Isabelle Huppert and Sylvie Pialat © Vittorio Zunino Celotto
WIDE-ANGLE – Women In Motion with Isabelle Huppert and Sylvie Pialat
The 68th Festival de Cannes sees Kering inaugurate the programme for the first Women In Motion event, a series of talks aimed at highlighting women’s contribution to film. Actress Isabelle Huppert and producer Sylvie Pialat worked together on Guillaume Nicloux’s Valley Of Love presented in Competition. They discuss their views on women and cinema.
Isabelle Huppert and Sylvie Pialat © Vittorio Zunino Celotto
Only 7% of directors in France are women. It’s a figure that speaks volumes and emphasises women’s under-representation in the film industry. For producer Sylvie Pialat, there are no “réalisatrices” (the feminine plural form of “réalisateur”, French for “director”). Rather, there are “femmes-réalisateurs”, “women directors”, because they operate in a man’s world. During her long and illustrious career, Isabelle Huppert has worked with many men, including Claude Chabrol, Benoît Jacquot and François Ozon. The actress believes it’s easier to be a woman in front of the camera: “…a male actor has a greater tendency to interfere in the directing. An actress knows how to be passive and active at the same time…During my career, I haven’t experienced discrimination for the simple and valid reason that I’ve always played women; it would be impossible for men to take these roles from me.” The actress alludes to the characters she’d like to play: “I think I’d like to act a man’s part, quite simply. A policeman maybe.” She adds “I’d like to see us rise to the challenge of comparing two films without saying which was made by a man and which by a woman. I can guarantee no-one would know the difference now!” She goes on to say, “I can spot misogyny quite quickly; it’s sometimes insidious”.
This year, a large number of films by female directors feature in the Official Selection. French directors include Maïwenn, Emmanuelle Bercot and Alice Winocour, and others have come from further afield, among them Naomi Kawase and Natalie Portman. Sylvie Pialat sees this as a natural development: “If they’re here, it’s because of their work”.
Hannah Benayoun
