THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – NOT TO BE MISSED
Studying at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts offers the promise of learning your craft with renowned teachers and the chance to forge lasting friendships. In this ultra-competitive environment, this is an unexpected opportunity. In the final year, a handful of acting students choose to direct their classmates. This is the case of Clémence Coullon, who feels she has things to say immediately and is convinced that her class is experiencing something great. What is the end of studies, if not the first blow to the incandescence of youth and its reserve of illusions? To follow the trail, this determined student asked the filmmaker Valérie Donzelli, who had given a master class in acting a few months earlier, to film the rehearsals of her production ofVillage.
This documentary project, different in production from the director’s last feature films (shot with renowned actors and dozens of technicians), offers the possibility of playing with something in sight, with the means at hand, in a kind of return to the sources. Seeing her go around on her bicycle and start looking for a lamp that can illuminate the image reminds us of the usual practice of cinema, which, despite everything they want us to believe with red carpets and awards ceremonies, the price, appeals to the vivacity of the beginnings and the energy of the apprentices.
Mirror portrait
There is no doubt that Valérie Donzelli, actress and then director, recognises herself in Clémence, actress and then director, and takes advantage of this meeting to question this change of perspective. “Why choose to go behind?”asks as she would ask herself. “Why not take advantage of the stage to play in front of an audience of professionals?” It is up to the viewer to find answers in Clémence’s work… Who else would have cut short the diatribe? “to be or not to be”Who killed Hamlet and dared to replace him with a woman, if she had not taken over Shakespeare’s play? Learning to act in order to finally change your destiny towards directing is both a mystery and a transgression, whose hidden side the film explores.
The most beautiful thing lies in the modest bond between the two women, which is expressed through messages of encouragement and admiration left on their respective answering machines. “And what was I looking for at 25?”asks the filmmaker, moved by the supposed ambivalence of her double, who wants to direct and be observed at the same time.
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