#poalof commentary

[thexfridax]

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

Last updated: 25 September 2023

—

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. 🖼️👻🔥 [on hold until further notice]

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)

How Good Filmmaking Brings a Script to Life - Wonderful scene breakdown of Portrait of a Lady on Fire by LFTS / Michael Tucker (May 2021), also highlighting the unofficial English translation of the POALOF screenplay by @mlleclaudine, with support from @tonovember, @morningmightcomebyaccident​, @ladyonfire28, and @hedawolf

L’Étang recaps [1], [2], [3] by yours truly, @thexfridax (June, Aug 2021, May 2022)

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

Dee has created another comprehensive blog, this time for Céline’s works and collaborations

A lovely profile of Céline Sciamma via @mlleclaudine

The French Institute UK - Petite Maman Q&A with Céline Sciamma (Feb 2022)

Q&A with Adèle Haenel after a screening of POALOF in Vienna (May 2022)

Weird Adèle Haenel profile [1]

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: 78 182 ✨; any further updates will be put at the bottom of each year to make my life easier (=> for those older than 2021): 

2023

Adèle Haenel, itinéraire d’une artiste en lutte

“J’ai décidé de politiser mon arrêt du cinéma” : la lettre d’Adèle Haenel à “Télérama”

Noémie Merlant, actrice pleine de surprises : “J’ai toujours peur qu’on ne comprenne pas mes blagues”

Noémie Merlant : «On devrait tous être féministes, aussi bien les hommes que les femmes»

"Je la regardais et je revoyais Titanic !" : Noémie Merlant raconte son tournage vertigineux avec Kate Winslet

Tête-à-tête avec Noémie Merlant, grande promesse du cinéma français

2022

Interview with Céline Sciamma: “Alliances are extremely important”

“I’M NOT DOING CINEMA ANYMORE” [Adèle Haenel]

Noémie Merlant : «J'ai longtemps cru qu'il fallait être parfaite, ce qui me verrouillait»

Noémie Merlant : la comédie, “c’est très plaisant et libérateur”

Rokhaya Diallo & Adèle Haenel: Le combat des mots

2021

«Le regard d’enfant est un regard perçant» Céline Sciamma, Petite Maman

Céline Sciamma : “Je veux donner du pouvoir politique aux mères”

Céline Sciamma: “Toute ma vie, je me suis demandé comment était ma mère à mon âge”

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], [3]

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"

Baise-moi et King Kong théorie de Virginie Despentes

Adèle Haenel dans les eaux incestueuses de «L’Etang»

Feu!

«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: "Le militantisme est un moment de grande vulnérabilité"

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***

Focus Vif, September 26, 2019: Dixit Céline Sciamma

Vertiges de l’amour

Céline Sciamma, le feu sacré & Noémie Merlant, portrait of an actress

CÉLINE SCIAMMA: "Si on me demande ce qu’est le female gaze, pour moi, c’est partager."

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

“On ne s'en laisse plus conter. On écoute ce qu'on ressent.” (Adèle Haenel et Noémie Merlant)

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

Portrait de l’artiste en jeune femme

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, la nouvelle héroïne des frères Dardenne

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

[annetteayzichek]

I asked a similar question to this before but now I have more specific information and was hoping for an answer:

I saw that the Criterion Collection finally released what special features will be on their version of POALOF, and I was wondering if these are the same features that were released in the French version? I’m trying to decide which one to buy and I’m really interested in the French commentary and interviews, and like to know if they will be on the Criterion disk as well! Thank you!

[ladyonfire28]

In the film commentary, while the last scene was happening, Céline was reading the script at the same time. So I translated the whole text.

(A HUGE thank you to @bereaving for making those GIFs and helping me out with the text. You’re amazing.)

Here is the translated script of that final Portrait of a Lady on Fire scene:

“I saw her one last time.”

THEATER. INTERIOR. NIGHT.

MARIANNE makes her way among the spectators on the balcony of an Italian-style theater. She sits down and watches the room fill up in the hubbub of voices amplified by the acoustics of the auditorium. She distinguishes a familiar silhouette which progresses in the opposite balcony. The face slips away and Marianne does not take her eyes off it until it turns. It’s HÉLOÏSE. She squeezes between the occupied armchairs and the empty armchairs until she reaches the end of the balcony like the edge of a precipice. She’s sitting there. There’s nothing between her and the stage. Her eyes are riveted on this horizon. She does not look at the room as the conversations go out one after the other as by mutual agreement.

"She didn't see me."

The theater suddenly fell silent before the stormy violins begin their first movement.

(Music begins)

Like a restrained breath torn by a well-known staccato, the one of the inaugural notes from Vivaldi's Summer presto. HÉLOÏSE displays a first disturbance in the face of the first bars of this long-awaited piece. You get imperceptibly close to her face during the 3 minutes of the movement.

This face experiences the dramatic deployment of music as it hears it, pierced by the generous rise of it. There is everything: there is surprise, elation, a beating heart, waiting, melancholy, concentration, the red which goes up to the cheeks, the memory, the sadness, and the breathing which becomes deeper.

All the attitudes of a woman that we knew well, and that we loved to look at. That we loved, period. But there are also things that we didn't know about her and that are being discovered. Maybe because they are new, like this wrinkle around the eye. Maybe they are things that we hadn't been able to see and that remained to be understood.

When the piece reaches its exalted final, HÉLOÏSE reveals the last and most alive of all her faces.”

"Adèle had only one instruction: to finish on an inhalation."

The audio

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

Céline Sciamma, commenting the *drinking while making out* scene  :  

“We hope to democratize this method of hydration”

(Thank you @bereaving​ for those very fine GIFs !!!) 

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

Céline talks about the importance of representing the abortion within the film

(Little reminder that @bereaving​ is the best !!)

"Here it’s a sequence that I know is disturbing. Because we just got out of this scene (the abortion scene), just got out of this representation of an abortion and we enter another dynamic, which is to represent abortion within the film.”

“It was very important for me even if there’s a double tension. It is important to have an abortion and to represent the importance of representing it. Because this is what happened by cutting women off from the opportunity to be artists. They did not represent their private lives, they did not represent their desire, they did not represent their bodies, they did not represent their lives. And all these images are missing from history, but they are especially missing in OUR life. It’s Annie Ernaux who said that there is not a museum in the world where there is a painting called « the abortion ».”

“So this scene may happen a little abruptly but it's not to forget that art creates memory. And I also wanted to represent the pleasure of representing, the pleasure that we see on Marianne's face. And also to represent the impulse of the model, her intelligence, it’s her who said what to look at, it’s her who had the idea of painting. This was the opportunity that women had, to be in the artists' workshops/studios, it was to be models. They seized this opportunity, that's how they made artworks.”

“This is my favorite painting. It has never been completed."

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

How Totoro has inspired Céline Sciamma

“Here is a shot called Miyazaki. A fun shot, an apparition and disappearance shot. I don’t know why we thought about Totoro here.”

(Thank you for your work @bereaving !!) 

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

Céline talks about her tribute to Persona in the second kiss scene 

( @bereaving, made those beautiful beautiful gifs for y’all, hope you appreciate)

“Here the shot is also a form of quotation. This one is a tribute to Persona, by Bergman, especially in the next match cut.”

“To make a quotation while we’re asking if when we love, we invent something.”

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

Céline points out that Marianne is the first character who burns in the film 

(Eternal gratitude to @bereaving for making those beautiful GIFs)

“And here while Noémie Merlant had patiently learned the spinet, which is this little harpsichord, for weeks, she will really play it, but under a sheet.

The Four Seasons of Vivaldi are accompanied by a poem that he wrote, and the interpretation of Marianne is an interpretation of this poem.

First occurrence of fire between the characters, even if it’s Marianne who’s burning and Héloïse who’s looking. Maybe it’s the one looking who makes the other burn. "

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

Céline explains the complexity of filming the abortion scene 

( @bereaving​‘s GIFs are so good that i’ve given up on picking just a few of them. I just take all of them now lol)

"The abortion scene is the kind of scenes that are extremely difficult to film. We are at the end of the first week, we are on a set that we will only visit once, we are in a kind of museum. It’s not a dreamy decor. There are extras, there are characters who will only play once. Here is Christel Barras, the casting director and also excellent actress.

And above all there is a very big stake in this scene : there is a young child and the scene is built around him. 

When we are about to shoot a scene like this we have a feeling of loneliness because we have no point of reference, we have very little representation, we are not dialoguing with the history of cinema. So there is little pleasure in being a pioneer. Pioneering is a way of giving medals to people who feel they are doing something for the first time. 

But it’s not enough, it’s not enough to go through the scene, you have to dream it. There has to be an extra desire in it, you need something that belongs to the film. And what belongs to the film is this child.

Shooting with a child requires maximum comfort for the child and therefore minimum comfort for you. And it’s also trusting in a very long take. We do a series of takes, I sit right next to them, close to Luàna Bajrami. I talk to her all along. And it's about telling her when does it start and when does it end, paying very close attention to the child and trusting her very much.

It was originally planned that the child put his hand on her chest, but obviously that’s a screenplay indication. He dried her tears. 

It’s not miracles, it’s decisions.”

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

Céline explains how the film dynamic changes after Marianne shows Héloïse the first portrait

(Can’t thank enough @bereaving for being so supportive and so patient with me, you’re truly the best !)

"For me that sequence (which by the way was the sequence n°30, and when we remember the number it means that the sequence was really important) was the moment where the film switches to another language.

“Of all possible reactions from the character, being critical of the painting is, I think, the least expected. It's the beginning of a new dynamic between the characters. From the moment when no one is ignorant anymore, then everyone has their own point of view. The dialogue is an intellectual, critical, sentimental dialogue.”

“Right of the bat, there is the question of the power of the beholder. A new writing.”

“Adèle Haenel walks so strongly that the camera shakes."

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

Céline explains the importance of the reading scene, better known as the “Netflix and chill” scene

(Can’t thank you enough @bereaving​ for all you work and patience... you’re a true hero)

"This sequence came very late in the writing process of the script, almost the last writing effort. I was looking, above all, for a scene of complicity around a fiction for the three characters, really like a Netflix and chill kind of scene. With a fiction that has a very strong climax and where there’s a matter of debate. Because I wanted to see them exchange, to give hypotheses on fiction, on issues of fiction.”

“It’s also part of the process of a feminist re-reading of mythology/myths. And typically the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is a myth that has been re-read by many feminists because it's a myth that shows the male gaze as a killer gaze. Or at least a militant, conditioning gaze. First, it was about restoring the myth in the present through the act of reading and listening, and then in the analysis.”

“But I had a kind of innocence when summoning this myth. I was absolutely not aware of the way in which it was actually going to unfold in the story. To allow the link between the two great frames of the film that are the present and the memory of love.”

“The future appearances of Héloïse as a ghost are the future or past marks of this myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.”

* Dying a second time, she did not complain *

“To die twice, a woman's destiny." “The pleasure of filming women thinking, debating, but also the pleasure of the validity of the preciousness of all hypotheses. No one is right and no one is wrong. Marianne puts forward a hypothesis which resembles her. To make the poet’s choice. And the debate will be taken further.”

* Perhaps she was the one who said: “turn around” *

“The myth from Eurydice's point of view. Love as admiration, like the way you’re impressed by someone."

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

Céline explains the necessity of writing about women’s desires

( @bereaving is the wonderful human being who made this stunning gif set <3)

“The film chose to tell the story of a possible love, that is to say, to consider the possibility and livability of love at the center of the frame.”

“Maybe that's what writing female characters is all about: it's about focusing on their desires. Because if you focus on their opportunities, you don't have much to tell. And from the moment you focus a film on the desire of the characters, then maybe the revolution is to give them all the space they need.”

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

Céline comments on the last bed scene 

(this stunning gif set was made by the one and only @bereaving !)

“I dreamed a lot about this shot. Some shots like this one seem like it’s nothing, but I thought a lot about this. And you bring those shots on set and nobody knows what it's going to be like, but we know we have to do it. And then you’re spending time together fixing hair.”

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

Céline explains why and how she created the desire to see Adèle/Héloïse’s face 

(Go give some love to the wonderful @bereaving 🧡)

“Here the stake is huge for the character (Marianne). But not as much for the spectator, and that’s always a bit annoying. Because the audience knows the face of Adèle Haenel. And we think about them, so we have to create a new frustration and the desire to see that face that we already know about. We have to choreograph that desire to see.”

“How do we recreate a face in cinema? First, by hiding it. Then by playing with apparitions, the hair. By getting closer, we’re closer to her back, maybe we can see her neck.”

“And then we change the stake, by adding danger. A stake that is distracting us from the face. A matter of life and death. So we’re taken by surprise when we see her face when she turns around.”

*Céline says the line at the same time as Adèle/Héloïse*

“Ça fait des années que je rêve de faire ça.”

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

Céline explains she wrote the “don’t regret, remember” scene for the last audition of Noémie and how her chemistry with Adèle moved her

(Gifs made by the one and only @bereaving​) 

“This scene is a scene that was not written in the script and that I wrote at a specific moment, for the last round of audition. The moment when we chose Noémie Merlant.

I decided to write a scene dedicated to those chemistry tests. A scene that would allow me to evaluate the level of intimacy, complicity, melodrama, emotions. A scene where I had decided to put everything. A scene of goodbyes before the real goodbyes.

This scene is decisive, almost epiphanic, in the choice of Noémie Merlant.

I shot this scene I had written just an hour before, and it was moving. The scene worked and above all it worked between them. There was a great chemistry, a great complicity, a great friendship, a lot of seduction without seduction.

There was such a strong sentimental charge between them when I was filming the scene and my heart was beating fast and I said to myself "this is it". I saw a great equality between these two lovers. And it was a new image and it was the image that we were going to make together.

It’s a top shot so, here, we really have all the machinery that is set up to be forgotten. To have God’s point of view in this intimate exchange. These are shots that makes your heart beat so hard.

The shooting of this scene is not a lot of takes, it's four takes. Here not only we worked on the light, but also on the way their hair are illuminated, how they blossom. Something that makes them look like they could be all ages.”

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary

[ladyonfire28]

Céline explains the scene of intimacy in the morning 

(that beautiful gif set was made by the one and only @bereaving !!)

“Sophie’s character, a little more in anticipation in her role as a maid. There is a knock on the door, what is happening behind the door? But in the end, it’s not really the stake here. The stake for her is to know if we're going to go with her.” 

“Intimacy in the morning rather than at night.”

Click here to see more translated parts of the DVD commentary