Anamaria Vartolomei is just Maria for Jessica Palud (trailer)
The director highlights a mistreated figure in French cinema: Maria Schneider.
“Maria is no longer a child and not yet an adult when she ignites the film of a sulfurous film that has become cult: The Last Tango in Paris. She quickly rose to fame and became an iconic actress without being prepared for either fame or scandal…”
Dreams, glory, scandal, shame, decline. Words that mark an obstacle course: that of the actress Maria Schneiderwhose career is sadly reduced to this scene in movie of Bertolucciduring which the director, and his partner, Marlon Brandoorganized, without consulting it, a rape scene, which will remain a profound trauma, and will crystallize her image as an actress. “Dressed, I don’t interest anyone”pronounces Anamaria Vartolomeiwho lends her features to the actress, who died in 2011.
Mariait is the second feature film of Jessica Paludwho became known with Marlon (not Brando), a short film selected in more than one hundred and fifty festivals, and To come backa film adapted from Love without doing itnovel by Serge Joncourand opponent Niels Schneider has Adèle Exarchopoulos.
For Mariathe director and screenwriter was freely inspired by another work, Your name was Maria Schneiderbiography written by Vanessa Schneider, the actress's cousin. In the press kit for the film, which was presented at Cannes Première last May, Jessica Palud summarizes her intentions:
“Be in her gaze and never abandon her, make the crossing with her. The film is therefore told solely through the eyes of Maria Schneider. (…) I am not seeking to accuse or judge, but to deal with the heritage and offer a portrait of this society, through a unique perspective, that of Maria Schneider. (…) By writing and directing this film, I wanted to make people feel the slow poison of trauma, and this in a universal way.
A fiction with biographical accents, therefore, and which is inspired as much by the experiences of Jessica Palud, ex-directors' assistant, as by the ambient atmosphere, that of the liberation of female speech. All of this, enhanced by the music of Benjamin Biolaywho resumed his hat as a cinema composer for this film, after having already signed the original soundtracks of Clara and Me And Why are you crying ?.
To interpret this “couple” cinema, Jessica Palud surrounded herself with Matt Dillon (Mary at all cost, The House that Jack Built, Asteroid City), whom the director describes as someone capable of“recall” Marlon Brando “in what he represented: the fascination, the myth of Hollywood”. A reflection which takes the opposite view from that of Bill Fishmanwho is currently producing Waltzing with Brandofeaturing a Billy Zane unrecognizable behind the features of the Godfather.
However, the one who shines in this film is above all Anamaria Vartolomei, who The Event had revealed to the general public in 2021, she who had thus received the César for Most Promising Actress by replaying an episode from the writer's life Annie Ernaux. Since then, we have seen her in the discreet Jellyfishof Sophie Lévyand in the opulent Empire of Bruno Dumont. Without forgetting the count of Monte Cristowhich she shares the bill with Pierre Nineypresented out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival and scheduled for June 28 in theaters.
“The character of Maria is complex, there are several roles in one: the young girl, the actress, the drug addict, the injured woman…, explains the director. I looked for my actress after writing the script. Anamaria has a very strong cinematic style, and also panache: she was not afraid to do things. And then, to play Maria Schneider, you have to burst the screen.”
Jessica Palud also called on Celeste Brunnquell (Fifi, Her Father's Daughter, A matter of principle), Hugo Becker And Yvan Attal.
The most curious will be able to enjoy this performance by a woman and an actress from June 19 in theaters.
The Count of Monte Cristo: Pierre Niney imperial as an angel of vengeance (review)
