Juliette Binoche wants to make the invisible people of "Ouistreham" more visible

• Juliette Binoche plays the role of a renowned novelist who goes to Caen to write a book on precarious work.

• Her character masquerades as an unemployed woman with Pôle Emploi, ready to accept precarious work in a company that employs housekeepers.

• The actress tells "20 Minutes" how she took on this role, one of the best and most touching she has ever held.

The film

is a miracle of social cinema in the lineage of Ken Loach.

With a background of truth, the film is inspired by the book by Florence Aubenas on the reality of precarious work for which the journalist had taken on the role of cleaning agent.

And what is needed of invention, brought by Emmanuel Carrère, in order to make the fiction even more overwhelming.

Thus, Juliette Binoche is not a journalist, but a novelist in the film, less focused on the analysis of social facts than on the friendships that her character will forge with her work colleagues.

The actress tells

how she took on this role, one of the best and most touching she has ever held.

The existence of "Ouistreham" owes a lot to your tenacity. What obstacles did you encounter for the film to see the light of day?

The fact that Florence Aubenas shared this story with people in great precariousness and that her book was so successful perhaps put her in a delicate situation, of guilt or of questioning. On the phone, she warned me that she would only agree to be made into a film if the adaptation was signed Emmanuel Carrère. And it took at least two years to unlock the rights to the book. I had organized dinners with Florence and Emmanuel so that the film could begin to exist. I wanted to co-produce the film, but Emmanuel was afraid, I think, he categorically refused… I was surprised. For me, it was obviously humiliating. I told him: "This humiliation is ultimately a good way to get into the film". I accepted with a tight throat. Today Emmanuel knows me,I think he wouldn't say the same thing.

Were most of your partners real housekeepers?

Yes, they knew the job, they showed me the blue seal, the red seal, the brush ...

We feel a real bond between you.

Did the alchemy catch on easily?

I don't know if it was my state of fatigue that made me vulnerable, but everyone was very welcoming as soon as I arrived in Caen.

Hélène, who plays the role of Christèle, remained in observation: she was waiting to see!

I think she needed some time to feel safe.

But after a few days, she accepted me completely.

During the internship at the start of the film, everyone laughs at your clumsiness.

Did you drool over it?

No because I knew this scrubber machine, I had one and I knew how to use it very well!

Ultimately, better than some in the film (laughs).

In fact, you are a real cleaning lady ...

But yes !

I learned with my mother who had educated us like that.

We opened the windows, Vivaldi fully and everyone began to do the cleaning for the week.

50 cents if you vacuumed, 50 cents if you did the dishes, those were the house rules.

So I'm not afraid to get involved.

At the time of the “Amants du Pont-Neuf”, you lived in the streets to understand the life of the homeless.

Did you prepare this film in the same way?

Not at all.

I arrived the day before the shooting in a state of excitement as the character of Marianne can be, that is to say at the end of it.

I was really seized with the flu.

And I did not fight against that, on the contrary.

I used it for the story and the filming.

But like Florence Aubenas, I especially had to take on the role of observer.

There was no need for me to prepare for it, except to be present and attentive to my partners, if only to reassure them and help them to give the best of it. 'themselves.

Does acting in a film as engaged as this correspond to what you want to say about the world today?

I believe that any film is engaged: 

 on the liberation of women or 

 on the crisis of a 50-year-old woman. It is no less important than showing the invisible ones of 

. When I choose a role, there is above all a questioning about what is going on in me in this situation and what I can do with this human exploration. What must always prevail is the desire to know and to share. To approach the truth of what the women of 

go through, you have to get as close as possible, to be available unlike the other.

This idea of ​​getting off your ivory tower, we also feel it in your way of using social networks, very frank and accessible, even if it means reacting, for example when you joke about the Caesars who have "forgotten" you to " The good times "…

It doesn't matter, I don't care.

I did this because I found it funny and you also have to laugh at yourself.

Afterwards, whether it is misinterpreted, it is up to those who interpret.

We can't take care of everyone.

We see you exchanging likes with other actresses on Instagram.

Is there a real bond between you?

I like the videos of Jeanne Balibar, Céline Salette… they are cash and amazing women!

Marion Cotillard we have ecology that brings us together.

When we met, Marion gave me about ten books on the subject and we participated in a demonstration together.

But we rarely see each other, we are very busy ...

Ecology is a subject that is close to your heart, I believe that you are working on a documentary on the responsibility of man in relation to ...

… To the destruction of the planet, yes!

The first screening is scheduled for May.

Marie-Monique Robin is editing the interviews we have done around the world.

We went to Mexico, French Guyana, Thailand, the United States, Africa… We will finish the film in Madagascar in February.

Is it a film that you make in pairs?

I ask the scientists questions in the film.

Sometimes, I dare mine, but these are mainly the questions of Marie-Monique Robin, according to her book

(ed. La Découverte).

She interviewed about sixty scientists to explain to what extent the destruction of biodiversity is responsible for the emergence of infectious diseases.

It is exciting and stunning!

I hope this film will really bring home the destructive mechanics that we find ourselves in and that we have built in our industrial economy.

 deals with social issues, but without ecology, there is no survival!

We must take care of the poorest as well as our land.

Otherwise, we're going into the wall.

Movie theater

Juliette Binoche: "Life does not end at 50: the skin changes but vitality remains"

Movie theater

"The Truth": Juliette Binoche brings all its intensity to the comedy of Kore-eda

• Emmanuel Carrere

• Social

• Cinema outings

• Movie theater

• Juliette Binoche

• 0 comment

• 0 share

  • Share on Messenger

  • Share on Facebook

  • Share on twitter

  • Share on Flipboard

  • Share on Pinterest

  • Share on Linkedin

  • Send by Mail

• To safeguard

• A fault ?

• To print