Star graces French Film Festival
«Films must be accompanied by those who make them,» says Emmanuelle Beart. «It gives them more chances to be seen.» As one of the guests of honor at the Third French Film Festival organized by the French Institute in Athens, the French actress presented, last Friday and Saturday, two of her most recent films – Francois Ozon’s «8 Femmes» (8 Women) and Catherine Corsini’s «La Repetition» (Replay). From «Manon des Sources» (1986) to «La Belle Noiseuse» (1991) and «Jeanne, une Femme Francaise» (1995), Beart’s porcelain face has also been a face of France. «Ideally an actress should be anonymous; then people would believe in every new character,» she says. «I hate the idea of the image, because I see it as a cage. A gilded one perhaps, but still a cage. I have spent the last 16 years of my life hopping from one role to the next, each one very different from the other, though one finds some common traits which have to do with my personality. I can’t avoid the way I look, what I transmit, my memories, all that I carry with me.» In the last year alone, when she leapt from portraying an actress whose oldest friend is obsessed with her in «La Repetition» to the maid/mistress in «8 Femmes,» Beart struggles to avoid being trapped in character parts. That is why her filmography also includes films such as «Elephant Juice» (1999), an anodyne, 30-something script shot in London, a film she admits she has never seen. At the same time, the actress also succumbed to Hollywood, by starring in the 1996 action extravaganza «Mission Impossible» alongside Tom Cruise. What are her criteria when choosing a script? «For me cinema is, above all, an encounter: a director, a story and the desire to tell it. I need to know, to be sure that I can interpret that specific role, that it is meant for me and no one else. If I’m not convinced of this, I can’t do it,» says Beart. «The reason why I accept or turn down a part is that every time the part comes at the right moment; I wouldn’t be playing the same part a year before or after. I don’t know if I want to do an American film or an Italian one, it doesn’t really matter; what counts is the material you are working with, and of course the director. Perhaps one day I might not have that choice and I will make a film simply because I need the work. But at this point of my life, I have the luxury to choose.» Born in St Tropez in 1965, Beart spent her childhood years away from Paris, where her father, singer and poet Guy Beart, was a member of the show business scene. (She also visited Greece frequently, going to Karystos, where her maternal grandmother was from.) After spending three years in Canada – she was sent there to learn English and ended doing a screen test for Robert Altman – she returned to France to take up drama classes. Soon she began working – extremely hard. For her role as a cellist in Claude Sautet’s «Un Coeur en Hiver» (1992), for instance, Beart spent a year and a half practicing pieces by Ravel on the cello. Preparation remains a concern, though these days her methodology varies. «Sometimes I don’t prepare at all, I know nothing, while at other times I do my research,» she says. «I’m currently preparing for two films: For the first one, where I play a mother, I don’t feel I have to do anything special; I think daily life will simply lead me there. At the same time, I’m going to interpret the role of a prostitute and I have been working for quite some time on this part; I have met many women, talked to them, and I have discovered a new world.» Beart’s commitment to cinema did not prevent her from appearing on stage, though she admits to a lack of drama training. Nevertheless, she has appeared in classical repertoire plays, from Anouilh, Marivaux and Moliere to Strindberg. «Theater is exhausting, but it feels like home,» she says. «It takes everything away, however; you don’t have a life. I know I will return, but for the time being, I have not been offered the part which will encourage me to go back.» What she has been encouraged to do, however, is to enjoy her private life away from the constant snapping by the paparazzi. She appears calmer these days: «I am better known than before, but at the same time, there is some kind of respect; that is something which you command after some time has passed. In the beginning, when you don’t know how to handle the situation, you need this kind of love and attention and you let everyone come in, and that comes to a lot of people.» Besides tabloids and film posters, however, Beart’s impeccable features were spread over magazines and billboards all around the world as she starred in Christian Dior’s global cosmetic campaigns for six years. «It was not so much a passion, but a game; it was also about the money, money which allowed me to stop filming for a year and have another child; to act in theater; to travel and do a number of things I wanted to do for a while,» she admits. It also made people in countries where she was not widely known go and see her films. Executives at the fashion powerhouse, however, were not amused to see a makeup-less Beart getting arrested by police during a demonstration for illegal immigrants, in Paris. For the actress, it was one of many public appearances on behalf of the less fortunate. As a goodwill ambassador for Unicef, for instance, the actress travels extensively. «I see life as a vase, where every drop of water you add means that one day you might put a flower in it,» she says of her involvement. «You can be a witness and the link between those who suffer and those who can do something about it. I see it as a duty; it’s the least I can do.» Beart was recently in Thailand, where she shot and edited a documentary on child prostitution. A challenging project which put Beart behind the camera for the first time, it was broadcast in France’s authoritative «Envoye Special» program. She discards any idea of directing again. «I’m not tempted by direction, I did it because I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but I will remain an actress,» she says. So back to acting it is, as Beart emerges from a year without acting in films- though she has been actively involved in promoting «8 Femmes.» Back in the cinematic arena, the actress faces a series of projects, including two films which will be directed by celebrated French directors Andre Techine and Jacques Rivette; a third, directed by Anne Fontaine, will follow. «Right now, I’m at this stage where I feel the desire, where I want to go back on the set,» says Beart. «I missed it, but in order to return, I had to feel like this, again.»
