Every woman dreams of being a mother. Or is she really?
In Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the competitor “Out of Love”, two separate sisters come together when the widow Suzanne presents herself on the Pas de la Porte de Jeanne with her two children. Recently single and childless by choice, Jeanne is surprised by the sudden visit. In the morning, Suzanne disappears, leaving only a note behind him.
“My previous film,” Toni “, spoke of a mother of five children. She raised them on her own. Variety.
“I knew that I wanted a female perspective on this subject because I am a young queer filmmaker. I just feel more comfortable working with a queer or a woman,” he said about his drama centered on women, who gathered it with Camille Cottin (“Call my agent!” “House of Gucci”) cast like Jeanne.
She is joined by Juliette Armanet, Monia Chokri, Féodor Atkine, Myriem Akheddiou and Guillaume Gouix. The film is produced by Nicolas Dumont for Chi-Fou-Mi Productions, with sales of studiocanal manipulation.
The taboo surrounding “unfit” or reluctant mothers will always strong, he maintains.
“We are more used to seeing the Fathers absent. I’m not saying that what Suzanne does is not extreme, but she would be a “bad mother” even if she would just work every day. It’s the same with Jeanne. The potential financiers told us: “it is horrible”. They found her shocking, she didn’t want these children, but why?! Camille is herself a mother, but she understood it right away.
After the initial shock, the character of Cottin decides to take care of abandoned children, a girl and a boy. But his dilemmas do not stop there.
“How do you build a family without the presence of a mother or a father?” How do you get a parent without becoming a mother? Finally, Jeanne begins to understand that no one asks her to replace Suzanne. She can always be their aunt, and it’s ok. “
Fascinated by the real cases of people who will “disappear voluntarily”, sometimes to never come back, Ambrosioni wanted his film to feel as precise as possible.
“I spoke to cops, judges, social workers. All these people who choose to disappear … I didn’t even know it was possible. There is a scene with a judge who reflects my conversation with her. I told her about the film, and she asked, “Maybe she left love? I thought it was so beautiful.
Suzanne, pushed to the edge, leaves love, but Jeanne decides to stay – also out of love. For the sister, she is barely more and for two children left alone at home.
“In addition to that, she has a broken heart. She lost the love of her life, Nicole, precisely because she didn’t want children. It is an even greater tragedy than his sister who leaves, ”he adds. But while the emotions are high, his characters suffer in silence.
“I have never shouted and I am very shy with emotions. I knew I was going to work with children and I didn’t want to put them in strange situations, but I also wanted it to feel silent. I love Hirokazu Koreeda – Nobody ever shouts in his films. I love “ordinary people”. I wanted to make a film that doesn’t feel angry, ”he says.
“We always see people crying and shouting on the screen, and these are” worthy “performances of the Oscars.
After “Toni” and “Out of Love”, Ambrosioni has not finished families – or mothers – for the moment.
“My next film, the one I am writing right now, also concerns a mother and a child. You can’t choose your family – you … you finish there. They are such a beautiful waste, and you have to face it. But if you don’t do it? ”He wonders.
“Suzanne could have asked for help. Many people cannot understand his actions and when we developed the film, they asked: “What did his note say?” We are not going to know.
As for Ambrosioni, he chooses not to judge any of his characters.
“If you judge your characters, you judge your audience. If you are a mom and you watch this film, and maybe you can no longer deal with your children, it won’t tell you to leave them, but that will tell you that what you feel right now is OK. It’s ok not to know how to deal with your children. It’s ok not to want them too,” he said.
“We don’t have many sure places in the world right now, and I want my films to be safe. Always. I wanted them to feel real, human and friendly. Family, society, friendship: that’s really all we have. ”
