|||
She’s not, actually, but that’s the name of the film we watched last night (Ma Femme est une Actrice). I’ve been on a bit of a French film kick the last week or so… I watched Jeunet and Caro’s Delicatessen again and 8 Women is out on DVD this week… I loved it… It’s written, directed and starring Yvan Attall as a man who is married to a beautiful actress played by Attall’s real-life wife Charlotte Gainsbourg. They play Yvan and Charlotte as a couple who struggle with Yvan’s jealousy as she goes off to London to shoot a film with Terence Stamp (who plays a character named John). A lovely looking film with a great cast with real chemistry between all of the characters (especially Attall and his sister…the actress who plays his sister). The blurring of roles is a recurring theme in a lot of films lately (especially Adaptation), but the whole filmmaking thing reminded me a bit of Truffaut’s Day for Night (La Nuit Américain) which tells the story of a French film being shot with an English lead actress. Truffaut cowrote, directs and stars as the film director. Another Truffaut connection (at least in my mind) is that the first time that I saw Ms. Gainsbourg was in the film The Little Thief (La Petite Voleuse) which was made posthumously based on a story by Truffaut. My Wife is an Actress was released in France in November 2001 and it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2001… which is probably why it has taken a while to come out… and it also played at the Atlantic Film Festival, where I should have seen it, but I didn’t find out about it until a few months ago! I have to see more festival films next year!