ales
inch actor Ludivine Sagnier talks 3 making
‘l.ike Tinker Bell. (iabrielle is a character who's completely radiant and also has a mischievous side. ller wings get clipped and she has to deal with her own drama and then she's reborn.‘
But it‘s the path Sagnier look after Swimming Pool that reveals most about her aspirations_ Following her Tinker Bell duties. she moved back to France. turning down a number of American scripts that hoped to cash in on her sex appeal. ‘Working abroad is not a priority for me.' she says. 'My priority is playing interesting characters in good movies. What Fm ambitious for is quality. In France I find I can bounce between old and young directors. and that way I find my balance.’
Since completing The Girl (in in THY). she has impressed in the WW2 melodrama A Secret. playing a Jewish woman who gives up herself and her child to the (ierman authorities. The process of altering her appearance from role to role is one she relishes. ‘Some actors can't change their physique. and they are hired for what they look like and what they represent.' says Sagnier who recently gave birth to a second child. ‘l'm not that kind.‘
She enthuses about her role in the forthcoming l’ub/rr‘ lincnrv Number One. the two—part biopic of real—life French career criminal Jacques Mesrine. who was gunned down by the police in 197‘). Sporting a red wig and enormous sunglasses. Sagnier stars as Mesrine's last wife Sylvie .leanjacquot. in what she calls ‘my first action movie‘.
Mesrine. who claimed to have killed 43 people and staged countless jailbreaks. continues to polarise French society. To his detractors he was a brutal killer. and to his supporters he was a modern day Robin Hood. attacking big business via bank robberies.
During filming. Sagnier met members of
Mesrine‘s family and his former associates and. although writer-director Jean-Francois Ricliet's screenplay reduces Sylvie to a stereotypical gangster's moll. she is proud to have worked on this controversial project.
‘We tried to sort out an enigma‘. she says. ‘Was he really committed politically or was he
just a serial killer with a lot of charrtt'.”
Politics is on her mind today. Observing the great French tradition set by politically outspoken artists. she has campaigned for candidates on the left in the presidential elections. and happily tears into President Sarkozy. ‘He uses the same tools as Berlusconi.‘ she says. ‘He manipulates and controls the media and. as a result. citizens are getting more and more cynical about democracy. He has this bling bling style and because of the CDs of his wife Carla Bruni. he seems to infiltrate our lives by getting into our living rooms.‘
Now lined up to work in a thriller alongside Kristin Scott Thomas. she is preparing to take on another new shape. With her 30th birthday this July. is she ever surprised about how much she has achieved? ‘You are always going from one challenge to another.‘ she smiles. ‘l‘m not thinking about what I‘ve achieved already. but on what there is left to do.’
The Girl Cut in No, GFT, Glasgow and selected release from Fri 22 May. Public Enemy Number One (Part One) is on selected release from Fri 31 Jul.
LES DIABOLIOUES (1954)
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Avril/(mil? on DH) Arum fi/rns,
, ~ LIFT TO THE .P ii SCAFFOLD (1958) f l ours Miille's iniieniout;
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speCially coinriiissioned score by Miles Dr'lVlfi,
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glamorous criminal
couples, stuck lifts and a
which was easily his best work for cineiiia. Avarlah/e on DVD (Optimum Releasing;
THE BUTCHER (1970)
The film that earned French new waver Claude Chahrol who directs Girl Cut in Two) the moniker of ‘the
French Hitchcock is a mysterious and murderous character study set in a small town. it is also one of the few films that Hitchcock went on record as saying he wrshed he'd directed. Avar/ah/e on DVD as part of the C/aude Chabro/ Col/ectiori Vo/iinie 7 (Arrow Fi/mS)
DIVA (1981)
The 80s are back. Jean? Jacques Bernerx's glorious violent and surreal calling card of a debut feature was a
garish full-on cult thriller involving corrupt policemen, prostitutes. opera recordings and a wrtless postman. Diva was an unexpected international hit that influenced European Cinema indefinitely.
Available on DVD (Opt/mum Re/easmg/
TELL NO ONE (2006) Almost a decade after the event. Dr Alex Beck (Franc0is Cluzet) receives a call from his murdered Wife. The call sets in motion a Chase for information that Beck Simply cannot lose. Gurllame Canet's enjoy/ably frenetic and engrossmg adaptation of Harlan Corben's 2001 potboiler. Avai/ab/e on DVD (Revo/ver Entertainment) (Paul Dale)
14—28 May 2009 THE LIST 19