Cinema for me is…
Elvire in 25 frames
1. Describe yourself in ten words:
Though my job is describing characters, I can’t describe myself!
2. What are your 3 best qualities and what are your 3 worst habits?
3 best qualities: self-mockery, understanding and brainy (I hope).
3 worst habits: dramatizing life, a tendency to be anxious and going to sleep early.
3. What is your dream job?
Very simply, what I’m already starting to do: being a screenwriter (for cinema and TV series).
4. What do you like most about your country?
I dare say wine and cheese might be the only good things left in France… Amongst many other things, of course! Like: school and health are basically free, culture and arts are not always ill-treated and some of our landscapes are beautiful…
5. What is your favorite dish in your country?
Well… Wine and cheese, of course! As for a specific dish, I must admit that I’m very fond of “les galettes bretonnes”!
6. What is the word or the expression in your native language that you like the most and what does it mean?
I do like the sound and meaning of the French word “histrion”, which means buffoon or minstrel.
7. What European capital have you visited lately?
It’s been a long time since I’ve set foot in an actual capital (except from Paris and Brussels where I live), but I did go to Ljubljana (Slovenia) two years ago.
8. Other than your own, which European country would you love to live in?
Italy (the most beautiful country AND culture AND food AND many-other-things in the world) and Ireland (although the weather is bad…).
9. What does Europe mean to you?
I would very much like it to mean solidarity…
10. What are the European values that you share?
Most of them, of course. Especially tolerance, non-discrimination, equality between women and men…
11. What film made you fall in love with cinema?
I think it was Les Enfants du paradis (a 1945 French film directed by Marcel Carné).
12. What is your favorite cinema theatre and what do you like about it?
I do love going to “Louxor” in Paris. Their programming is a mix of retrospectives (of great filmmakers) and contemporary auteur cinema.
13. Where do you like to watch movies and on which platform (DVD, online, cinema, mobile phone, etc.)?
I use all kinds of platforms, as long as the quality of the picture is not altered.
14. Who is your movie hero?
It might be Antoine Doinel (a character created by François Truffaut)… But it’s very cliché of me, as a French girl!
15. If you were a movie director which one would you like to be?
Without any hesitation: JANE CAMPION! I do admire and love every bit of this woman and of her films.
16. Briefly describe your favorite scene:
Catherine Deneuve is baking her “love cake” in Jacques Demy’s Peau d’Ane when an actual chick comes out of an egg…
17. What are the 5 best European films you have seen in the last year?
Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (Arnaud Desplechin, 2015) FR
Son of Saul (Laszlo Nemes, 2015) HU
Mustang (Deniz Gamze Erguven, 2015) FR
Mia Madre (Nanni Moretti, 2015) IT
La pazza gioia (Paolo Virzi, 2016) IT
18. Which is the film character that you most identify with?
Most of the characters in the movies of Hayao Miyazaki.
19. What is your favorite soundtrack or song?
The soundtrack Philipp Glass composed for The Hours (Stephen Daldry).
20. If you had to live in a movie, which one would you like it to be?:
The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy)
21. Your life becomes a bio-pic. Who plays the role of you?
Only Marilyn could have done it…!
22. Which talent would you most like to have?
Being a coloratura soprano. Yes, I know, loving opera is kind of ancient, but I sure do!
23. What is your most treasured possession?
If one considers my sister being a possession, it’s her. If one does not… Well, I guess my most treasured possession are my DVDs and books.
24. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Well, actually writing films!
25. What is your motto?
Never give up?
