Sophie Marceau | Actress
Interview
She brings screenwriter Emmanuèle Bernheim to life in the adaptation of her memoirs, ‘Everything went well’, where she tackles assisted suicide
Success came to Sophie Marceau (Paris, 1966) when she was young. Her roles in the two installments of ‘La Boum’, in the early eighties, not only made her one of the most popular teenagers in France, but also earned her a César for Best New Actress. His international break came with blockbusters like ‘Braveheart’ (1995) or ‘James Bond: The World is Never Enough’ (1999), but he has almost always moved within the parameters of French cinema. This weekend premieres ‘Everything went well’, under the baton of François Ozon, a harsh film about euthanasia, based on the memoirs of the novelist and screenwriter Emmanuèle Bernheim. Marceau gives life to the writer, who had to attend to her father’s wishes to die and sought a way to take him to Switzerland.
-What attracted you to the project?
It’s hard to say what got me. A film is like a crossroads of different energies. I had already met François Ozon before and there had not been that synergy, but this time there was. I liked the simplicity, the theme, the impartiality of the film and then there is the humor of the film. Also, I couldn’t refuse to work with Ozon for the third time (laughs).
-It is a very raw film, but there is room for comedy.
-It is that life moves quickly and gives you occupations all the time. The sadness is there, but it does not appear, it is underlying, and when you lose someone that sadness lasts, it is slow, it takes time, it settles, but in the present Emmanuèle is given such a challenge that she is forced to face things concrete. She thinks that what he has asked her is a joke, she tries to distract him, to make him think of other things, but she is more and more cornered because she is a woman who loves, who likes to help and is faithful and is going to accompany her father until the end.
-The tape revolves around euthanasia. Has working on a film like this made you rethink things about your own death?
-Of course and that is the greatness of the film because it doesn’t take sides. My character doesn’t know what to do, I’ve never thought about it, but we’re all going to die, so it’s a social issue that concerns us all. It was very good for me to be able to talk about it and to know the laws that exist in this regard because it is a topic that generates controversy and is scary, especially now that they tell us that we have to have eternal youth and health until the end.
-What is your opinion? Are you in favor of euthanasia?
-I would say that there are two points of view: the individual and the collective. I am very independent, although I have respect for the collective decision, but in my private life I like to be able to choose and individually it does not shock me that a person has the desire to die. But collectively it is more complicated. How do we organize it? I don’t know that, that’s why I am neither a judge nor a politician because, like everything, it is necessary that it not be industrialized. There are issues that are very sensitive.
– Do you think that in this matter society is ahead of the political class?
-It is logical, politicians want to please everyone and death is a taboo subject. I don’t know if it’s the politicians who should take ownership of this issue, which is to make it easier for people to access it at their own will. It is complicated, I am in favor of everyone being able to follow their path and their choice.
– ‘Everything has gone well’ manages to touch on genres such as ‘thriller’. Did it shock you?
-Well, yes, and I wonder if people will want to go see it because we are very much in the business of having to amuse people, and this makes us comfortable and sentimental, and we are asked not to talk about the dead or things that make people angry. . And actually in ‘Everything has gone well’ you have a great time. I laughed a lot, it opened my mind because I don’t know how I’m going to age, or what state I’ll be in. This movie has done me good.
-At the same time, the film highlights the importance of caring for the elderly. Why do you think society corners them?
-It is that now the children, the brothers, the uncles… they all live far away and when the old ones are left alone, life is not possible. We don’t know what to do with our elders. The greatest tragedy of the pandemic is that all those elderly people have died alone. It’s terrible, I don’t know how society has allowed that: for fear of dying, they have been allowed to die, it’s crazy. Old age should be celebrated because life is not easy. Those who reach 70 or 80 years we should applaud them.