Major nerves!

Marina Foïs allowed herself to be filmed in the course of her daily working life for nearly a year for a new documentary by Romain Baudéan entitled D'autres vies que la sienne.

 

THE SUBJECT:  What is the daily life of an actress like? The doc by Romain Baudéan reveals some fascinating elements in his response, after following Marina Foïs for several months, between film sets and the theatre stage.  

THE METHOD:  The actress never speaks directly to the camera; the narrative unfolds through her confessions in voice-over. The immersive journey begins on the set of Moi qui t’aimais, where we see her transform into Simone Signoret under the direction of Diane Kurys, then it continues on stage at the Odéon theatre during rehearsals for the play Les Idoles, in which she portrays Hervé Guibert. This unprecedented feat of dual roles even makes room for her to prepare herself remotely to perform (in English) in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, despite her “major nerves” at the thought of meeting Javier Bardem.

BONUS: The director takes the approach of silent observation, always keeping his camera at a distance, placing us in the position of an unsolicited observer. We peer over his shoulder as she submits herself to costume and makeup tests to transform herself into Simone Signoret. Standing in front of the mirror, Marina Foïs’s discomfort is palpable: “All I see is makeup; I’m in disguise; I’m going to walk off the set!” until she manages to adapt to the various prosthetics necessary to the shoot. Then she has a hard time with her lines, quipping “I’m having trouble learning them, which is a bad sign, because I usually learn very quickly.” Marina Foïs’s confessions are rich with a number of small revelations that make this portrait particularly intimate , unveiling both the challenges and the beauty of the profession. “I don’t enjoy seeing myself grow old,” she comments, “but I embrace who I am and what time does to me as much as I can.” Time is clearly on her side.

Carlos Gomez