INTERVIEW
He is one of Goncourt who made the most noise in recent years. Sweet song , Leïla Slimani's novel, crowned in 2016 by the most prestigious French literary awards, arrives in theaters on Wednesday. An adaptation by Lucie Borleteau, of which Europe 1 is a partner, and worn by Karine Viard, in the role of a disturbing nurse recruited by Leïla Bekhti, as a young mother overwhelmed.
Happened by Leïla Slimani's novel, Karin Viard has acquired herself the rights of the book. "I read the novel, it torpedo me and I said to myself: 'I would like to play the role of this woman so special, so mysterious, so fascinating and terrifying at the same time'", she explains at the microphone of Matthieu Belliard, in the morning of Europe 1.
A thriller that feeds on the everyday life of everyone
The film, like the novel, tells the slow interposition of his character in the daily life of a young couple. The nanny, who knew how to make herself indispensable, will quickly become invasive, problematic. The film ends where the novel begins; unlike the book, which surgically peels the origin of the various events from which it is inspired, the film is constructed in a very Hitchcockian way and spares the viewer until the final disaster. "It's a choice we made: to raise the suspense and not reveal the end from the start," says Karin Viard.
"My character carries a distress and an abysmal loneliness that could explain his inappropriate behavior, that's how I built it," says the actress for whom the strength of this story is also due to her banality: a mother, torn between her children and her work, calls on a domestic worker. "There is a great principle of reality in this film, we play scare, with very real things, it is very real that a woman finds herself trapped in certain patterns," notes Karin Viard. "On this canvas, hyper realistic, plays a psychological thriller."
A thriller that also reverses some stereotypes about the relationship of dominance between employer and employee. "Where the reports are quite novel, it is that the Maghreb woman is the boss and this nurse is white and older," said Karin Viard.