Isabelle Huppert and Hafsia Herzi : “We lived through things”

For the film, Patricia Mazuy asked you to change your appearance, Hafsia?

Hafsia Herzi: Yes. She wanted me to cut my hair, but I didn’t really want to, so we found a common ground. And she made me put on a bit of weight – Patricia says that being thing doesn’t suit me (laughter). So I went along with it.

Isabelle, you had already filmed The King’s Daughters with Mazuy…

Isabelle Huppert – Yes, it was a wonderful film. It was presented in Cannes at Un Certain Regard in 2000.

Has Patricia changed since then?

IH – No, she’s still the same. Just as dissatisfied as ever (laughter)… But that’s a virtue, not a vice.

This prisoner from Bordeaux, who is she? You, Isabelle, or you, Hafsia?

IH – Both. They’re both prisoners, but one, me, frees herself more than the other. I think. That’s what we’re shown. One escapes, and the other remains a little more dependent on her condition. For me, it’s a tragicomedy, because Patricia manages – and this is the film’s great strength – to maintain a touch of fun in this tragedy. This makes it all the more poignant, less caricatured and less likely to be caricatured, and also more intelligent than having put us in positions that are pre-determined, because we both represent different backgrounds. What fascinated me in the film were these places of passage between one world (that of freedom) and another (that of confinement), these airlocks where people – the people who come to visit the prisoners – cross paths but don’t mix. It’s an illusion to believe that this is possible, and I think that’s what the film is saying. And it seems to me that this is a metaphor for the film.

IH – We may not have grasped the power of the metaphor, but that’s what it’s really about.

Because Mina’s (Hafsia’s part) position is much more difficult to live with than that of your character (Alma), Isabelle…

IH – Patricia Mazuy avoids forcing the issue, telling us that it would necessarily be more difficult to be in my spot. It’s also good to avoid that caricature. It’s objectively more difficult for Mina than for Alma, yes.

HH – But internally, it’s difficult for Alma. Even though she has everything, she’s still very alone. That’s what the film is about. And my character, despite the lack of comfort in her life, is happy with her personal life. She’s in love with her husband.

IH – Patricia never put us in caricatural spots. And then there’s the agreement between Hafsia and me. We never pulled each other in a direction that wasn’t the right one. We found ourselves in agreement on this common ground.

HH – We acted, but it was simple. We lived through things.

IH – We didn’t feel like we were acting.

Really?!

IH – Not at all. The best roles and the best films are those in which the actor or actress takes on a role that isn’t theirs at all, and yet takes on the possibility of being it.

HH – I have a very strong feeling about our first meeting, Isabelle, in Cannes. It was in 2008 or 2009, I think. We had a chat, and I remember Isabelle as very maternal and kind. I was very moved. It was simple. It never left me.

IH – When you meet an actress or an actor with whom you get on immediately – which doesn’t mean you don’t do things with a great deal of commitment – you don’t ask yourself any questions.

Alma is a maternal name. We say « Alma Mater », the « foster mother »…

IH – Ah yes. I love this name. If I’d had a daughter other than my darling daughter, I’d have called her Alma. Like Alma Mahler, or Alma Reville, Hitchcock’s wife…



Source link : https://www.lesinrocks.com/cinema/isabelle-huppert-and-hafsia-herzi-we-lived-through-things-619006-19-05-2024/

Author : Elsa Pereira

Publish date : 2024-05-19 16:50:41

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