The secrets of Madame Hofmann told by Sébastien Lifshitz

Director of the multi-César-winning Adolescentes, Sébastien Lifschitz signs a new documentary summit, following a nursing executive from Marseille the year before her retirement

When and how does the idea of Mrs Hofmann ?

Sébastien Lifshitz : It all starts from the end of the filming ofTeenage girls when one of the two heroines, Anaïs, does an internship in a hospital to become a caregiver. Seeing her among these nurses with this transmission from one generation to the next moves me enormously and I can't help but imagine Anaïs' life in 20 years, wondering what woman and what nurse she is. will become. That's when I spoke to my producers about my desire to portray a nurse who I would follow for a year.

For Teenage girls, you took time to find the town where you were going to shoot before deciding on Brive. Was the choice of Marseille quicker?

It was even immediate because it's a city that I know well and whose rather rebellious culture I deeply love. And knowing that hospital staff have an obligation to reserve, I tell myself that inevitably there, all this will boil over! (laughs)

And to put all this into action, you will call on a casting director! A choice that may be surprising for a documentary…

In fact, I was told about Cendrine Lapuyade, an incredible casting director who lives in Marseille. She notably worked with Jean-Bernard Marlin on Scheherazade and his new film Salem. I called her to tell her about the project. She immediately told me yes. Except that just as she begins her research, COVID hits and the hospitals go into lockdown. We no longer have access to anyone

How will the film continue its journey despite everything?

Cendrine immediately tells me not to worry, that she is going to place announcements in the services and that the first contacts will be made by telephone, by Zoom… Without her, the film could have ended there . But soon enough, nurses responded to the ad. And once a week, while I am confined in Paris, Cendrine gives me an update on the people with whom she has been able to interact. It was great because it was a foreshadowing of the film, a preparation for everything I was going to experience with Sylvie (Hofmann)

How exactly do you choose her?

At the end of the first wave, Sylvie called Cendrine because she had seen the ad. But she wasn't calling for her: she wanted to suggest nurses from her department. And after speaking with her, Cendrine immediately calls me to tell me that I absolutely have to meet her. I do it between the first and second waves of COVID and there I too am struck. Sylvie had just gone through this entire first wave of COVID with already 40 years in hospital behind her but also had a stroke. Responsible for all this, I see her constantly moving from anger to humor. She carried so much life and stories within her that it was obvious to me. She was the one I had to follow. And this while in order to be able to find financing for this documentary, I had been obliged to write a text in which I had basically fictionalized a nurse character that I had completely idealized while writing it in documentary mode. Her name was Christelle and the project Mrs K.

What was this Christelle that you had in mind like?

She was between 30 and 40 years old. Separated, two children and struggling to make ends meet by working endless overtime hours. A sort of typical nurse profile. When I meet Sylvie, she does not correspond to this character that I had invented for myself, but I am so struck that I understand that she is the woman I have been looking for for months. And Cendrine organizes a meeting with her.

MADAME HOFMANN: DEEPLY HUMAN AND POWERFULLY POLITICAL (CRITICISM)

What do you say to him?

I explain to him what the film will be: a year in the life of a nurse in the hospital. But also that I want to follow her in her private sphere, in addition to the hospital, in order to retrace the journey of her life, to understand who she is.

How does she react?

At first she is completely seized. She assures me that there is no one more ordinary than her. And I explain to him why I think exactly the opposite. That she is an extraordinary personality with 40 years in hospitals behind her. And it is through the filming that I will understand that Sylvie is… in fact the Christelle that I had imagined but 20 years later! Sylvie also divorced, had children and worked endless overtime hours because she could never make ends meet! This episode perfectly describes the making of documentary cinema: we must be extremely open to what reality brings us. For Teenage girls, for example, I wanted to paint the portrait of a boy before encounters led me to two young women. And with Mrs Hofmannmeeting Sylvie allowed me to paint the portrait of a woman who has lived through 1000 lives.

Will Sylvie Hofmann take a long time to say yes to you?

No. She quickly says banco. Because she is someone who is quite adventurous, quite curious. It amused him deep down. She just told me that she didn't want me to drag her around and that I didn't stop her from working. But the camera was never a problem for her. She was immediately at ease.

Did you know that this year that you are going to film would be his last before his retirement?

No, that was not planned at all! But, with the two successive waves of COVID, she felt that she absolutely had to stop – the mental and physical burdens had become difficult to bear -, also pushed by her mother who told her not to wait until she was in a falls to make her decision and that the hospital will continue to function without her! Except that she had a key role. That she had succeeded in creating a team, a collective in her image with a family atmosphere because Sylvie is very maternal in her way of protecting and supporting her nurses. No one wanted to leave their service. Whereas since his departure, more than half have left!

How was the assembly of Mrs Hofmann ?

I had 150 hours of rushes. I'm still waiting until I've finished filming to get started. And with my editor Delphine Genest, we start by reviewing everything. What matters to me at that moment is to check that Delphine feels the same things compared to what I experienced at the time of filming. And when this is not the case, we discuss it and this is how Delphine really brings her point of view because I don't want this film to be my only reading of Sylvie's character.

Do you set a duration goal for yourself?

No, I don't have any rules about that. The first cut was supposed to be 1h55 long, ten minutes longer than the final cut. So it was a lace work, unlikeTeenage girls where we left more than 12 hours ago! The editing here simply allowed me to refocus the film on Sylvie whereas I had initially imagined leaving more space for the characters around her.

Mrs Hofmann. By Sébastien Lifshitz. Duration: 1h44. Released April 10, 2024