An interview with Sophie Marceau is an interesting example of how much the iconic images of the parallel world of film can be present in our perception.
The 55-year-old actress is sitting on a sofa in front of us in a Berlin hotel near Kurfürstendamm.
We want to talk about your new film.
And layers of the present and film history overlap again and again.
A closer look and you think you can see Bond opponent Elektra King shining through.
And when she laughs, there are still fragments of Victoire "Vic" Beretton from the teen hit comedy "La Boum - Die Fete", her first role, which - in this case actually - made her famous overnight and through which she don't want to speak anymore.
Actually, she just wants to talk about her new film.
But she quickly throws this resolution overboard herself.
The drama "Everything went well" is about euthanasia, directed by François Ozon.
The screenplay is based on a true story, the memoirs of the writer Emmanuèle Bernheim, who is asked by her father to end his life.
As a viewer, you very quickly begin to ask yourself what you would do in this situation. You must have asked yourself this question too.
Sure, of course.
And I also have an opinion on the subject of euthanasia if I were to find myself in such a situation.
But that's very personal.
I want to talk about it with the people close to me in time, but not in an interview.
Because that's actually my only concern when I think about death: that I leave people behind and how they deal with my death.
I don't want anyone to be unhappy.
What do you think of euthanasia in general?
I think it's one thing to talk about it in theory and another thing to actually do it in practice.
I experienced this with one of my dogs.
He was very ill for a long time.
I knew that, but still I didn't want him to die.
The doctor said you should consider putting him to sleep.
But that's so easy to say.
And "putting to sleep" doesn't really apply to what you actually do.
Because you are actively killing the dog.
And I didn't want that.
I resisted it for a long time.
In the end we had to do it because the poor guy was in really bad shape.
But when the time really came, I saw something else.
It was like he could let go and was finally free.
And then I thought, how could I let the poor animal suffer like that all these months.
Because you loved him too much?
I agree.
And as I said, that's the difference between theory and practice.
And honestly, I don't know how I would ultimately decide if the topic came up specifically for me, for me or for a loved one.
You also said that this film project gave you back the joy of acting. Have you lost that joy?
Yes.
Why?
This work just tired me.
That's why I took a few years off.
And then I directed it myself.
It was more of a coincidence because suddenly the money for the project was there.
After that I didn't work as an actress again.
It just didn't trigger anything in me anymore.
I just found it exhausting to have to produce all that energy and those emotions.
I had to find myself again first.
What have you been doing during this time?