babysitting to pay for my movie tickets.

Did someone introduce you to the 7th art?

My grandmother.  My wonderful grandmother who passed away recently.  A grandmother who had been a movie buff since her childhood in Cairo in the 1930s.  A grandmother equipped with all the satellite channels, who meticulously chose the film that we would watch together in silence and who thus introduced me to Capra, Hitchcock, James Stewart, her favorite actor, but also to Spanish cinema, to all of Italian cinema…  She had tons of film books, numerous encyclopedias, and she educated me, the dreamy teenager for whom the cinema offered a vicarious life.  I was vibrating, pulsating, brimming with ideas.  Everything was so intense that it became a goal.  I dreamed of such powerful loves, even if it seemed impossible.  Because not only did I not kiss anyone in real life, but I also never saw anyone, on the screen, kissing someone of the same sex.  Which would have moved me so much and given me courage.

Were you aware that the cinema’s perspective was both masculine and hetero?

Not at all!  I was in awe.  And I absorbed the canon.  Cinema is an art based on canon, and on the repetition of canon.  An authoritarian canon with rules, norms, styles, archetypes.  Cinema is very much inspired by cinema.  It’s one of the arts where you can claim to have been inspired by your colleague, which I find very beautiful.  But as a result, you lack distance.  You immerse yourself in this standardized universe, you feed off it, you wallow in it.  And then one day, you discover La vie ne me fait pas peur, by Noémie Lvovsky, the first film I saw with the knowledge that it was made by a woman.  And I was in shock.  Not only because a young director was showing me that this profession was accessible to a woman.  But her film offered something different, touched a sensitive chord and literally shook me.  From then on, I paid attention to the director, and not just to the film.

And you thought about studying film…

No.  Not yet.  I had a thirst for learning, I liked to study.  A teacher talked to me about hypokhâgne.  I’m in.  Paris reaches out to me!  Long live autonomy!  In truth, I ended up in Neuilly in a nuns’ home.  I worked like crazy but experienced life in a community with girls.  And it was great!  Friendly, supportive, festive.  There was an amazing mix of backgrounds, girls from the provinces and the Parisian upper middle class, left-wing chicks and girls from the RPR [Rassemblement pour la République, founded by Jacques Chirac].  I was open to a lot of things and I loved this feminine everyday life.  When I imagined the rest of my life, that was how I would like to live.

What do you mean by that?

In a friendly community.  Among people who listen to each other, who understand each other and who simply love each other.  It’s not just about couples or families!  Friendship can also be a way of life.  It already organizes and structures mine, including sharing care and services on a daily basis.  I also have male friendships and would not exclude integrating boys into the community that I fantasize about.  But I have to admit that a single-sex community is a refuge of unheard-of sweetness and freedom.  The idea is not, as is often thought, to conspire or have secret discussions from which we would like to exclude others.  The objective is much simpler: to be able to rest and relax.  To spare ourselves certain conversations or behaviors.  To live our individuality to the fullest.

The singularity of your regard and your style has been striking from your very first film, «Naissance des pieuvres», made right out of film school…

I enjoyed making it so much!  So much joy at every step of the way, every encounter, every action.  I rushed into it, very young, scrawny, without any experience, perfectly unaware, but with a political intuition and a radical approach to the staging that still moves me today.  It’s true, I talked about the troubles of adolescence, when I was barely past it myself, and also about the injunctions and abuses to which girls are exposed.  It was before #metoo, but I didn’t avoid violence.  One of my characters even spit in the mouth of a boy in response to the violence he had done to her.  At the time, some spectators expressed their disgust at this scene.  Today, it’s become a triumphant image that people celebrate.  And that was my intention.  Anyway, the success of the film and the pleasure I took in it made me say: this is what I want to do!  This is how I want to live.  In this emotional intensity of collective creation.  In this ephemeral fusion of filming.

But what is your intent?

I know how important cinema has been to my life as a young viewer.  So my ambition is at that level.  Cinema can save lives.

What films do you want to make?

Films that overwhelm, that disturb, that question.  Films that make us grow.  Films that make you feel infinitely alive and from which you leave with your heart beating.  I would like to create beauty.  And even poetry.

And have a political and social impact?

Obviously!  But not by making a political pamphlet!  Not with the codes of political cinema that piss everyone off.  By offering experiences, rather than debates.  By showing other faces, other attitudes, other relationships.  By leaving behind the dramaturgy of conflict, which is ubiquitous in fiction.  My films are not meant to create ripples in the pond.  There is no object lesson, I don’t assert truths.  I offer feelings that foster new ideas, that explore other ways of living and thinking.  The opportunity to do so, in real life, doesn’t happen very frequently.  I’m not addressing legislators!  I am thinking only about the audience and their emotions.  I dream that they take the film with them, that they complete it, fantasize about it, feed on it.  You know, on the second day of shooting on Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, as we were filming the scene on the beach where the two heroines are kissing and crying because they have to separate, I turned to my cinematographer and said: «We’re going to change the world!»

So there it is, your ambition!

But of course!  I take cinema very seriously.  And that’s why I accompany my films with a political voice that I could spare myself.  But I am committed.  I bring up ideas.  And receiving thousands of testimonies from fans and activists of all kinds and from all over the world saying that this love story has changed their lives blows me away.  It’s a real community that’s been created.  The bond with the film has become a bond between those who loved it.  A bond of friendship, solidarity and mutual support.  It makes me sentimental.  And also vulnerable.  Being committed always makes you vulnerable.

Did you think of the teenager from Cergy-Pontoise who never recognized herself in the films she was watching at the Utopia?

I made the film that would have reached out to her.

[Please don’t repost this anywhere, in part or in whole.  Feel free to reblog, or at least cite your source and provide a link back here.  Asking permission would be nice in an ideal world, but I’m a realist - I know far too well how easy it is to appropriate stuff on Tumblr.  I would be the first to admit that my translations are not perfect - there  are some words and phrases that simply do not drop neatly into an equivalent in English, and I constantly fix typos and make changes or corrections in older posts - but they do take a lot of work and time.  Thanks for understanding. - C]

h/t @tonovember​!